well we're getting way off the topic of the brownlow here haha, but...

bearing in mind i cant speak for payTV because i dont have it, but...

here in vic, 9 give rugby league nearly the same amount of air time that is given in NSW and QLD as far as i know, except at terrible hours..we get the the NRL footy show thurs nights at 11 or so, the friday night games are shown from midnight to 4am, and the sunday night game at midnight on the sun.. we dont get the sunday NRL shows.. 9 in vic just wont put NRL up against AFL, which is fair enough because the AFL would just completly dominate the ratings against NRL, but they could show it at a more reasonable hour like 10-11pm.. we've only gotten 2 live storm games here, the match against parra were we had 10 or so players out with origin duties, and the quarter final the other week against NZ, both because there was no AFL on the sun, so you can see why 9 put them on.. the other live matches we get here in vic are all 3 origins, and the grand final, also some tests if, once against there is no AFL.. the game just passed, storm vs broncos, was the best game ive ever seen, and we had to wait till 12:30 here to see it, wtf.. they coulda showed it 10:30-11, if not live like it should, but instead they put on white chicks.. beats me..

so my little rant over, it basically comes down to AFL would completely destroy NRL one on one in the ratings, so 9 only put them on late, unless there is no AFL game on.. storm only get games shown if they are the ones showed on 9, ie if storm play on a sat, one of the games not shown on a sun, or a monday, we don't get to see it, even though in the AFL, all the interstate teams usually get their matches shown in their home city no matter where they are being played... this is due to the fact of the game sharing between 9 and Fox though, so... in conclusion, us storm fans get a pretty raw deal