So 7/10 have won the rights. Does this mean....

[goswannie14]

Originally posted by Charlie
Fox Footy changed that. Not Channel Nine.

But it changed on my TV and I don't have Foxtel...so 9 must have changed something.

[Charlie]

Originally posted by goswannie14
But it changed on my TV and I don't have Foxtel...so 9 must have changed something.

Fixed scheduling. Nine shows Sunday afternoon matches. Sydney plays a lot on Sunday afternoons. Ten shows Saturday night matches. Sydney plays a lot on Saturday nights. So we get most of our matches on free to air.

It was Foxtel, however, that introduced (in the footy states at least) the expectation that you'll be able to watch your team play live or near-live on television, regardless of who or when they were playing. Until 2002, pay-tv football was rare, and there was usually only one game on TV in any one timeslot. Of course in such a situation, Sydney vs Fremantle is going to lose out to Collingwood vs Brisbane. With Foxtel's involvement, however, the worst that will happen is that you have to go down to the pub to watch the game.

[The Undertaker]

I prefer the 2.10pm starts.

and i am very happy man,that 9 don't have the rights anymore from 2007!

[goswannie14]

Originally posted by Charlie
Fixed scheduling. Nine shows Sunday afternoon matches. Sydney plays a lot on Sunday afternoons. Ten shows Saturday night matches. Sydney plays a lot on Saturday nights. So we get most of our matches on free to air.

It was Foxtel, however, that introduced (in the footy states at least) the expectation that you'll be able to watch your team play live or near-live on television, regardless of who or when they were playing. Until 2002, pay-tv football was rare, and there was usually only one game on TV in any one timeslot. Of course in such a situation, Sydney vs Fremantle is going to lose out to Collingwood vs Brisbane. With Foxtel's involvement, however, the worst that will happen is that you have to go down to the pub to watch the game.

Have you seen the pubs in Seymour???

If Sydney are playing 1.10 Sunday games we will still get a good coverage...however, I wonder what will happen, will 1.10 be phased out in favour of 5.00pm Sunday? If so when will the Swans play and will we have as good a chnce of watching them as in the last 4 years? The truth is out there somewhere

[Charlie]

Originally posted by goswannie14
Have you seen the pubs in Seymour???

If Sydney are playing 1.10 Sunday games we will still get a good coverage...however, I wonder what will happen, will 1.10 be phased out in favour of 5.00pm Sunday? If so when will the Swans play and will we have as good a chnce of watching them as in the last 4 years? The truth is out there somewhere

5.00 starts lends itself to the earlier game starting at the tradition 2.10 - or 1.40 at the earliest. So it seems likely there will be a Swans game and another game (most likely in Victoria) on at the same time.

Given that the other game will usually be in Victoria, and that we will often be playing Vic teams anyway, we should still do fairly well on Sundays. We're not guaranteed to have every game on FTA, but then no team is. If we can get 14/16 non-Vic games live on free-to-air, we'll be doing ok.

[goswannie14]

Originally posted by Charlie
5.00 starts lends itself to the earlier game starting at the tradition 2.10 - or 1.40 at the earliest. So it seems likely there will be a Swans game and another game (most likely in Victoria) on at the same time.

Given that the other game will usually be in Victoria, and that we will often be playing Vic teams anyway, we should still do fairly well on Sundays. We're not guaranteed to have every game on FTA, but then no team is. If we can get 14/16 non-Vic games live on free-to-air, we'll be doing ok.

Yeah I agree with that summation...I just hope the 14-16 matches are well sopaced out amongst the 6 Melbourne games we get this year (although that may increase as the Buldogs and Kangaroo agreements to play us in Sydney/Canberra finish) it has been frustrating at time in the past when you don't see your team play on FTA for weeks at a time, although, now that we are a top team that is less likely to happen.

