Time for Australian TV to move into the 21st century
Roar Rookie By jasonf, 28 Jan 2010 Jason Feldman is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- AFL, anti-siphoning, Australian Open, NRL, pay tv, Stephen Conroy, Tennis, TV Rights
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If Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is a tennis fan, he would have been a little grumpy after he returned home from Australia Day celebrations.
He would have switched on the TV and been absorbed by a great contest between Andy Roddick and Marin Cilic.
As the match seemed certain to enter the decisive fifth set, he would have thrown his remote at the TV as the local broadcaster, the Seven Network, predictably crossed to the News. In this digital age, the game was nowhere to be seen, not on 7TWO, 7HD or anywhere on Pay-TV.
For the fan, the message is simple: “it’s 6pm, the news is a ratings winner, we couldn’t give a stuff if you care about the tennis or not.”
Under the current anti-siphoning legislation, Channel 7 is not permitted to show the Australian Open on a secondary channel. The logic behind this law is to prevent Free to Air networks from hoarding sporting events and forcing Fox Sports to the wall.
Conversely, the selected events on the “Anti-Siphoning” list must be offered to FTA providers prior to Foxtel.
This enables viewers without Pay-TV access to events of ”national importance.”
The result for couch-based fans throughout the country is one of frustration.
Whilst Pay-TV uptake remains relatively low, FTA providers serve up a mish-mash of delayed sporting broadcasts, ridiculous cross promotions (I’m pretty sure that John Alexander is not a fan of Desperate Housewives) and pretty much a second rate coverage of the nation’s most popular sporting events.
If you live outside of the Melbourne/Sydney time-zone, the concept of live sport of FTA TV may be one that you’re no longer familiar with.
The Beijing Olympics in 2008 are a prime example of how the viewer is the loser under the current legislation.
Not only were we subjected to the horrible coverage presented by Seven, featuring such sporting luminaries as Sonia Kruger and Andrew Daddo, but the broadcast was also interrupted by AFL games that Seven were not permitted to show on the secondary channel.
Therefore, Olympic fans in Sydney and Brisbane had to twiddle their thumbs and follow progress via ABC Radio and the Internet as Channel 7 featured an AFL game between Adelaide and Richmond.
It wasn’t good enough 18 months ago and it isn’t good enough now.
Both the AFL and NRL are eagerly anticipating the results of the current review of the anti-Siphoning legislation.
The major codes would be hoping that the restrictions of the current arrangements are loosened and they can sell their product directly to Pay-TV providers. The best result for Messrs Gallop and Demetriou would be record TV rights deals where fans throughout the country can watch every game of the premiership season live and in full.
As Pay-TV providers should be given the right to bid directly for all sporting events, FTA Networks should be permitted to feature events on secondary channels such as GO, 7TWO and ONE.
Sports fans throughout in the Southern states would be the winner if Nine could feature live AFL on its primary channel whilst broadcasting live NRL on GO.
The situation could be reversed for the Northern markets.
For those without digital access, a simple trip to Dick Smith to purchase a $50 set top box would do the trick. Beside,s it’s the only way TV will be accessible when the analogue signal is switched off in 2013.
Australia is renowned for its obsession with sports. It’s time that we had a standard of TV sporting coverage that reflected tha.t
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- Explore:
- AFL, anti-siphoning, Australian Open, NRL, pay tv, Stephen Conroy, Tennis, TV Rights
January 28th 2010 @ 11:28am
soapit said | January 28th 2010 @ 11:28am | Report comment
i wouldnt like to get to the stage where i have to pay to watch australia play.
it is a huge part of our culture being able to cheer ourselves on and i think it’s a good thing that the nation can all get behind a big game and not just those who have foxtel. if all sports were on foxtel it might make the subscription more reasonable mind you.
great article, i’ve often had a whinge at the missus about why on earth they dont keep it going on a second channel while the news is on but now i know there is a reason. bloody stupid rule left over from the dark ages.
January 28th 2010 @ 12:15pm
keeper11 said | January 28th 2010 @ 12:15pm | Report comment
Great article..
One of the main reasons given for Seven dropping the tennis mid-match was to protect its ratings market share viv a viz Ch9 news….
proves again much for what passes for national sporting coverage & media policy here all seems to revolves around the protection and promotion of that quaint and infantile anchronism…..drum roll…the Ch7 v Ch 9 ratings ‘battle’..
