Rob's Thoughts

Preliminary Survey Results, Part II

This time I want to concentrate on the opinions fans offered about the programs.  Before I do, I want to make an observation in relation to an article that appeared in the USA Today newspaper yesterday.  It points up again how critical fans are to the future growth of a sport.  This time it's baseball.  Footy would be well advised to consider the care and cultivation of fans if it wants a future in the USA and Canada.

One of our goals in asking for fans to react to particular statements regarding the programs was to get a better idea of what you consider to be important and what you like and dislike about the programs.  This is important in determining what issues AFANA raises with the AFL and what direction we seek to have the programs go in future seasons.   Here are a few of things you told us:

• Fans, by a slight margin agree that some clubs are featured too often.  
  
• The original commentators are strongly preferred while a slight majority disagreed with the statement that the highlights should have voice over to explain footy to new fans.  These results confirm our sense that the voice over, which was dropped before this season, was not well received.
  
• Somewhat to our surprise, a majority of fans like the idea that the weekly wrap and Top 10 are in both the highlights and the match of the week.  The ones that disagreed though, do so strongly.  
  
• A majority of fans felt that the programs are not scheduled at convenient times and even more felt that they are not repeated often enough.  A slight majority now feel they are on at predictable times however and that the schedule doesn't change too often.
  
• Fans were evenly split on the issue of whether the shows help new fans learn the sport suggesting that work needs to be done in this area if that is a goal of the AFL (and we don't know what the AFL goals are...).
  
• The most stunning result of the survey is that contrary to the assumptions of many, respondents disagreed more strongly with the statement  "there is too much emphasis on violence in the telecasts" than with any other item in the survey.  Clearly most of you don't feel there is excessive violence in the programs which suggests that this is not an issue except to some leaders of footy in this country.
  
• Fans by a slight majority do not feel the programs are too chopped up.  This is a major shift from earlier surveys.
  
• A strong majority of fans felt that the would be willing to risk missing a round or two of the programs if it meant getting the programs on the air earlier than six days after the matches take place.  By contrast however, when asked if you would be willing to wait another day if that meant better match selection, a majority agreed with that.  Fans by a similar majority agreed that better matches could be chosen.  This will require more research and continued trade-offs since these results are contradictory.
  
• A slight majority of fans felt that the network on which they watched the programs did a good job and that the programs were better this year than last year.
  
• Slightly less than half of fans tape the programs weekly.
  
• The strongest majority in the survey agreed with the statement that the programs needed to be on a channel that was easier to get.
  
• Overall the programs got a mildly positive reaction from most fans.
  

What conclusions can we draw from the results above?  In general fans want fewer changes in the content of the programs than in the past and more changes in the scheduling and distribution.  The conflict between how quickly we see the programs and how the matches are selected is significant and continuing.  

'till next time.
-Rob