The Canberra Raiders hope the NRL taking control of which games are televised on free-to-air will create a fair system after Channel Nine snubbed the Green Machine in the last six rounds of the season.
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The Raiders have been banished from the cherished Thursday and Friday night timeslots for the rest of the regular season and will only return to the free-to-air broadcast if they make the finals.
The snubbing comes as no surprise to officials at Raiders land, but now they've got statistics to back up their push for more air time.
Numbers show the Raiders attracted an average of more than 700,000 viewers in their four games on the network this season.
The Raiders have shown there's an appetite for their brand of rugby league, with 979,023 watching their Thursday night match against Brisbane across Channel Nine, Fox Sports and Sky Sports.
Bigger clubs like the Brisbane Broncos and Parramatta Eels do attract larger audiences for marquee games, with a peak audience of 1.2 million for the Broncos' grand final rematch against North Queensland and 991,000 for Parramatta's clash against South Sydney.
However, the average audiences of those respective fixtures were 967,000 and 868,000.
Despite the numbers, Channel Nine even opted to overlook the Raiders' round 21 match against the South Sydney Rabbitohs and a top-eight battle against the Cronulla Sharks in round 22.
Even the controversy-ridden Eels, lowly-ranked Sydney Roosters, Newcastle Knights and New Zealand Warriors have Channel Nine games ahead of the Raiders.
Raiders boss Don Furner said asking for more exposure in the high-rating times sounded like a broken record, but was hopeful the wheel would turn when the NRL takes control in 2018.
"We've come to expect it, but it's very disappointing," Furner said.
"People tell us that we rate well and play an exciting brand of footy, it's very disappointing and we can't wait for the 2018 deal and hopefully there's some more equality in the broadcasting when the NRL takes back control.
"I've had millions of reasons why they don't put us on free-to-air and they just don't stack up. They've decided to put teams on free to air that are way out of contention ahead of us."
The Raiders are calling for a fair go in how the games are divided up and better distribute exposure to all teams.
The draw for the last six rounds means the Raiders will have had just four free-to-air games in the past 12 months. The only team with fewer free-to-air games since July last year is the New Zealand Warriors with three.
Exposure on the Channel Nine opens up greater revenue opportunities for clubs with sponsors given the matches attract a bigger audience.
To put it in perspective, the Raiders' clash against the the Warriors in round 11 had just 302,421 viewers on Fox Sports and Sky Sport compared to the almost 1 million that watched the Broncos-Raiders battle.
"We've been a broken record about this, we've been talking about this for 10 years," Furner said.
"I'll be very disappointed if things don't change in 2018 because the reasons we're given is that the NRL can't control the schedule at the moment, but in 2018 they will.
"We've gone years where we've only had one or two games and made the top eight. Teams that have come second last and they have 15 or 16 Channel Nine games. I feel sorry for the players because they deserve the bigger audience."
The Raiders play the Gold Coast Titans in their round 16 match on Sunday and need to win to keep their spot in the top eight.
NRL ROUND 16
Sunday: Gold Coast Titans v Canberra Raiders at Gold Coast, 2pm. TV time: Live on Fox Sports 1