Guess what fellas…. 99% of us do not give a ##### !
January 28th 2010 @ 12:19pm
Al said | January 28th 2010 @ 12:19pm | Report comment
To move into the 21st century, Australian TV has to firstly move into the 20th century.
January 28th 2010 @ 12:43pm
Jeff Dowsing said | January 28th 2010 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
Richard Hinds (The Age) had a fair crack at 7′s archaic coverage the other day as well – compared to ESPN in particular.
Not really into tennis but watched a bit of Tsonga v Djokovic last night. About 15 minutes of Henri Laconte barracking hysterically for Tsonga was enough for me. And the extensive psychological and technical analysis of every goddam point by the other ‘commentators’. Need to go to the Richie Benaud school of ‘less is sometimes more’.
As others have said, in other ways their football coverage is just as bad.
As for crossing to the news though, as much as I love my sport, the majority of the population have a right to know what’s going on in the world out there (except when they lead off with rubbish ‘news’ about Brangelina). That’s where the flexibility of having Go & 72 can be used to good effect.
January 28th 2010 @ 2:10pm
Tifosi said | January 28th 2010 @ 2:10pm | Report comment
One must remember ESPN is a dedicated sports network with a lot of money.
Channel 7 is not a dedicated sports network.
However when it comes to communications in this country(ie broadband, HDTV etc) we are miles behind the rest of the world.
January 28th 2010 @ 2:28pm
Redb said | January 28th 2010 @ 2:28pm | Report comment
That maybe true but I’ve found CH 9 seem to able to generate some gravitas to their coverage of sporting events. Ch 7 are still operating in 1980s mode.
January 28th 2010 @ 2:41pm
tifosi said | January 28th 2010 @ 2:41pm | Report comment
True about Channel 7. I think Channel 10 do a better job with the AFL season as well.
On a side note:
Interestingly FIFA wants the English version of its Anti-siphoning rules scrapped so it can sell its rights to the World Cup to the highest bidder, something it cant currently do.
In Australia they gave it to SBS as they were the only ones who guaranteed all games live on Free TV.
Even the English County Board in cricket would rather have cricket on PAY TV as it gets them more money.
January 28th 2010 @ 2:56pm
AndyRoo said | January 28th 2010 @ 2:56pm | Report comment
Nine, 10, SBS and Fox all do it better than 7.
January 28th 2010 @ 10:01pm
Mick said | January 28th 2010 @ 10:01pm | Report comment
Saw something written somewhere else, ch-7 could put news & rubbish tonight on 7two & keep aussie open live all the way through on main channel & there is no law & although there are the normal ch-7 excuses for not doing this
January 28th 2010 @ 10:04pm
Justin said | January 28th 2010 @ 10:04pm | Report comment
This just proves how crap 7 are. Right now they have a legends match on with Rafter/Le Conte v Arthurs/Cash. Complete fun match and yet they dont have the players miked up! There are heaps of comments that the crowd are laughing at yet on TV they are inaudible,
Even 9 have been miking up players in cricket for a few years, sometimes in serious matches.
January 28th 2010 @ 10:34pm
MM Fike said | January 28th 2010 @ 10:34pm | Report comment
At least sport on Fox is live.
I never ever watch sport on 7. I have kept track of the tennis via the official Australian Open site.
If I remember correcty, many years ago 7 even delayed the State of Origin games by 30 minutes. Great stuff!
January 29th 2010 @ 2:04pm
Beast-A-Tron said | January 29th 2010 @ 2:04pm | Report comment
Not sure why you’d appeal to Conroy in your opening paragraph.
The man is a freedom crushing computer illiterate who ignores his constituency.
February 1st 2010 @ 10:28am
NCB619 said | February 1st 2010 @ 10:28am | Report comment
The problem with putting sport of ‘national importance’ on secondary channels is that outside of the major cities, these channels do not exist. For example, in my region, even with an HD Set Top Box, we get ABC1, ABC2, ABC3, SBS ONE and TWO, Prime and WIN. That’s a lot of the country that the broadcasters would be neglecting even further than their poor coverage already