New 'alternative' digital sports channel

they need to make a play for Super Rugby.

Some of our better athletes and sporting teams at the moment are women are female sporting teams.... We only have to look at far as the Matilda's. A sporting channel with dedicated female conent/ related coverage is a great idea!

As a female Australian athlete, at times I have experienced great difficulty gaining sponsorship to continue the sport I love, because of the lack of media coverage in Australia. Even after winning 4 World Titles in a row, my news story was bumped because of a popular football player getting busted for drugs! This situation has forced women athletes to be more savvy when it comes to getting exposure. They write their own press releases, organize their own photos and shoots, blog on and build their own websites, even organise video footage of winning or competing in their own events or games, ready and packaged for the media, with the small chance there is a vacant spot in the news. I'm pretty sure that the top male athletes in this country have never had to do any of this. Don't get me wrong, these skills are great to have, but I know that many female athletes out there would do much better on the international circuit if they didn't have to manage everything, from training, working, building websites, writing press releases, booking flights, accommodation, insurances, finding sponsors, some raising families, etc. Some management companies don't even consider taking on female athletes because it is too hard for them to pitch the idea for sponsorship dollars. They don't want to commit to something they can't deliver. Why spend time on something that might not pay off when you have other clients bringing in much more. A sports channel dedicated to women's sport and lifestyle would be fantastic. This would force more content, therefore more exposure, therefore making it easier to find sponsors, hence making it easier for successful sports women to have adequate management and earn money eventually assisting with better results because they would have more time to train and compete. Women will be able to focus entirely on their sport and not spread themselves thin or give up which in some cases unfortunately happens. There are so many marketable women athletes out there, so much potential for marketing dollars, promotion of products, but these women who are fit and healthy role models don't get the chance to benefit from these endorsements while women's sport isn't shown very much on TV. Some elite sports women are fortunate and do have a profile in Australia, but they are the minority. Absolutely... We as a sporting nation should have our own women's sports TV channel!

I don't see any problem with paying for tv, so that you can watch sport live. Really whats $50-60 a month for anyone? I bet if you added up all that takeout, smokes, grog, coffee's ect you would get that quota each week, let alone month. I had cousins from the UK tell me that they couldn't believe the EPL coverage that we get here. The fact you can watch any game of the EPL at kickoff, rather than what the networks want to show you. How much better would Friday night football (for both NRL and AFL) be if you had a choice to watch it live rather than wait till the lifestyle show is over (or in non football states, the Friday night movie) to watch it? Besides it won't be long till the next deal secures internet media so that you can watch the games you want at a less price than the paytv, so you can have your smokes, grog, takeout and watch the game for $50-60 :P

I agree with Danielle. There were good crowds at Marnuka for the w-league, good crowds at Bankstown for the women's ashes.The number 1 way of getting people interested in a sport is promoting it. (Cricket is wondering why AFL has taken over as the number one sport in the country and they are losing talent to the AFL? They broadcast almost every game of each round, both on paid and free to air tv, even if its delayed, whereas cricket as gone the opposite. Domestic cricket used to be shown on free to air and sadly that is no longer the case and look whats happened to the national team in recent years.) Back to the point, more women's sports needs to be broadcast on tv to promote and gather interest in their games. Whilst some may not be interested in women's sports at all, they are plenty of other people who would be, both men and women. Anyone who has actually been to watch a w-league or cricket game can tell you that the women are highly competitive and skilled as well and yes, they'd give some of the men out there a run for their money. i.e Ellyse Perry. Women's sports needs more promotion and coverage especially on tv to gather more interest, more sponsorship to draw more women to sports, especially at grassroot level. Mens teams have the luxury to train in the afternoons as that is their jobs, however women's teams start training at 5am, so that they are able to finish up by 7am and head off to work. If that is not professional and commitment I'm not sure what is. It cost next to nothing for the rights to women's games and i'm sure the powers that be of women's sports will be all to happy to sell the rights to the games for a low price in exchange for the publicity and promotion of women's sports and whilst there are channels like sbs3 being wasted showning exactly whats on sbs1, there should be a channel dedicated to sports and in particular women's sports.

I thought we were supposed to sporty cliches when talking about sports?! Isn't that in Sports Reporting 101??

Great article and brilliant idea! We would become the envy of the known world with more sport's channels. Problem is MURDOCH AND PACKER. The two biggest bones in the throats of ALL AUSTRALIANS. These two families need to be dealt with the same way as Mubarak in Eqypt. They have lorded it over Australians for 100 years, they have built an all domineering oligarchy that puts Russia to shame it is that ingrained. Personally, I would also like to see a documentary channel and a movie channel too.

