Are Melbourne Swans fans big losers in Foxtel deal?

[Damien]

Conference live on Sky right now.

[Damien]

Foxtel just confirmed that On the Couch will be back, and a few other shows. No mention of WLF though.

A new Friday night show called "Before the Bounce" also.

[Gary]

Footy everywhere...just remember to get / have a life apart from it!

[goswannie14]

Originally posted by Gary
Footy everywhere...just remember to get / have a life apart from it!

Most of it will be on delay into Melbourne on FTA.

Trying to talk Mrs gs14 into us getting Austar for the footy season.

[SimonH]

"Between 2 and 4 matches live or near-live" on FTA in NSW is a pretty short straw for Sydney-- bearing in mind the special 'developing markets' agreement to broadcast FTA Friday night live into parts of country NSW. ('Key developing markets' means 'markets that are small enough that it won't cost Ch 7 too much to get pumped by the rugby league most weeks'.)

So the big announcement actually means 2 to 3 matches live or near-live into Sydney, being:
1. The Swans game, whenever it is.
2. Ten's 2pm Saturday game (which will often be #1).
3. Seven's Sunday arvo game; unless Sydney is playing (i.e. it is #1) in which case it will be produced by Fox, and then farmed out to whichever one of 7 or 10 is able to take it.

And we're still stuck with 11pm Friday footy (which will, quick as you can say 'Late News and not sticking to advertised program times', morph into 11:15pm, 11:30pm etc Friday footy-- with full pre-game rigmarole (including comprehensive previews of a match that's already finished in the real world!) before the action actually starts as we're approaching midnight.

No guarantees I can see at this point that the 10 Saturday night game (when not a Sydney game), or the Seven Sunday daytime game (when Sydney is playing that slot) will ever be broadcast. What's the chances that if they are, it will be bouncedown at about 3:30am?

In summary: Certainly no better, and possibly worse, than we've had for the last 5 years. This will be growing the game in Sydney how, excactly?

Pay TV is a complete non-entity in the debate about the quality of AFL coverage in Sydney-- the goal is to convert the casual or wavering viewer to Aussie rules; footy obsessives with plenty of cash to spend on their habit, are always going to be pretty well catered for.

Condolences also to Melbourne-based Swans viewers; but (without minimising yr unfortunate fate) a negative result was fairly inevitable when you combine the very crowded AFL team market in Melbourne, with the AFL's cash-based opportunism.

[Damien]

Originally posted by SimonH
"Between 2 and 4 matches live or near-live" on FTA in NSW is a pretty short straw for Sydney-- bearing in mind the special 'developing markets' agreement to broadcast FTA Friday night live into parts of country NSW. ('Key developing markets' means 'markets that are small enough that it won't cost Ch 7 too much to get pumped by the rugby league most weeks'.)

So the big announcement actually means 2 to 3 matches live or near-live into Sydney, being:
1. The Swans game, whenever it is.
2. Ten's 2pm Saturday game (which will often be #1).
3. Seven's Sunday arvo game; unless Sydney is playing (i.e. it is #1) in which case it will be produced by Fox, and then farmed out to whichever one of 7 or 10 is able to take it.

And we're still stuck with 11pm Friday footy (which will, quick as you can say 'Late News and not sticking to advertised program times', morph into 11:15pm, 11:30pm etc Friday footy-- with full pre-game rigmarole (including comprehensive previews of a match that's already finished in the real world!) before the action actually starts as we're approaching midnight.

No guarantees I can see at this point that the 10 Saturday night game, or the Seven Sunday daytime game (when Sydney is playing that slot) will ever be broadcast. What's the chances that if they are, it will be bouncedown at about 3:30am?

In summary: Certainly no better, and possibly worse, than we've had for the last 5 years. This will be growing the game in Sydney how, excactly?

Pay TV is a complete non-entity in the debate about the quality of AFL coverage in Sydney-- the goal is to convert the casual or wavering viewer to Aussie rules; footy obsessives with plenty of cash to spend on their habit, are always going to be pretty well catered for.

Condolences also to Melbourne-based Swans viewers; but (without minimising yr unfortunate fate) a negative result was fairly inevitable when you combine the very crowded AFL team market in Melbourne, with the AFL's cash-based opportunism.

It is clearly better for Sydney - we only got two live games generally, three if the swans were on Saturday night. Having access to Friday night live is huge and makes a big difference in my books.

The big thing in Sydney though is, that sports lovers generally have Foxtel or know where to go and watch it. All Super 12, most Rugby League games etc are all on Foxtel, so the AFL knows Foxtel is a great tool for game development here.

Foxtel have the rights to all replays, so that is also important.

My questions are what happens to delayed non Swans matches on Saturday nights, the Channel 7 game on Sunday's when the Swans are playing.

[Mike_B]

Originally posted by Damien
My questions are what happens to delayed non Swans matches on Saturday nights, the Channel 7 game on Sunday's when the Swans are playing.

I would imagine the Sat night games would be earlier than previous due to the live/near live statement.

