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."