Remember the ’90s, when free-to-air broadcasters like Channel Nine had so much sport content they had to shift between events?
International cricket in Australia used to be interrupted occasionally by horse racing, while The Ashes in the UK had to wait for Friday night football to finish. Those days appear to be coming to an end.
Channel Nine, like its Seven rival, is starting to embrace its digital channels, due in large part to a stunning smorgasbord of sport in July.
July 8 for example will be massive for Nine, with the State of Origin decider in Brisbane as well as Day 1 of the Ashes on its high-definition offering, GEM.
It’s not the first time Nine has broadcast cricket on its HD channel, but this time they will have exclusive coverage. Perhaps for that reason the network will send its own commentary team to England rather than relying on Sky Sports.
The following week three different sporting events will be shown simultaneously on Nine, with The Ashes second Test on GEM, Brisbane Roar vs Liverpool on GO!, and Melbourne Storm vs Penrith Panthers on the main channel.
It’s something sports fans have been crying out for ever since digital television began.
Channel Seven use it well with AFL on 7mate for non-traditional AFL markets as well as putting horse racing on 7Two. They also used multi channels for the Australian Open, putting more action on other channels and ensuring all Australian players were shown when there was a conflict, while keeping the tennis going during the news.
Channel Ten had a number of different events to choose from on ONE HD when the Winter Olympics were on and even though it’s expected on Foxtel, the Pay TV service has used its ‘red button’ more and more for greater access, including in-car camera angles for Formula One and V8 Supercars.
The time it’s taken for FTA networks to fully embrace multi channeling has partly been due to adapting to suit advertisers, who understandably tend to prefer their ads on the channel everyone is watching. But statistics show that multi channels deserve plenty of attention with the cumulative weekly reach of Free TV’s six multi-channels more than 2.5 times that of pay TV’s top 10 channels (OZ TAM).
Due to the Ashes being on July 8, State of Origin 3 is unlikely to break an individual ratings record but like the old children’s show Captain Planet, with “powers combined” Nine will dominate the audience share, something head of sport Steve Crawley alluded to when speaking to Fairfax.
“The bosses now go with the network share, so it’s not so much Nine versus GEM. They’re all playing for the same side,” Crawley said.
“It will be hard. I’ll be producing the rugby league coverage and it will be hard not to want to watch the second television to watch the Ashes as well… I’ll just have to iQ it, I guess.”
Ross
Guest
Didn't any of the nine cricket commentary team listen to the words of their late doyen Richie Benaud. Richie said, (words to the effect) "Remember you are guest in the listeners living room etc etc". Obviously not one of the current team heeded his words of wisdom. Especially Taylor and Warne (could somebody in the nine network tell Warne that he is supposed to be talking about cricket and not his and his mates drinking escapades). Taylor drives me crazy, he just never shuts up. I tried for over half an hour tonight (after having a complete gut full of their verbal diarrohea) to find a channel nine site to register my complaint. Of course I couldn't find a way. Thanks 'The Roar', but I feel like it's peeing in the oceanm
Vas Venkatramani
Guest
I think we're fearing the wrong thing. It's not a question of fearing the commentators of doing a poor job, as they're all capable of doing a good one if they try. The real question is Brad McNamara still around to instigate and direct the low-brow buffoonry? Get rid of him, and replace him with someone like an Ian Chappell, and you may find Michael Slater return to his 2005 watermark. Ian Healy may once again focus on the finer art of keeping, Mark Taylor can discuss the placing of slips and the intricacies of on-field tactics, Brett Lee can break down the course of fast bowlers' run-ups and Warne can discuss field placings along with bowling tactics. Do that, and a much maligned commentary team can become a quite excellent one, if given the directive to focus on cricket, not on themselves.
13th Man
Guest
how long did that last? It is now a terrible channel, never watch anything on it!
13th Man
Guest
I like Bill, he is the last of the old guard. The last of the great commentators, now they are just all average. There is nothing better than a bit of "GOT HIM YES!" on boxing day!
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
It's always nice when there is something else on the main channel forcing the sport you want to watch to have to be shown in HD!
JimmyB
Guest
Cheers mate, I'll have a look into it.
HardcorePrawn
Roar Guru
I'm not sure TBH, I'd imagine so. A colleague of mine got Foxtel during the Olympics and said their coverage was head & shoulders above what Nine was offering (not hard though, a kid with a smartphone could've done better than Nine). I get the impression that they do seem to be aware that fans will want to watch teams other than Australia, and watch the games live.
JimmyB
Guest
I was going to get Foxtel specifically for the RWC. I'm presuming that Foxtel might accord the tournament due care and attention and not just the Aussie games, am I right?
HardcorePrawn
Roar Guru
It is Jimmy. Which is not of much use to those of us without Foxtel though. I think that, like the 2011 World Cup and the 2012 Olympics, Nine have on-sold rights to Foxtel. FIFA, for all their faults, don't allow broadcasters to butcher their tournaments in this way, one of the very few things they do right, and something the IRB and IOC may want to emulate.
JimmyB
Guest
HP, will it be on Foxtel as well do you know?
HardcorePrawn
Roar Guru
There's an elephant in the room here: the upcoming Rugby World Cup. Once again this will be broadcast on Nine and is sure to be buried in the schedules with delayed telecasts, no showing of any match not involving Australia, no highlights, no specialist programming, no pre or post match analysis. I'll wager that they won't even send anyone to the UK to cover it. Whenever I see that Nine have the rights to broadcast a major sporting event I shudder, this time is no exception.
Benjamin Conkey
Editor
Ahh yes Brett, back in the day when ONE HD was a 24-hour sports channel.
Tanami Singh
Guest
Channel 9 broadcast sport in HD now there's a novel idea. If in fact they do show cricket in HD, I will have to smear Vaseline on the tele so I can still whinge about how poor the picture is. It'll take my mind off how poor the commentary team are.
E-Meter
Guest
First ball bowled at 8pm. Will be able to avoid the endless preamble for origin.
Damo
Guest
Would be interesting to know what Sky were charging to use both their vision and commentary. Given what my friends in the UK think about Sky, I could easily imagine that by sending their own commentary team Channel Nine might be saving a few $$$. Just pity about the people they chose to send.
Disco
Guest
Geoff Lemmon from The Guardian summed up the horror that is ch nine commentary with this excellent analysis... http://tinyurl.com/ch-nine-destroying-cricket
Turn it up
Guest
And have Mark Nicholas stand guard over them
Flexability Not New
Guest
It's been flexabile for a long enough now and has allowed for current AFL and NRL deals (showing games on 7mate and GEM in non traditional markets while showing games on 7 and 9 in their respective heartlands). If the networks were as flexible as the laws, they could show both codes nationally in HD instead of the greedy decision to only do so in new markets and SD in their traditional ones. 10 also could have shown all BBL live in QLD on One but also made the greedy decision to play it on Ten on a 1 hour delay.
CW
Guest
I also hope that Nicholas joins the Nine comm team. My fav Pommy comm.
Brett McKay
Expert
Long overdue, Conks. Remember this from both of our early days on The Roar: http://www.theroar.com.au/2008/10/20/sport-the-digital-tv-deal-clincher/ (Oct 2008!?!)