The Roar
The Roar

AFL
Advertisement

How much Collingwood do we all need?

Roar Rookie
3rd May, 2012
Advertisement
Roar Rookie
3rd May, 2012
27
1517 Reads

As a Collingwood supporter, I love the fact that my team’s matches are frequently broadcast. But, as a fan of the game, I can’t help but wonder whether a more shared coverage from Channel Seven would serve everybody better?

Channel Seven’s key aim is to get ratings and that’s not surprising. It is about selling advertising space and making money.

But the ethical principles of media coverage balance should come into play.

You only need to look at next week’s programming guide to see that the big teams dominate.

The four free-to-air games feature Hawthorn, Geelong, Carlton and Essendon, probably four of the five biggest Victorian teams.

The fact that the network is perpetually promoting the already strong clubs means that others are falling further behind in terms of media share.

Look at the Bulldogs last year. Up until round 16 they only had four games on free-to-air broadcast.

This means that they are not being given the opportunity to connect with the mass audience like other teams are, and ethically they deserve this privilege.

Advertisement

In a perfect world, each club would have the same number of games broadcast by Channel Seven, but that’s never going to happen.

What I hope for is that they at least consider making the disparity a little less obvious.

close