It was a surprise to read the Sydney Morning Herald report on Thursday that Kayo Sports would be making the Supercars Championship free for all to watch live.
This is great news for Supercars fans after six years of paywalls and just a smattering of live races on Channel 10.
Motorsport follows the rule of all sports when it comes to television – the only way to maximise audiences is to have decent free-to-air coverage.
It’s something that’s clear to see when you look at the viewing figures for Supercars this season.
The Darwin Triple Crown in mid-August was broadcast live FTA on Channel 10 as well as on Fox Sports.
The race held on Saturday afternoon was watched by 276,000 on 10, more than double the 106,000 watching Fox Sports’ coverage.
Compare that to the second SuperSprint round at The Bend in late September, shown exclusively live on Fox Sports to 120,000 viewers on the Saturday and 134,000 viewers on Sunday.
That’s a combined total of 382,000 viewers for a race shown on FTA compared to 134,000 for a race placed behind a paywall.
The conclusion is a no-brainer. Supercars will welcome the opportunity to attract a wider audience.
And they need all the help they can get.
Whilst the future looks bright for Supercars with 2022 heralding the debut of Chevrolet Camaro and new Gen3 regulations, the impact of Holden shutting down its factory operations for good is not yet clear.
The announcement that the Camaro would take the place of the Commodore prompted one social media user to comment, ‘Australian supercars where Kiwis dominate and we race American cars’.
(Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
There is no question that Holden’s departure from Supercars leaves a hole that the Camaro will never be able to truly fill.
Supercars thrives on the historic rivalry between Holden vs Ford, which was alive and well when Shane Van Gisbergen and Cameron Waters battled it out for the Peter Brock Trophy at Bathurst last weekend.
The rivalry between General Motors (represented by the Camaro) and Ford should be as fierce but Supercars will still have to ride the potential wave of discontent from fans who become disenchanted with the sport now that Holden are no longer involved.
Channel Seven’s coverage would only be able to do so much given that half of the season would remain behind a paywall with lengthy gaps in between races shown live on FTA TV.
Supercars needs the attention of the casual viewer now more than ever and that’s why the announcement by Kayo is a godsend for the championship.
Ian Brock
Guest
I know this is an old article BUT did you ever really believe that Fox/Kayo were ever going to FTA the whole 2021 Supercars series? They will do the first round - even maybe more of Sevens FTA rounds, but never anything else. They are in business to make money.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
All is good now Spruce.
Nick
Roar Guru
@ Micko... Don't drag me into stoushes between you and someone else in future please. That's uncalled for. You went far too far in your criticism of Josh, he called you out. Don't bring in 3rd parties to deflect blame.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
I just can't stand the stance of 'I like to watch this sport but I'm not going to pay for it because the network it's on is owned by Murdoch' - just get over it.
HR
Roar Rookie
It's hard to do - the corrosive old ghoul has his fingers in everything over here.
Micko
Roar Rookie
There was literally ONLY ONE show I enjoyed watching with all those crappy channels...and then that show disappeared with no explanation! :angry:
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Honestly, just forget about the fact that Murdoch owns it and enjoy the sport.
HR
Roar Rookie
Yep - once everything else is either re-runs or bilge, and it's apparently full of adverts anyway, it's a pretty easy decision to make.
HR
Roar Rookie
Just showing live sport at all is a plus nowadays - that and terrible reality TV seem to be the only things that will keep the commercial stations afloat, and it appears that terrible reality TV is cheaper to produce, so sport is slowly disappearing from the broadcasts.
