Joint Channel 7 & 10 bid for AFL rights.

docker · Post by **docker** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:24 pm

^^ what about NT.

sandyhill · Post by **sandyhill** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:58 pm

Now 11.6 rounds into the season, and still no happiness with the new TV deal (apart from the $$$). And ch7 is still copping it for its lacklustre effort -

League fails with split round
18 June 2007 Herald-Sun
Mike Sheahan

THE AFL still can't get the split round format right, even at its umpteenth attempt, as Mike Sheahan writes. http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/ ... 42,00.html

The first part of an elongated Round 12 provided no Saturday afternoon game anywhere in the country and no free-to-air coverage of the two Sunday games. Of the five games played, three of them were exclusive to Foxtel, one on a one-hour delay on Channel 7 and one live on the Ten network.

Next weekend, the three remaining games will be played on Friday night on delay on Seven, Saturday night live on Ten and exclusive to Foxtel on Sunday. For the second Sunday in a row there won't be a ball kicked in anger on free-to-air television.

Has the AFL taken the money and run?

If you don't have access to pay television, or can't afford it, the answer is a resounding "yes". For the second broadcast rights agreement in a row, the AFL has missed the balance between money and service to the electorate. It has failed to safeguard the interests of the supporters, contenting itself with $780 million in cash and kind, and not paying enough attention to detail.

We continue to get emails and letters from supporters in regional areas complaining about the free-to-air service. Channel 7, in particular, is savaged with increasing vigour. Seven may have paid the money, but clearly hasn't matched its investment with enthusiasm or imagination.
None of its games are live, the quality of the coverage remains mediocre and there are no support programs.

Hopefully, the AFL retained the right to review and revise at the end of the first of the five-year contract.

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:05 pm

sandyhill wrote: None of its games are live, the quality of the coverage remains mediocre and there are no support programs.

This is what annoys me the most, Seven had plenty of time after knowing they had the rights from 2007 to create ANY football related show, Ch.Nein managed to create one more to their list (now 3) and they LOST the rights

It seems Channel Seven are just content with having the rights to show the AFL and have ignored their coverage quality and any support programs, it just astounds me is all....

Waz · Post by **Waz** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:25 pm

Meanwhile, Channel Ten's Satuday night HD coverage is awesome. Finally, a wide angle shot has enough detail in it for it to be useful! Also, the 5.1 sound allows for Captain Obvious and Steven Quarterbrain to be blocked out by muting your center speaker

MissyB · Post by **MissyB** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:45 pm

For this reason i hope soccer(football) rights never go to channel 7, they seem to do a half arsed job in what ever they do and expect their reputation to get them over the line

Just proves the afl are in it all for the big bucks tho $$$$ and dont care much about the qaulity of their product
how many years does this tv deal run for?

please say one

hot_dogma · Post by **hot_dogma** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:15 am

MissyB wrote:For this reason i hope soccer(football) rights never go to channel 7, they seem to do a half arsed job in what ever they do and expect their reputation to get them over the line

If football rights ever went back to Seven there would be anarchy.

Cheesie-the-Pirate · Post by **Cheesie-the-Pirate** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:28 pm

I must admit I've quite enjoyed Channel 7's V8 Supercars coverage. I can't fault it, but then I'm not a hardcore follower of the sport. I do realise that Channel 7 more-or-less just telecast what the AVESCO people give them, but it seems good to me.

Waz · Post by **Waz** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:17 pm

Yup, just as you said, v8 supercars broadcasters are the people who shoot it all and provide all the production. All channel 7 do is air it...

sandyhill · Post by **sandyhill** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:47 pm

Ricardo wrote:
sandyhill wrote: None of its games are live, the quality of the coverage remains mediocre and there are no support programs.
This is what annoys me the most, Seven had plenty of time after knowing they had the rights from 2007 to create ANY football related show, Ch.Nein managed to create one more to their list (now 3) and they LOST the rights

It seems Channel Seven are just content with having the rights to show the AFL and have ignored their coverage quality and any support programs, it just astounds me is all....

Ch7 manager Ian Johnson has now fessed up to a few initial inadequacies

I don't know what they have in mind to take on TFS - but ironically, Ian Johnson was the original creator of TFS, and the person who lured Eddie from ch10 for the hosting role.

Seven: footy coverage improving
21 June 2007 Herald-Sun
Mike Sheahan

We got it wrong: Ian Johnson admits the network stuffed up its football coverage at the start of the season. But watch out, he has big plans, including taking on The Footy Show.

IAN Johnson concedes his television station started the football season in similar style to his team, and we all know how Melbourne floundered early on. "It's true we probably had a rocky start," Channel 7's station manager said yesterday. "Early days, we made some stuff-ups and they didn't look very good. We tried some things that didn't work, but we soon woke up to that. I took on board a lot of the criticisms, but I think it was a little bit unfair, some of it, because Seven were five years out of it; things have changed. We're getting getting better all the time. I'm very pleased with the way it's going. Really pleased . . . a lot of good innovations."

Johnson said the network had been judged harshly by comparisons of its first few weeks with the Nine Network's stylish performance in its fifth year (2006). It was always going to take a bit of time. Friday night footy now is rating higher in '07 than it did in '06. We're rapt now that, year on year, this year's (figures) are higher than last year's (after 11 rounds).

