Is it that expensive? Is it for sale? If for example ABC leverage what the BBC has on in the winter and put it on the app and digital radio when the footy isn’t on wouldn’t it add content? I suppose Magic would need to slot in ads. I am not sure if that works with BBC coverage.
Yeah, it can be prohibitively expensive and very hard to make your money back.
Radio Sport used to take BBC commentary of cricket, but there’s no natural way to slot in ads on their coverage so you get a lot of crashing in mid-sentence and you also can’t embed your own content. (sponsor mentions, giveaways, etc etc). For the time at night, it just doesn’t work well.
As for your other point about leveraging content from the BBC - it’s not really that simple. There are all sort of rights considerations (if a British sport is made aware the BBC broadcast is being taken in Australia, they’ll be wanting a rights fee!).
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Stating the obvious , yeah it is business after all I guess. It is not about giving fans a “more ways” to follow the game. I will still keep using my VPN 
. I know you can watch the game on Spark TV or Foxtel but there is something about listening to cricket on your radio in the night time especially from England.
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Newstalk ZB crowned as Station of the Year, Mike Hosking takes out Broadcaster of the Year in this year’s NZ radio awards:
Four in a row is a great accomplishment for Fletch, Vaughan & Megan.
I haven’t heard much of their show but Jay & Dunc winning the team show category was a surprise for me
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Looks like they are taking the gamble 
With there own commentary team without the analog network up either.
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SEN/SENZ clearly keen to make a splash.
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Ian Smith revealed during an interview with Gerard Whateley this morning that SENZ will launch on July 1
Further to SENZ news Trudi Nelson is starting news editor and sports presenter. (saw on LinkedIn
@OnAir @theGradyConnell Coast Northland (through NZME) is changing frequency to 96.4FM from tomorrow (20 June). This allows Coast to be heard across the entire Northland region, as a whole, on a single frequency except for the Bay of Islands, where it is on 89.6FM.
To make way for Coast, The Hits in the Mid and Far North will move to 95.6FM.
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Currently right now, Coast is now on 96.4FM around Northland.
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@foxyrover @OnAir In an SENZ media event that took place at 11am this morning (24 June; NZ time) at Eden Park in Auckland, Sports Entertainment Network CEO Craig Hutchison today announced that SENZ will launch in New Zealand at 6am (NZ time) on the morning of Monday 19 July.
SENZ, in future, will become ‘New Zealand’s Home of Sport’ but racing will be strongly featured on Saturdays. What do you think?
I think they’re overestimating the average New Zealander’s interest in racing.
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Hutchy clearly prefers sports rights over sports talk on weekends - even the Melbourne flagship takes racing calls in the gaps between AFL matches despite SEN running a dedicated racing station.
Would’ve thought the talkSPORT model is worth replicating more closely. Then again, perhaps this was part of the deal when SEN(Z) acquired the Trackside frequencies?
Could have been. I know they had to agree to a 2 hour racing show on Saturdays with TAB (NZ) as part of the handover.
They obviously don’t have many sports rights that kiwis are interested in as yet…will be interesting because I doubt Mediaworks (cricket) and NZME (rugby) will give up their existing properties easily.
The other interesting thing is Gold AM (formerly Radio Sport) is seemingly now back taking NRL coverage on weekends in the last few weeks.
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They seem to have a decent range of rights to begin with - quoting from the press release about today’s launch:
The stations will begin with live audio rights for the NZ Warriors, Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand’s cricket tour of Australia, and a raft of global sports.
Like it did with SEN Melbourne, it’ll probably take a few years (assuming SENZ are in it for the long-haul) for them to be able to build up a solid rights portfolio.
I wonder why SEN didn’t buy Radio Sport.
Probably would have been too late. However would have been interesting if they’d come to NZME with a joint venture idea before it shut down.
I’m unsure in NZ, where 98% of the commercial radio market is owned by two companies if SENZ can create enough of a scale to make it a success. It’s different to the two-stations in a market rule in Australia. And unlike Mediaworks/NZME they can’t sell a ZM, Edge, More FM, Hits alongside.
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Because it wasn’t for sale.
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was in auckland over the weekend had Gold on which came
through clear as they have a dedicated frequency here in chch we
cannot get it at all unless we tune in via i heart
(i think coast is the same) why cant these stations boost signal in chch sure they
would increase listener numbers as well