HR
Roar Rookie
You're probably right that they've noticed the constant stream of comments - but those same commenters are constantly carping on about how "Skaifey's just a Holden shill", or "Crompo's blind and I hate him because he likes paddle-shifters." and all kinds of other grousing, so it's probably safe to say that there's a certain percentage of malcontents who are always going to find something to complain about. If it was on FTA in HD with no ad-breaks, they'd probably complain about the TV channel logo not being transparent enough, and blocking their view of the marbles at the edge of the track. :stoked:
HR
Roar Rookie
I can see where you're coming from, and I agree with you. I wasn't happy about the shift of the cricket behind a paywall, and I loathe Murdoch, so I'm not happy about paying that lot either. But like you, there are a few sports that I follow closely, and I want to be able to watch them - ideally it would be on FTA, but now that option is off the table, and separate subscriptions for each of the sports I watch were either unreasonably expensive, or simply not possible due to rights issues, so I grit my teeth and split my subscription with a couple of family members.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Firstly, thank you for your apology mate. You're the first person to ever do that :stoked: . Secondly, when you write an opinion article, you are writing about your opinion. You can acknowledge the other side if you so wish but the purpose is to bring across your point of view, backing it up with evidence. If I've missed anything, bring it up (respectfully :silly: ) in the comments section and I'll happily debate it with you. This article was me saying this is great, Supercars is going to get a wider audience at such a critical turning point. Just don’t turn around in the middle of contracts and say you’re giving everything out for free anyway! Actually, Micko, 2021 sees the start of a new broadcast deal, as I'm sure you know, and Foxtel/Kayo are perfectly within their rights to make Supercars free-to-view. Whether its customers are happy about it or not is another story... And finally, I know that not everyone is going to agree with my opinions but I'm not going to put up with personal insults because nobody deserves that. Going back to that F1 article, I acknowledged why people were unhappy with the sport in the article but F1 doesn't need to be called a 'snoozefest' when there's plenty going on. As for the lack of understanding - test cricket has idiosyncrasies that people who call it boring can't understand, but you can freely defend test cricket's idiosyncrasies and not be criticised for doing so. But when it comes to Formula One, somehow I can't do the same? It would also help if people actually read articles properly before going off on one in the comments section. I'm going to carry on. My depression and anxiety may not be properly diagnosed but it's there and it may receive a blow when things get personal but I can't take any more mental health breaks. That's why I was away for a while. I just wanted to get all that off my chest because how can anything be done to help if nobody is told about it?
Micko
Roar Rookie
Yes, I might've seemed a bit harsh Josh. But my point was you completely skipped over the point that Supercars negotiated their broadcast deal to have a large part of their season behind a paywall...the same paywall broadcast I've purchased. To then renegotiate their deal whilst the contract is still running and hand out everything for free anyway is an amateur move, and one that should be mentioned and criticised. And yes, I clearly stated that I want people to have as much access to free broadcasting of sport as possible. Just don't turn around in the middle of contracts and say you're giving everything out for free anyway! :silly:
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
It's not just you Micko. There have been countless other incidents over the past few months. Perhaps my thick skin is still with the courier! :laughing: But come on - being lectured by people just because I'm younger than them? And then when I use the same borderline agressive tone, that's suddenly unacceptable but I'm supposed to cop the same tone of comments? I'm not going to let that fly!
Micko
Roar Rookie
You feeling "insulted" is a choice you make Josh. All I've done is disagree with some of your recent comments and two of your recent articles, when generally I agree with virtually everything you write.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Your final paragraph sums up why all I've been asking for months and months now is less toxicity and more kindness and respect. We are debating opinions not people. I don't deserve to be insulted. I just had to say something to get the point out there. It's other people's choice if they want to take note of it.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Disagreeing with you and criticising you sometimes isn't "nastiness" Josh. People are going to have passionate opinions sometimes and strongly disagree with you, especially on a sports opinion website. That's life! There's some relentlessly negative and obnoxious people on this site. Just look at "Spruce Moose" for example. Sometimes they make some good points, and maybe can change your mind though. And I haven't divulged my life and issues either. How do you know what I'm going through on a daily basis? You don't know what I've had to deal with either, but I'm not going divulge that and use it as an excuse to avoid some harsh criticism sometimes.
Bludger
Guest
Not sure if you follow the financial market news in Australia, but the three FTA networks in Australia are technically insolvent and only because of their political influence are they still trading as going concerns. What needs to happen is the networks need to be broken up and go back to small owners of tv companies in every city.
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
Cheers. As I explained to the nice young Indian chap when I rang to cancel, their other content consists of The Simpsons, the Kardashians, reality shows and Sky News. None of which I watch. Anything else can be found on Stan, Netflx and the like for a much lower price.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
I just want to add that I'm tired of having nastiness thrown at me just because I'm offering an opinion. And my mental health takes a battering every time that happens. People are unaware of what's going on behind the scenes and my personal circumstances, which I'm not going to divulge, as I hope everyone can understand and respect.