AFANA Footy BBS

In a word...sloppy. Last year, there was only one minor error when
they aired commercial time during the pre-match festivities. This
year it was worse. They put commericals in oddest places. Before the
national anthem, after a goal, before a center bounce, during the lap
of honor. It was a mess. Many of the commercials came during the 1st
and 2nd quarter. And unlike Aussie ads, they were 5 MINUTE BLOCKS!!!
I quickly was trying to find a number to Fox Sports World. This was a
very unclassy thing. What got me was when they went to commerical
after the medal presentation, they would come back during in the
middle of the Lap of Honor. 2 minutes of that were shown to American
viewers, and right when James Hird was kissing his wife, they cut
away for good this time. Fox has indeed earned the wooden spoon of
broadcasting tonight. They obviously don't take their coverage of the
AFL seriously, and don't notice that there are lots of footy fans
across the States. Aussie Rules is treated like a second class
citizen on their schedule. So, even though it won't do any good, I
plan to write Fox Sports International in the morning. Rupert doesn't
like it when i'm angry.

Pat McCurry
Host, The Footy Plus One Show

Footy Plus One 2000

> In a word...sloppy.

Here in Kansas City, as readers of the party report I will be posting shortly will know, we didn't see the pre-match festivities. So I can't comment too much on the coverage.

> This
> year it was worse. They put commericals in oddest places. Before the
> national anthem, after a goal, before a center bounce, during the lap
> of honor. It was a mess.

We were going ballistic about the coverage ourselves, planning angry reactions. After seeing the first two scores, the following commercial block wiped out coverage of the next two scores. We got to see 2 of 4 scoring shots, and only 3 of the first seven.

However, as the game went on, we came to realize that Fox had heavily front loaded the commercial coverage. This meant we missed a lot of action early on, but late in the game there were not a lot of commercials. Alas, by this time we were primarily interested in seeing who would win the "pick the margin" pool (I personally needed five of the 21 behinds to be major scores) -- but had it been a close game, I would have been thankful.

Was it well done coverage? NO. But was it as bad as it looked like it would be in the early going? NO.

-- RW "KC Swan" Lipp

I have to agree with Pat McCurry.

I understand that commercials are a necessary evil (even on pay TV), but Fox showed a total disregard for the footy fan. Not only were the commercials shown in 5 minute blocks, but many were repeated within the same block. If Fox wanted to "front load", I would have preferred they do it in the pre-match music activities. After all, it’s supposed to be Fox SPORTS World (let’s see the sports), not Fox MUSIC World (although I DO want to hear Waltzing Matilda). If they want to put commercials within the game, probably a better way would have been to insert single commercials between a goal and the next center bounce.

I think the bottom line is that showing blocks of commercials is easier, and Fox didn’t want to go to the trouble to show them individually. After all, what is the fan going to do? Turn them off? They have the only game in town.

I wonder if Fox would have done this if it was a championship soccer match. But then, if it was soccer, would anyone care?

> I wonder if Fox would have done this if it was a championship soccer
> match. But then, if it was soccer, would anyone care?

Fox Sports World has soccer? Gee, sure fooled me. They don't advertise it enough.

Seriously though...looks like I'm not the only one who went ballistic during the opening quarter with those extended commercial blocks. One other person I was watching with suggested perhaps that the FSW people just popped in commercial tapes of whatever length without having any regard for the content.

The most upsetting moment for me was missing the national anthem...as it was happening I had my fiancee on the phone long-distance all the way from Melbourne. She couldn't believe it either.

I can't complain. I got to see the medal ceremony in it's entirety and was genuinely moved by it. Despite the first-quarter advertising debacle I would still rate the whole thing a success. Alas, it sucks watching it alone when your closest companion is on the other side of the globe.

I am sure you people will find intresting that they did the EXACT same thing on Australia's Channel 7. This is not Fox SPorts world's fault, they just took the time to give us.

How do I know may I ask? I listened to the Channel 7 audio over at www.javaradio.com Which is a place to listen to Radio, TV, Police Scanner, Shortwave, etc. transmissions from arounf the world. I went to a radio in Perth Australia and dialed in Channel 7. I did this because the AFL site's feed was too congested and my loca cable does not have fox sports world.

Many of you are not alone feeling cheated out of coverage. This message has been placed on newsgroups, bigfooty.com, and this site. There are a lot of people who are disappointed with the frontloading of ad blocks. I have e-mailed the program director at Fox Sports World, but have yet to recieve a response. They have probably recieved so many responses that they are trying to think of a catchy mass e-mail response. For people who didn't see FSWD's coverage of the GF last year won't understand why we are angry. They was no fronloading of ads and match play was shown commercial free. It wouldn't make sense why they would do that this year. The Aussie Rules fan is treated badly here. It may get worse next year if the AFL switches to a different network in Australia (Seven is concidering dropping coverage, leaving Nine in perfect position to take over). Hang on, people. The ride may get worse from here.

