Could a return to free-to-air TV give netball the boost it needs?

Could the Olympics, rule changes, or a return to free-to-air TV give netball the boost it needs in an increasingly competitive environment? Bridget Tunnicliffe talks to the experts in the final part of a three part series.

Netball New Zealand (NNZ) is getting ready to celebrate 100 years, during which time it's been the country's number one sport for women and girls.

It's a pivotal time for netball with it facing greater competition with other female codes as well as a battle for fans.

Former Silver Fern Donna Wilkins was part of the Southern Sting, when the Invercargill based side gained an almost cult-like following and dominated local media in the National Bank Cup era from 1998-2007.

She would love to see netball get that following again.

"I don't know whether now there's just too much choice for people, I don't know why it has dropped off numbers-wise. The stadium was always packed, they had to put more scaffolding in and it wasn't just in Southland, most of the franchises had a huge following, whereas now you kind of see empty seats," Wilkins said.

In December last year, RNZ reported that Sky TV's bid for rights to netball's ANZ Premiership and Silver Ferns tests was significantly lower than its current deal, which will expire at the end of the 2024 season.

New Zealand Players' Association executive manager Steph Bond said a bargaining process for a new collective employment agreement for elite players was on ice while NNZ negotiated a new broadcasting deal.

In 2011, Netball New Zealand ended its 17-year association with TVNZ, in exchange for a better offer from Sky TV.

Bond said a return to free-to-air TV could be what the sport needs.

"I think the missing link in the last probably 15 years since we were behind the pay wall is that you probably lost the visibility to your heroes," Bond said.

"So young girls now actually won't know who the ANZ players are and who a lot of the Silver Ferns players are and therefore that flows directly down to them not going to the games because they actually are just not visible enough in terms of seeing them day in day out.

"And we have a demographic where we probably need to have some part of the game on free to air because they probably don't sit behind a paywall and they are actually the audience that we want to get to the games."

One of the complaints is that the ANZ Premiership is starting to feel stale and many believe the game needs more innovation and rule changes could be part of that.

Introducing a two-point shot to the ANZ Premiership is something NNZ will consider.

The sport globally has been very hesitant about pulling the trigger on it with the fear it could make it too similar to basketball.

Global netball news platform, Netball Scoop managing editor Jenny Sinclair, is based in Australia where the two-point shot was introduced to the domestic league in 2020.

Crowds and viewership were on an upward trend in Australia before the introduction of the 2-point shot so it's hard to attribute that to the rule change.

"There are some people that would tell you that it's 2-point shot related but I don't think there's any scientific evidence out there that tells us whether it is or it isn't. I think there's bigger factors at play which have led to bigger crowds and broadcast views," Sinclair said.

"The 2-point shot perhaps only comes in as part of that game day experience when for those last five minutes of each quarter the excitement is created because the DJ pumps up the music.

"And then also of course it caused a big stir on social media so some fans might hate it but they're still talking about it."

Growing netball's reach

Emily Whiteside, head of marketing, digital and broadcast for World Netball said the organisation had done a lot of work in the last couple of years to ensure it could start measuring the reach of their events.

The results of a Broadcast, Media and Sponsorship Report on last year's Netball World Cup 2023 showed it reached a live linear TV audience of 14.9 million, more than double that of the 2019 edition and had a total linear TV audience of 27.6 million.

Whiteside said their most successful broadcast programme to date was largely driven by some of the free to air coverage in certain markets.

"The world cup was broadcast in over 90 countries and many new territories as well like Canada, Malaysia, and Brunei, so we were really expanding into some new markets."

World Netball also invested in a paid social media campaign to attract people to their live streaming platform.

"We had the campaign running in India for example where we had just under 100,000 people visiting Netball Pass. We saw growth in a number of new markets outside of what you'd see as your traditional netball markets."

Combining linear TV, digital streaming, and social media videos - the event amassed a total viewership of 42.3 million.

Whiteside said visibility across all media would help increase revenue generation opportunities.

New Zealander Shirley Hooper is vice president of World Netball and said netball needed to get better at blowing its own trumpet.

"It's definitely an area that we've acknowledged we need to get better at," Hooper said.

"If you take some of these new sports that have just discovered women, they will be shouting things from the rooftops and I'll sit there and go 'that's nothing to shout about'."

Men are seen as another way of growing the sport, whether that be through participation or as fans.

The report showed that men made up 46 percent of the TV audience during last year's World Cup.

"We were really pleased to see that men were engaging in the game because we are trying to bring more people into the sport whilst building on our female foundations and that unique selling point we have," Whiteside said.

