Michael Burgess: Pay-to-view may take netball offside with fans

All international matches will now be delivered live on Sky Sport. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Diehard netball fans will have to pay the price this year.

Hidden in a lightweight press release last week was the news all Silver Ferns matches will now be screened on Sky, ending a 17-year association with the state broadcaster TVNZ.

In some ways it was surprising. The sport boomed in the 1990s and the past decade, mainly off the back of free-to-air coverage beamed into the nation's living rooms in prime time. Suddenly we all knew the Ferns - Irene, Temepara, Maria - who became arguably as recognisable as the All Blacks and Black Caps.

Sky's scheduling flexibility meant it was inevitable they would get involved, especially once the ANZ Championship started in 2008. Having TVNZ for the international matches seemed a best of both worlds solution - but apparently not.

Netball NZ said negotiations had been "protracted", but in the end the decision was based on a "commercial upside and the flexibility of scheduling". Both suitors offered significant cash sums - but Sky's war chest is considerably larger.

CEO Raelene Castle said "at least now we don't have to compete with Desperate Houswives or Greys Anatomy [for scheduling time]".

But don't those shows deliver huge audiences that feed into the netball? They are made up of the target market and result in huge ratings.

Castle also talked up the significance of college netball on Sky, and its new magazine show On Court. But the fact is long-running rugby, cricket and league magazine-style shows have failed to garner meaningful audiences, despite the legions of diehard fans.

All international matches will now be delivered live on Sky Sport. Only around 60 per cent of the country have decoders, with a smaller proportion that subscribe to the sport channels. The matches will also be replayed on Prime, supposedly 90 minutes later.

The second round match between the Mystics and Pulse was screened live on Sky on Saturday, but the delayed coverage on Prime did not surface until almost 24 hours later - although we are comparing internationals with championship matches there.

The other point to note is that delayed ANZ Championship matches on TV One last season would regularly draw two to three times the viewers that watched the game live on Sky.

It paints a bleak picture for the future of free-to-air sport in New Zealand, now that all four major codes are now on the pay television network. TVNZ can still count on the ASB Classic, Heineken Open, Rugby Sevens, Triathlon, Wimbledon as well as this year's Rugby World Cup. TV3 has the V8 Supercars as well as other local motorsport and the Melbourne Cup.

Sky was originally proposed as commercial-free but that has been exposed as a myth in recent years with regular ad breaks on their sports channels. It means the pay television operator earns subscription and commercial revenue while the punter will continue to pay.

It is hardly likely that rates will decrease any time soon.