I would imagine that the Sunday Swans games will be shown on Ch 7 using the Fox Feed (as has been done numerous times in previous years) and then the 2pm game will be shown on Fox as a double header leading straight into the twilight game.

[Damien]

Originally posted by Mike_B
I would imagine the Sat night games would be earlier than previous due to the live/near live statement.

I would imagine that the Sunday Swans games will be shown on Ch 7 using the Fox Feed (as has been done numerous times in previous years) and then the 2pm game will be shown on Fox as a double header leading straight into the twilight game.

I was thinking that, but they were also talking about the "flip/flop" rule no longer applying, where a game isn't automatically substituted just because it is on FTA also.

[giant]

Originally posted by hammo
Yes, that would make sense. According to their ASX release, teh full schedule has been released for the first 6 rounds.

I can't find it yet but I imagine it answers all our questions.

It's here & yes, I think it does answer some of your questions.

http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=broadcastguides&spg=2007&currentpage=7

There are definitely times when the FTA & the Foxtel telecast into Sydney are of the same game.

[Damien]

Originally posted by giant
It's here & yes, I think it does answer some of your questions.

http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=broadcastguides&spg=2007&currentpage=7

There are definitely times when the FTA & the Foxtel telecast into Sydney are of the same game.

That is really going to hurt Channel 10. Anyone with Foxtel will choose Foxtel to avoid commericals during play.

According to that, Foxtel will also show the Channel 10 game to NSW along with their own game Live on Saturday night?

[giant]

Originally posted by SimonH
In summary: Certainly no better, and possibly worse, than we've had for the last 5 years. This will be growing the game in Sydney how, excactly?

Well, I don't want to turn this into another war of the haves & the have-nots but from my perspective looking at the schedule for the first 6 rounds, I see that I can watch all but 3 games live in Sydney (if I wish), which seems a dramatic improvement on previous years. I'm absolutely delighted.

As for converting the non-AFLers, well, surely the Swans games are the most likely vehicle for this and these games will of course remain live(-ish).

[swantastic]

Originally posted by giant
It's here & yes, I think it does answer some of your questions.

http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=broadcastguides&spg=2007&currentpage=7

There are definitely times when the FTA & the Foxtel telecast into Sydney are of the same game.

Good one giant did you see that R3 Swans v Lions is live on 7 and Fox.IMHO all interstate home teams should be live on 7 or 10 into there home citys.

[giant]

Originally posted by swantastic
Good one giant did you see that R3 Swans v Lions is live on 7 and Fox.

And Roos vs Sydney in round 6 forcing Ten to show their telecast live.

[swantastic]

Originally posted by giant
And Roos vs Sydney in round 6 forcing Ten to show their telecast live.

IMHO all interstate home teams should be live on 7 or 10 into there home citysand whole states.

Because every body cant afford Fox.

[SimonH]

Originally posted by Damien
It is clearly better for Sydney - we only got two live games generally, three if the swans were on Saturday night. Having access to Friday night live is huge and makes a big difference in my books.

We don't have access to Friday night on FTA in Sydney. Ever. And FTA is what the argument's all about. Even worse, the broadcast schedule shows that C7 isn't even going to promise to start it 'til 11:30pm!

Originally posted by Damien
The big thing in Sydney though is, that sports lovers generally have Foxtel or know where to go and watch it. All Super 12, most Rugby League games etc are all on Foxtel, so the AFL knows Foxtel is a great tool for game development here.

Foxtel have the rights to all replays, so that is also important.

I'm sorry, but I think it's a myth that there is a substantial population of people out there who are so in love with union or league that they will pay money to subscribe to pay TV or go to the pub just to watch their chosen sport; yet they will be converted to Aussie rules by a casual viewing of AFL if their/the bar-tender's hand happens to stray on the remote. Even if there were, knowing nothing about AFL, they wouldn't know or care less whether the game on pay TV was live or substantially delayed, anyway.

Our target market is people who have some level of interest in sport generally, but are not obsessive league or union fans. Sure, Swans' matches are the principal method of converting them, but once they have some Swans-based interest, there needs to be broad coverage of the game to encourage them to take their commitment further (i.e. so they actually know a Roo from a Tiger, don't applaud behinds, etc).

Originally posted by Damien
My questions are what happens to delayed non Swans matches on Saturday nights, the Channel 7 game on Sunday's when the Swans are playing

They are exactly my questions, too.

Re Saturdays: the schedule makes it tolerably clear that when Swans are playing Sat night, the non-Swans Sat night game will not be broadcast on FTA at all. Which is the status quo.

Re Sundays: apart from a couple of lonely references to two Melbourne games (R3 and R6) being replayed on 'Monday' (sounds pretty exciting!), replays of Sunday games on C7 are notable by their absence.

Hence the conclusion: marginally worse coverage than Sydney has had for the last 5 years. Not that I think that the last 5 years have been that bad; it's just disappointing that we're now backsliding when we should be marching forward.