In 2021, NNZ sent out a survey to grassroots participants for their views on male participation.

The results found a general consensus that male participation was a good thing and most respondents were keen for men to be included via men's only or mixed leagues, but there was a strong desire to retain female-only competitions.

Some comments came through that it was important netball didn't lose its uniqueness in that it is "about the only sport where women and girls aren't second class citizens."

Hooper said the sport will benefit as a whole if countries outside of New Zealand and Australia start reaching their potential.

There's been huge investment in the England netball programme and that's been reflected in the results of the Roses.

And with over two million people in South Africa playing netball, they are only just scratching the surface.

"In the UK they've just done a deal with BBC, which will get more netball on free to air and that's getting more widespread. Having the World Cup in South Africa last year has unlocked the genie out of the bottle there and they can't get enough of netball," Hooper said.

The uphill battle to get into the Olympics

Soon after Brisbane secured the rights to host the 2032 Olympics, World Netball and Netball Australia launched a joint campaign to push their case to debut on the Olympic program.

If World Netball submit an application to next year's IOC's session, it would need a two thirds majority vote amongst IOC delegates.

The other option would require the Brisbane 2032 local organising committee to make an application for netball to be included as one of its local sports.

World Netball is in the middle of pulling a strategy together but Hooper said they thought their greatest chance was through the local path.

"It's kind of the path that new sports are going down and then potentially if the IOC likes what they see then they remain in the programme so that's the path we are focussed on at this stage.

"What we're conscious of is getting into the Olympics doesn't mean you're in the Olympics forever. You've got to balance the aspirational goal to be there in terms of the lift in profile our sport would get for that period but then you might only be there once."

World Netball has to decide what format of the game it submits but a mixed Fast5 version might have the most appeal to the IOC.

Netball faces an uphill battle. Its popularity outside of Commonwealth counties is limited, and being a team sport doesn't help because the IOC has a cap on how many athletes it wants.

Being added to the Olympics would unlock crucial funding for the sport but Hooper said they were realistic about how challenging it would be.

"If you look at the new sports that got into LA in 2028 - cricket for example brings a massive broadcast appeal with it so immediately the IOC is able to unlock a far bigger broadcasting deal one would assume out of India."

Hooper said it was not cheap putting in bids so they had to look at the cost benefit.

The other problem netball has is it's mostly seen as a female sport.

After a career at the top of netball governance, Kereyn Smith became the head of the NZ Olympic Committee, served as a commission member for the IOC, and until recently was vice president of the Commonwealth Games Federation.

The IOC is now committed to a 50/50 gender split after decades of under-representation of female competitors at the Olympics.

The irony is that policy puts a sport at a disadvantage which was there for women when there was very little else.

"It's almost like the rules have changed at a really inopportune time for netball but it's a hard fought battle," Smith said.

"It's really really tough. Having a global footprint also really matters to the Olympic movement, although sometimes you wonder when sports are added it doesn't quite seem to match but to get in the door is hard," Smith said.

A huge question also mark hangs over the Commonwealth Games, netball's other pinnacle event, with the Federation struggling to find a host for 2026.

A window of opportunity

Bond said while participation numbers were still high, netball had a window of opportunity to be strategic around where it positioned itself.

"We still have a really strong base in New Zealand but we probably have to become more innovative and think about doing things differently and maybe just take a few risks," Bond said.

"We've probably been a very conservative sport in the last 15 years and now is probably a time where everyone needs to sit down and work out what the future is in terms of how it could look so that the next six-year-old girl who goes to choose what sport they are going to play will keep playing netball.

"I think for us to stay relevant we are going to have to look at what we're doing, particularly from a professional high performance lens to ensure that young girls still have role models that they can see and want to be."

Bond said netball was the only female sport in New Zealand that really got to make its own decisions.

"We've always been able to carve our own path and invest in one part of the game, or 'the game' I suppose is what I'm trying to say.

"It means you have a simple strategy and business plan, you are making decisions for one pathway as opposed to competing interests."

Smith was the chair of NNZ when the sport went from an amateur to semi-professional status in the early 2000s.

"The key thing here is sustainability and the thing that netball has to do now is some tweaks and changes in my view, think about how it can inject a freshness and perhaps a league that will give another kick to the sport," Smith said.

NNZ chief executive Jennie Wyllie said it was a challenge that the sport could rise to.

"We've got a 100 years of legacy that we get to stand on the shoulders of and we get to direct our own traffic and that can be quite empowering."