By JULIE ASH
Speculation that netball is about to disappear from free-to-air television appears to be premature.
Netball New Zealand's contract with Television New Zealand comes up for renewal at the end of the year and there has been talk that Sky Television is keen to secure the rights.
Sky screens a weekly
show which includes highlights from Australia's Commonwealth Bank Trophy.
Sky Sports spokesman David Collins said the network was keen to cover the sport" but had not held formal talks with Netball NZ.
The chief executive of Netball NZ, Shelley McMeeken, said the body was not in discussions with Sky. "However due to our high ratings we would suspect that all broadcasters would be interested in this property." she said.
Netball NZ's relationship with TVNZ spans more than 10 years.
But TVNZ has been criticised because it generally screens only one National Bank Cup game a week and that is not always the biggest match of the round. That is not entirely the broadcaster's fault, as the match is agreed upon by Netball NZ, TVNZ and the franchises to ensure equal cover throughout the tournament.
TVNZ head of sport Dennis Harvey said the broadcaster was happy with netball's ratings and would like to continue screening it.
