It’s a new year, a new season, and the NRL is launching its new team: the Redcliffe Dolphins.
Covering the key NRL growth markets of the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay Region, the Dolphins are the first team to join the NRL competition since the Gold Coast Titans’ inaugural season in 2007.
For Nine, the introduction of a new team comes with new fans and a new opportunity to make a push into the Queensland market. This season, Queenslanders will be able to follow their four teams – the Broncos, Dolphins, Cowboys, and Titans – via 38 match-ups broadcast on free-to-air.
Mediaweek spoke to Nine’s director of 9Now and programming, Hamish Turner, about making the most of the newest NRL team, and how the focus on Queensland will lead all the way up to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
Hamish Turner
“I think it’s probably one of the most exciting things that has happened to the NRL in many years,” Turner says of the arrival of the Dolphins.
“It’s always challenging having a team come in and be competitive from the very get-go, but watching the Dolphins emerge and then find their place – as well as the new stars that will emerge out of that franchise – is a really interesting narrative to underpin this new season. It’s a really good sign of where the NRL is taking the game from a national footprint perspective.
“We know there’s an emerging market, you’ve got to go fishing where the fish are.”
With last month’s announcement that Nine has secured broadcast rights to the Olympic Games – including Brisbane 2032 – Turner says that the area will be a major focus for Nine’s strategy moving ahead.
“Sydney will always have a really strong showing, we’ll always get behind the Sydney sides – it’s clearly the biggest market in terms of both teams and audience. But in terms of the Dolphins, we know that the area around the Gold Coast and Brisbane is growing in terms of population. Brisbane is a really interesting space as we look to the next 10 years leading up to the Olympics, I think it’s going to continue to be a focus and a growth corridor both in terms of audience and engagement.
“From a brand perspective, as we think about that 10-year journey to Brisbane 2032, it’s going to be really interesting how you bring those two worlds together. Who knows, maybe the Dolphins will have won the Premiership by then!”
Queensland won’t be the sole focus for Nine, however, with Turner pointing to Melbourne – home of the Melbourne Storm – as another key emerging market for the NRL.
“It’s exciting for the Storm, because we’ve got them first up against Parramatta on Thursday. The AFL doesn’t kick off for two weeks, so there’s a really great opportunity to showcase the strength of the Storm. The underlying narrative will be with Craig Bellamy and what he’s going do, whether this will be his last year.
“We’re always looking to increase the Storm’s prominence, especially in Melbourne, by trying to give that fanbase as many games on a free-to-air platform as possible.”
As part of their broadcast deal with the NRL, Nine also holds digital and streaming rights for the game. With viewers increasingly using 9Now to watch the game, Turner says that the team at Nine are putting a lot of focus on making sure that the viewer experience is as good as it can possibly be.
“You’ve got to really invest in the area where audiences are increasingly transitioning to, and we’re moving to a phase of streaming first future. We’re really investing in that infrastructure and making sure it’s the best user experience possible as they come across from a terrestrial broadcast into a digital broadcast. I think it’s really exciting what you can do, especially with sport in that space.
“We’ve really been investing in live infrastructure, ensuring that we have quality streams, full HD, 50 frames per second, start over functionality, and that’s just the beginning of where we want to take it. Investment in the experience, especially from a sports perspective, is the expectation of our audience.”
With Brisbane 2032 on the horizon, the work invested in Nine’s BVOD platform now is just one piece of the puzzle in preparation for the future.
“If you think forward to 2032, it’s going to be intriguing what happens within that space, because we know it moves quickly. We know that there’ll be things that we can’t even think of now that are going to be available to the audience, and we won’t hold back in terms of ensuring that we’re at least the first in the free space to do them.”
When asked what the 2023 NRL season can offer to Nine’s advertising partners, Turner says that the sport now has more of a national footprint as Nine continues its push into Queensland, whilst Melbourne continues to be an emerging market, and Sydney is strengthening.
“There’s a demand for people to have those moments where people can connect and come together. Sports are a really important part of that, and for sharing those kinds of moments. The NRL is an amazing sport that provides those amazing moments that bring people together. I think it’s as simple as that.”