"Five or six years ago, when Seven was doing the footy, we all owned our outside broadcast equipment; we had our own outside broadcast departments. Now, those things are out-sourced, so we were given a new team. Except for the on-air talent, it was a new team, and I think they've done extremely well."

He said there could be no credible criticism of the call. "We've got the best two callers in the land, I reckon." He admitted Denis Cometti and Bruce McAvaney may have taken a little time to settle as a partnership". (the chemistry still isn't right between them) "They hadn't worked together for years and years, so they had to start getting used to each other again -- I think they're going great. Bruce said in an article recently he was really nervous; getting back into it wasn't as easy as people might think."

Johnson rated the overall presentation 8-8.5 out of 10 at the mid-season break. Up from 6.5 early in the season. It was never under a five in my mind, although there were a couple of games where we probably could have done a lot better." Commercially, the network is thrilled with the results.

Despite criticism of the often abrupt end to Sunday games (3-6 pm), it is a deliberate ploy to maximise the audience up to the critically important news service. "It's a bit of a catch-22 because it's not ideal, but this has been not an inexpensive exercise getting AFL football and we are running a business and we've got to make the most of our opportunities. "To be able to run AFL football right up to our news has seen our Sunday night news now become the No. 1 news service in Melbourne. Let's be sensible, we want the ratings to go as long as they possibly can."

Johnson said the decision to buy the rights ($780 million shared by Seven, Ten and Foxtel) had been vindicated. "Seven has never won a ratings week as a network, the five capital cities, when there has been a rugby league State-of-Origin on a Wednesday night, but we won last week. We won because of the strength of our AFL coverage on a Friday night."

Johnson is delighted with the initiatives launched this year, including Domecam and what are called the Sounds of the Game. They include the illuminating exercise when Bulldogs' runner Peter Filandia was miked up against Richmond and David Schwarz's day in the box with coach Rodney Eade in the Carlton game. Schwarz was able to inform viewers skipper Brad Johnson would start the last quarter on the bench for ignoring Jason Akermanis and taking a shot at goal, which he missed.

Johnson also defended boundary rider and former Essendon player Rick Olarenshaw, who had a nervous and testing start to the season. "One of our thoughts behind the appointment of Rick is that he is just recently out of the game, he is a physiotherapist and the players all know him. He was sh-t scared when he started, frightened like you wouldn't believe, but if you don't have a few nerves, you're not going to be any good at telly. He told me it was the most frightening time of his career (in football), worse than his first game of football; it took him 4-5 weeks to settle."

Johnson said there would be no program changes this year, but offered the possibility of a reduced delay in future. "We do have the ability to go earlier, it's our call. Obviously it's something we will address every year. This is the sixth year where it's been 8.30 on a Friday night. It's our preference at the moment to keep doing that."

Cheesie-the-Pirate · Post by **Cheesie-the-Pirate** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:07 am

I've just been watching the judgement summary from the Seven vs. the World case....

LOL@SEVEN.

They got nothing and presumably will have to bear a pretty steep set of costs.

Simmo79 · Post by **Simmo79** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:46 am

they can suffer for screwing Soccer Australia over.

sandyhill · Post by **sandyhill** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:14 pm

Perhaps the judge has had a gutfull of the crap quality of Ch7's AFL telecaste - which despite the article posted a month back, still hasn't improved.

broncos · Post by **broncos** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:01 pm

Cheesie-the-Pirate wrote:I've just been watching the judgement summary from the Seven vs. the World case....

LOL@SEVEN.

They got nothing and presumably will have to bear a pretty steep set of costs.

Something in the vicinity of 400 million dollars.

Anthony G · Post by **Anthony G** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 5:19 pm

sandyhill wrote: Johnson said the decision to buy the rights ($780 million shared by Seven, Ten and Foxtel) had been vindicated. "Seven has never won a ratings week as a network, the five capital cities, when there has been a rugby league State-of-Origin on a Wednesday night, but we won last week. We won because of the strength of our AFL coverage on a Friday night."

Im sorry, what?

Seven has never won a ratings wk (in all 5 capitals) when SOO has been on...
"We won because of the strength of out ARL coverage on a Friday night".

Does this not make sense to anyone else.
QLD DOES NOT GET a friday night game until 1130pm.
1130pm time slot = sh*t ratings in QLD and NSW
AFL = good ratings in SA, WA, VIC

SOO is only going to get good ratings in QLD and NSW and sh*t everywhere else.

Hes made it out that AFL beat SOO up here.

Chanel tens coverage is good and on at a good time
Chanel seven coverage is on at a ridiclious time and even then it isnt as good as tens. Chanel 7 practically got robbed! (from a qld perspective)

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 6:37 pm

He meant up until this year.

And if you look at the actual figures, FNF in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne generally rates much much better than the NRL does in Sydney and Brisbane, despite bloody 7 showing it on delay. eg. last Friday
WC v Dogs averaged 777,000 across the 3 major cities over 3 hours
the NRL's 2 games averaged 573,000 and 309,000 over the 2 & 2 hours it was shown. The 2nd match was thrashed by America's Top model on 10 (which averaged 441k) and beaten by Father of the Bride on 7 (which averaged 387k)

Channel 9 finished a distant 3rd for Friday.