An analysis of SBS's football broadcasting

Just to elaborate on TFC, im fairly impartial to it and would prefer it to be scrapped in favour of a round table a-league analysis/discussion show involving all SBS' panelists. The football should take precedence and Id rather hear Foz and Neds opinions for 2 hrs rather than waste 30min watching TFC. Ned Zelic is comedy in itself and requires no script or live band to sass things up what so ever. Having said that I do respect his opinions and analysis. I also think Jason Culina is a great member of the team and as the son of a well respected coach and himself representing Australia in 2 World Cups and the UEFA Champions League his experience is invaluable and he deserves more airtime. SBS should stick to the formula of the old 6hr world game program but trim it down and have the analysis purely on the HAL imo

I have been an SBS faithful for years, and while I have always had immense respect for their passion and commitment to football, it wasn't until I watched tonights 2 a-league games (jets v victory & glory v heart) on fox at work (the first time ive EVER seen a fox broadcast of football) that I realised just how good a job SBS have done over the years. The Fox broadcast almost put me to sleep and the panel members lacked the same unwavering determination and judgement blinding passion of the SBS elite. The likes of Les, Zdrila, Bash, Kalac, Zelic, Culina and most importantly Craig Foster make Australian football special. I just wish SBS could secure the broadcasting rights to a major european league, say Serie A, to add to their impressive CV of friday night A-League, UEFA CL, and exclusive World Cups. Watching Fox tonight has turned me off ever paying for their service and I will stay true to SBS where passion and knowledge trump money and greed. Forza SBS and may you be blessed in securing more football rights for the future.

Thursday FC on tonight ... channel 30 or 32... starts at 8:30....

ThursdayFC Thoroughly enjoy the show. I have it on in the background, whilst I'm catching up with emails & other admin. work. Some of the stuff I enjoy - the input from the players, etc. - some I don't enjoy - the music. But, the A-League demographic is diverse, so there must be something for everyone. Sure it doesn't engage in bullying, misogyny & casual racism and it's not overly blokey with panel members giggling amongst themselves at high school locker-room jokes .. like the AFL & NRL shows, so it may not appeal to the bogan element in AUS society. 60 minutes is probably too long. I'd have a short sharp 30 minute show. Total Football on Fox is only 30 mins A-League Highlights To be honest, I haven't tuned in since I tend to watch most HAL matches. I'd have it similar to the Bundesliga highlights show, which is basically 5 minute highlights from each game. But, one annoying thing with the Bundesliga show is the voiceover guy, who spoils the fun by telling you what's going to happen. Friday Night LIVE Excellent. Wouldn't change anything .. apart from the commentator. Bash is a terrific guy, but would rather have Vitor Sobral & Ned Zelic for special comments.

Many questions, very little answers. Only time will tell and its only season one on FTA. A fairer assessment can be made next season, but if ratings continue going down as they are then i'm sure we'll see some articles as to the positives or negatives football is experiencing on FTA.

I can't watch Thursday FC.I don't think Zdrilla is the right type of host,actually I don't think he belongs on TV at all.Even when he is on a serious panel discussion and it's his turn to speak he always starts with, "Well, I agree with Fozz on this one..",and doesn't seem to be able to come up with own words,instead just parrots Fozz or Ned. SBS should have paid up and held on to Santo, Sam & Ed.

Cameron In general as we know nobody watches SBS week to week so if your not watching regularly you dont know whats on. However you ask "Surely Australian football fans now know of the A-League’s presence on FTA…" Well there's part of the answer just what percentage of football fans in Australia are A-League fans? Just what do we know historically about football broadcasting in Australia? What do we know about SBS football broadcasting? How many watched arguably the best football in the world this morning,the European Champions League? What we do know is that when a Football event is on like the World Cup viewing numbers are high,particularly for the Socceroos at ungodly hours on SBS,note the 2006 World Cup & qualifiers involving the Socceroos vs Uruguay in 2005. What we also know is that the World Cup rates well on commercial TV as per the 2002 World Cup on Channel NIne. Matches that didn't involve Australia, Some that stick in mind for the 5 capital cities England vs Brazil 4.30 Brisbane time in the afternoon 1.8 million, Brazil vs Turkey 9.30 at night 2.1 million ,Final Brazil vs Germany at 9.00pm 2.7 million. Can we take anything from these figures to try & answer your question. Well my take on it is that one SBS 2 is no mans viewing land & two there's an awful lot of football fans from the many varied cultural backgrounds in Australia who still dont follow the A-League. Could be totally wrong ,but I do know one thing the SBS figures are underwhelming for me & there's an underlying reason for it that cant be explained away by saying that football fans in Australia know the A-League is on. Also dont buy the cop out line that SBS figures are skewed ,understated by Oztam,there's a lot more to it than that.

Agreed but improvement aside (which does help), are there other problems as to the reach our figures are showing? Surely Australian football fans now know of the A-League's presence on FTA...

Except they would have to move the show ... only WSW, SFC and arguably Mariners fans can get to SBS in a reasonable time and at reasonable costs...

I think that Thursday FC is trying to emulate Sky Sports' Soccer AM (from the UK). Soccer AM is/was often much maligned - mainly due to the presence of Tim Lovejoy, a shining example of a modern day fan who never acknowledges that football ever took place prior to the birth of the EPL in 1992 - but when I used to watch it I thought it struck the right balance of irreverence, guests, music and topical football stories. Interestingly, rather than a large audience of fans milling about the place, Soccer AM would always have a group of fans from one particular club seated in their 'Luther Blissett Stand', something I think works better than Thursday FC's current set-up.

Ah, cool. I thought you meant that I had posted that twice, haha.

I posted the same post here by accident as what I did above for Cameron ... so deleted it ...

I think if it was half an hour they'd have to decide whether or not to go with solely jokes, in which case they would fail imo, especially given SS&E have got their schtick down pat, or more of a focus on the games/players, in which case it wouldn't be serious enough given what they are trying to do and would be pretty bland. They are going for a mix, but need that time.

Thursday FC HHHMMMM is to rushed but they are getting there ... my suggestion of an extra half hour was because they need to spend some more time with their guests and maybe some more bands given the age demographic ... I can report to going to the show the night of the bush fires when Lucy was not there [very sad for me] ... I can honestly say my experience was this show takes a lot to get to air and has a reasonable number of people working on it ..

Huh?

Cameron It was either short and straight to the point or a book ... I went with the former ... I to am happy with what SBS are doing just think it can be improved...

Double post

I think Santo Sam and Ed have set the standard for light hearted football entertainment but they've been working together for years now. I only watch Thursday FC sparingly but I think it's biggest problem is that it's too long. A good snappy 30min show would be perfect. The show really drags at some points. Reminds of SSE and their Sports Fever show on 7Mate. That took about 7 or 8 eps to get going and then was cut once it did.

Echo that, Franko. Embarrassing stuff.

"Lastly I think signing Elysse Perry was a masterstroke. She clearly knows her stuff and it is uncanny how many times she says exactly what I have been thinking." 10 bucks says that Jukes is hoping that Elysse reads this website :P mate you'll have fight off GVE first haha.