[Refried Noodle]

Article from the SMH:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Sport/AFL-to-go-live-into-Sydney-and-Brisbane/2006/01/07/1136387654272.html

Says that under the current 7/10 agreement there will be live free to air football on Friday and Saturday nights. But 3 games are still likely to be sold to Foxtel (as all 8 games being broadcast free and live is highly unlikely) and could be any timeslot that is sold.
I got the impression from the article that 7/10 have to ask the AFL's permission to on-sell any timeslots to Foxtel.

So if we don't get live (or at least 8:30 starts) on Friday and Saturday nights then you can blame Demetriou and the AFL.

[robbieando]

Originally posted by Mark Busuttil
Can any Melbourne fans remember 7's coverage of Swans games. If Swans played interstate or another interstate team at home, it wasn't covered (or they showed highlights of 1 qtr). It was crap.

But that was when they had all 8 matches to cover each week and had a commitment to make sure the interstate matches of Melbourne based clubs were shown LIVE, so of course if we weren't playing a Melbourne based club we weren't going to be shown. Under the new deal they will get a Friday Night match given to them and then be able to selection 2 of the 3 matches on a Sunday.

If anything the coverage of Swans matches when 7 last had the rights was poor on Saturday Nights only and not Sunday afternoons. As Saturday Nights will still be on Channel 10, things should change too much.

[SimonH]

From the SMH article, courtesy of Demetriouuuuuuu:

"So as it stands they've matched an offer that says that football will be carried into the northern states on free to air on Friday night live - and we're thrilled about that.

"Unless we're notified otherwise that's what we do expect."

Just in case there was any doubt about the 'free to air' bit:

He said the original Channel Nine PBL bid "had nothing relating to Foxtel whatsoever covering any games" and the situation had not changed.

Que? How on earth were C9 going to guarantee free-to-air broadcast Fri night live in Qld/NSW? Buy a second broadcasting license and start up a free-to-air AFL channel? Persuade the AFL to start its Friday night games at 9:30pm? They certainly weren't going to ditch the league.

Sure, they would have tried to offload the northern states broadcast rights of the Friday (and presumably Saturday) night games onto SBS, ABC or even C10. But there's no way that at the bidding stage they could have guaranteed any of these channels would accept.

This isn't just a moot question, b/c as Demetriouuuuuu says, C7/10 have matched the terms of the C9 offer. So they are bound by whatever C9 would have been bound by. Anyone got an explanation?

There can be no doubt that a 2-channel bid will be better for viewers in all states than a 1-channel bid. Apart from the hopeless (so late as to be virtually non-existent) Fri/Sat night coverage of non-Swans games in NSW/Qld, the fact that AFL could be juggled into 2 channels' schedules means that we have seen more of it (and will continue to see more of it). C9's commitment to AFL in the northern states was non-existent, but they gave us 40% of what C7 used to give, and C10 gave us 75% of what C7 used to give. The net result was better coverage.(I'm not talking about the quality of the commentators b/c that's a very subjective topic, except for everyone's hatred of Eddie McGuire which is a Universal Truth Handed Down Through The Ages.)

And we can only hope that this new arrangement will hurt Collingwood. Anything that hurts Collingwood is good. That is, as long as it doesn't help Carlton or Port.

[goswannie14]

The tip from the Age is that Friday nights may well only be live on Foxtel into NSW/Qld, for free to air it may be a 10.30 pm or later replay. They are arguing that 7 won't want to risk losing Friday night ratings to NRL on 9 by tackling them head to head (excuse the pun).

Does the NRL really rate that well on Friday nights? Or are the Age just throwing in red herrings?

[Mike_B]

Originally posted by goswannie14
The tip from the Age is that Friday nights may well only be live on Foxtel into NSW/Qld, for free to air it may be a 10.30 pm or later replay. They are arguing that 7 won't want to risk losing Friday night ratings to NRL on 9 by tackling them head to head (excuse the pun).

Does the NRL really rate that well on Friday nights? Or are the Age just throwing in red herrings?

In NSW/Qld, yes - and it would definitely be ratings suicide for Seven to go head to head with League on Friday nights.