Pat

Footy Plus One 2000

> switches to a different network in Australia (Seven is concidering
> dropping coverage, leaving Nine in perfect position to take over). Hang
> on, people. The ride may get worse from here.

7 considering dropping the AFL - I think not! It paid A$20,000,000 for 1st & last bid rights to the next round of TV rights. 7 also built new studios at the new 'doglands' stadium to be better positioned to broadcast the footy.

It seems that we in Tassie might have had the best coverage of the AFL all year - no adds at all during any quarters of play during any live game.

> I
> have e-mailed the program director at Fox Sports World, but have yet to
> recieve a response. They have probably recieved so many responses that
> they are trying to think of a catchy mass e-mail response.

Given that the match was Friday night, I am writing this on Sunday night, and Monday is a US national holiday, they probably have no idea how much e-mail they have received.

-- RW "KC Swan" Lipp

Hi all,

Great thread here. I noticed the commercial problems. The AFL has asked for comments on how the telecast went and you can be sure they will get them.... as they will get a review of the entire season. Thanks to everyone for the feedback, both here and directly to AFANA.

Regarding the TV rights in Australia -- there is some good info in Johnson Leung's reports linked from our AFL Scores and Reports pages. AFANA is following developments closely as it will certainly impact what happens here in 2001 and 2002. We'll have a TV update on the likely 2001 coverage sometime in the next month or two.

Regards,

-Rob

AFANA AFL Scores and Reports

> We'll have a TV update on the likely 2001
> coverage sometime in the next month or two.

Any chance of getting Ansett Cup coverage in 2001?

> Any chance of getting Ansett Cup coverage in 2001?

Well, Bob, I would be doubtful. For once though, it isn't because of the willingness of US networks to show or not show footy. The AFL has not historically provided any real coverage of the Ansett Cup to overseas audiences so I don't expect any in 2001. This is not to say that a US network with more enthusiasm couldn't convince them to do so. One other point... coverage in Australia of the Ansett Cup will be cut in half in 2001 by agreement between the AFL and Seven.

Regards,

-Rob

AFANA Home Page

on the afl t.v right, the afl has expresses their intrestest in a mixed bid with channel nine and ten and the pay t.v right are with foxtel. however channel seven have the right of the last bid and they will have to match the bid and is looking doubtful that they will be able to match the bid which is 5 million dollars over 5 years. channel nine also have the rights to the stupid game of rugby leauge so when channel nine have the commitments to show the rugby into sydney and brisbane and the channel ten will show the games into those two cities.

Thanks, Nicole.
Here at AFANA, we're aware of the developments in Australia regarding the 2002 TV rights and are following it closely. However, it isn't yet completely clear how that will change international coverage of footy including in the US and Canada. We're watching the developments and staying in touch with our sources in Australia.

Regards,
Rob de Santos
AFANA Chairman

> on the afl t.v right, the afl has expresses their intrestest in a mixed
> bid with channel nine and ten and the pay t.v right are with foxtel.
> however channel seven have the right of the last bid and they will have to
> match the bid and is looking doubtful that they will be able to match the
> bid which is 5 million dollars over 5 years. channel nine also have the
> rights to the stupid game of rugby leauge so when channel nine have the
> commitments to show the rugby into sydney and brisbane and the channel ten
> will show the games into those two cities.

AFANA home page

> bid which is 5 million dollars over 5 years. channel nine also have the

Nicvole, try $500 million over 5 years

>> bid which is 5 million dollars over 5 years. channel nine also have the
> Nicvole, try $500 million over 5 years

Darn! At A$5M for 5-years, AFANA could get involved in the bidding!

-- RW "KC Swan" Lipp

>>> bid which is 5 million dollars over 5 years. channel nine also
> Darn! At A$5M for 5-years, AFANA could get involved in the bidding!

You know that has a strange sort of appeal.... imagine us controlling AFL coverage.... (even here in North America). :-)

-Rob de Santos
AFANA Chairman

AFANA home page

> >> bid which is 5 million dollars over 5 years. channel nine also
> have the

> Darn! At A$5M for 5-years, AFANA could get involved in the bidding!

> -- RW "KC Swan" Lipp

Well you could try and convince them to bid for the international rights? I don't belive they are part of the pakage/s on offer :-\

> Well you could try and convince them to bid for the international rights?
> I don't belive they are part of the pakage/s on offer :-\

The official AFL line is that international rights are not part of the "offer" but as you can read in AFANA's next TV Update (which will go out by e-mail any day now), that may not be the real story. We have reason to believe that Foxtel / News Ltd. will get those rights as part of the contract the "Consortium" will sign. The rights may not have been "on offer" but that doesn't mean you can't bid for them or buy them... :-(

-Rob de Santos
AFANA Chairman

AFANA home page

Too true! But that said anyone could bid for them. Though I don't know how a non-network/cable bidder would fair? I'd think that the AFL would want to see a broadcast schedual, then maybe not :-|

I was, btw, josh'n when I said AFANA should bid for them ;-)