"Level the playing field" - Are you saying let the men and women compete on the same paddock together?

Agreed! And the Australian Women's Open (Golf) will be on the ABC this weekend too.

It sounds slightly sexist?! No, it's completely sexist. Women's sport doesn't rate on TV because it's hardly on there at all! It's not promoted in the same way men's sport is by their respective sporting bodies. Not interested in women's cricket?! I guess you wouldn't know because you didn't see the crowd at Marnuka Oval did you? You weren't there. I was. Men not interested in watching women's rugby? Have you SEEN the crowds at the Hong Kong 7s?! And why are none of them pros? Because it's not on TV and not promoted and as a result there's no sponsorship. In terms of commitment to the game and sacrifice, our sporting women ARE pros. More so than the men I would argue. In terms of pay and time they're able to give to their sport because they're holding down one or two jobs? Well, of course not. You're comparing apples and oranges. Level the playing field and then we'll show you something!

it sounds slightly sexist to say, but womens team sports dont rate on tv at all. Netball, for all its inroads, still rates like crap, womens cricket is about as popular with spectators as I am, and australian men wont be ready to watch women playing rugby/australian football. Theres a reason why these sports almost never find a home on FTA, why al;most none of them are pros, etc etc etc etc

What people want is quality not quantity. There is an amazing amount of quality women's sport around. It may be cheap to buy but it must be produced well. Put the money into six cameras not two and show it off properly. The female sports market is a huge untapped market for tv companies and advertisers alike. Mix it with lifestyle programming and you will have half the country watching.

They don't even have enough decent programming to fill their second channel.

if u look at the model of the former national league television deal, channel 7 only showed the grand final, a highlights package and socceroos games. channel nine only got into soccer because it was the world cup. i think australian football has got smarter unless free to air want to pay well there is no chance soccer will go back to free to air. people complain about being on foxtel and not being able to watch it well that the commercial side of the game u have to deal with bad luck

Problem with low ratings on sports channels is the Australian public aren't actually that sports crazy as we assume. That's probably because apart from a few exceptions, most sport - apart from the top levels - is pretty dull to watch, so people don't do it. The cheaper stuff like poker and rodeo riding is even duller. One HD is full of american extracted cheap stuff - I'd assume - which just doesn't gel that well with me and most, so ratings are low and will continue to be so. ESPN is much the same. Even Fox, a revolution when it started and a good product that allowed better sport into our lives, is pretty lame these days, unless you like a lot of golf - I don't. Setanta was invented to pick up sport that big channels refused to show, and even that is not really worth the bucks. There are too many channels of sport for too little product. If some of them falter in a war of attrition it would be great as one or two of them could have some decent programming and be profitable instead of this wide spread scattering of a few decent events over mulitple channels with dire trite inbetween making the norm. It's perhaps less channels that we need, not more. I think SBS might realise that and I cant see them opening a sports channel Im afraid. Furthermore, all these extra free-to-air channels might excite people but they offer surprisingly little. The sports genre is much the same.

One HD requires another big ticket item. It shows AFL (for those in the north that do not realise this is a big ticket) in winter. It needs EPL. Foxtel sewed up the rights again for this I believe by outbidding Ten recently so they've basically missed the boat. It does have F1, NFL & NBA but if they are not making money for One HD I can't see how it is commercially viable overall. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.

In Perth here 1HD still delays sport. Sunday night's Italian Serie A is shown live (according to internet tv guide) in Sydney & Melbourne yet in Perth it is shown on delay so 1HD can show bad news bears & other movies. Normally they use the news as an excuse to delay sport but 1HD has no news. Bloody every Italian I speak to just laughs when we talk about it.

I don't think SBS has the money to get the rights in alot of those sports. Although European basketball is probably the right sport for the channel. With SBS' relationship with ESPN, they could jag a few tennis tournaments around as well. As for One Hd, they should get rid of World Rally champs, along with nascar. Just boring. Actually in the article you mention county cricket for SBS. What about Sheffield Shield cricket on One Hd. Have a game of the week type thing. Shield cricket would provide viewers an insight to the young players coming through and also provide long hours of content for One Hd. While I'm at it, One Hd should acquire 1 or 2 games of NRL a week. 1 game a week of A-league along with some socceroo matches, and have rights to one cricket test series a year. If they get rid of some of the 'boring' sports that don't rate and acquire the sports I have mentioned, One Hd ratings will improve.

Funny you don't include English super league. Instead of nine hording it, a digital channel could attract a good audience in primetime.

Well said - there are a number of women's sports that are great to watch and don't cost the earth. Netball being right up there. ABC are doing a good job with the W-League and the Southern Stars.