SEVEN SNUBS VIC FOOTY FANS
BY STEPHEN BAKER
CHANNEL Seven has decided to show the Sydney Swans versus Essendon game on a one hour delay, despite the match being played interstate.
Seven forms one half of the AFL’s TV broadcast partnership with cable TV network, Foxtel.
The network regularly screens Sunday AFL games on delay at 3pm, with the majority of games chosen for broadcast involving matches in Melbourne.
Seven has long held a policy of not broadcasting against the gate in order to maximise attendances at grounds
A statement released by the network today said that “in order to keep a consistent timeslot in our Sunday AFL programming, Channel Seven will show the Sydney-Essendon match at 3pm in Melbourne.”
League chief, Andrew Demetriou today defended the move.
“There must be a very good reason, but I suspect that it’s probably due to another commitment,” he said.
“It doesn’t happen that often. Seven’s a great broadcast partner and they’ve obviously got some legitimate reason for that.”
Seven will screen a replay of the classic 1996 preliminary final between Sydney and Essendon from 2pm.
FOOTYHEADS: Should Sydney versus Essendon be shown live into Melbourne instead of on delay?
I guess we should be thankful that Seven haven’t slotted it in at 10:30 like Lost, or like Channel 9 did with the West Wing, The Sopranos and a whole heap of ther good shows that get stuffed around.
I heard SEN saying that it was all to do with helping pump up 7’s Sunday night news ratings.
Even Demetriou can’t explain why they’re doing it.
May 16th, 2008 | #
Channel 7 are a disgrace. They’re the worst of the 3 networks broadcasting the game. Easily.
“In order to keep a consistent timeslot”….What a joke. Don’t be surprised when they get Sandy Roberts back commentating. Then it will be Ian Robertson, then Don Scott, then Drew and Macca….
May 16th, 2008 | #
Seven are just in it for the money. I get so frustrated that when they show a delayed game that they have approximately 6 commercials in between each goal, thats 3 minutes of commercials, and if you have 8 goals in a quarter, your watching almost half hour of ads alone. Ridiculous. For that reason, I don’t watch Seven broadcast matches.
May 16th, 2008 | #
Channel 7 with AFL is a disaster, I’m sick of the way they telecast. This just reminds me of why I loathed them getting it back…
I’m just thankful that while they neglect the QLD fans we can watch the game live (with their crappy commentators like the Oz…) on Fox Sports +.
May 16th, 2008 | #
Seven are an absolute joke and have not made an improvement since they began broadcasting after they won the rights!
Ridiculous that they can’t show a live game interstate. Their camera work, to the extreme lack of crowd sound and lets not forget the 10 minute break for commercials is a joke.
Maybe they like it an hour late to edit the hundreds of mistakes they make each week.
May 16th, 2008 | #
The only good thing Seven has going for them is Dennis Cometti. Great commentator being dragged down by everything around him. Bruce is terrible as usual. The only thing he has to offer is irrelevant past statistics about a player, plus his over the top excitement is disgraceful. Ox is far from being a special commentator. He must read all his comments from a book of cliches because everything that comes from his mouth is predictable and rubbish. Ricky Olerenshaw offers nothing from the boundary, except for his cringeworthy interviews with coaches during the game, which by the way is disgraceful in itself. Watson is as bad as Ox. At least Bucks is trying. That wide angle camera they use many times isn’t a new innovation by Seven, they only cut to that shot when the broadcast director buggers up and doesn’t know where to go next!
How I miss the days when I was excited about watching Friday night footy. Now I almost avoid it unless my team is playing. Give it back to Nine!
May 17th, 2008 | #
Maybe next time the AFL puts out it’s tv rights offer it will take a little less and ensure that the fans get what they want. For $780m, 7 will show the footy when they want and yesterday it was a lead in to the news.
May 19th, 2008 | #