Netball New Zealand boss Jennie Wyllie. Photo: Photosport Ltd 2018 www.photosport.nz
Netball New Zealand boss Jennie Wyllie admits that they are taking a calculated risk with their new broadcast agreement.
Following months of negotiations, the national body has finally secured a broadcast deal for next year's ANZ Premiership.
Sky Sport had been the major broadcast partner since 2008, but the national body is going back to TVNZ - marking the return of the sport on free-to-air television.
RNZ understands that Sky TVs offer was substantially less than any of its previous deals with Netball New Zealand.
How much TVNZ are actually paying for the rights, if any, is not being disclosed and it seems inevitable that players will have to take pay cuts next year.
TVNZ has been in cost-saving mode but Netball NZ will be hoping that a bigger TV audience will draw more commercial revenue to make up for a massive shortfall in broadcast revenue.
Chief executive Jennie Wyllie told Morning Report that they were excited to bring netball back to all of New Zealand, even if it meant they had to fork out some money for it.
"Netball New Zealand is investing in it as we transition away from our traditional broadcast market," Wyllie said.
"Our commercial partners are looking for reach and I think the really interesting value proposition that we have is a thriving participation base and increasingly partners are looking for that end to end connection, that supports their brand.
Wyllie said the women's sporting landscape was tough and it was worth taking a gamble.
"We do need to step into the new and different and it is a bit of a risk but netball has to innovate. We don't have big offshore partners that support or an international body that can allow us to do that with a safety net so this is about us giving that a crack."
Questions remain over whether the new deal will attract enough sponsorship to save players from pay cuts.
They are in the middle of collective contract negotiations.
"We don't want our women sportspeople to go backwards, but we are working really really hard in this new environment to make sure that netball remains a viable choice for them. There will be some different economics but that is the reality for entire industries at the moment."
Wyllie pointed out that a lot of the players already studied or had part-time jobs.
"This is only a 10-week competition so a lot of our 60 athletes, they need to study already, they've got part-time jobs ...so that won't be different. That is the reality of what it is to be in a female sporting environment.
"But we are working hard to make sure that the impacts are not greatly felt across the system and that they can share in any reward that we are able to realise."
Netball New Zealand confirmed to RNZ that the feeder league, which sits below the ANZ Premiership will continue but there are no details on what form it will take.
The six-strong team National Netball League (NNL) was launched in 2016 and is seen as an important development pathway for emerging talent.
This year eight NNL games were broadcast live on Sky Sports.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
