Australian Football Association of North America

I don't know why they made the change but from the info I have it looks as if the feed start was pushed back to 1:00 AM EDT and that meant they could no longer get it in the window they had.  I can inquire to be sure but honestly, it seems like a small (granted, an annoying) issue.  We posted the schedule change on Wednesday the 21st when we received it.   We've received several e-mails about it.  The Collingwood v Geelong match is the only logical fill in they can use at that point in time.  (What else should they do? they have only aired that one match this round so far).

Schedules do not represent "guarantees" much as we'd all like them to.  I can further speculate why the change was made, it might be a technical issue with the feed (remember, they don't originate these programs) or a problem at the source network or any of a dozen things including multiple feeds they have to take at that hour or many other things. 

Setanta is better about this than previous networks ever were. If, over the course of 22 rounds, 4 weeks of preseason, and 4 weeks of finals, they do this just 3 or so times, I’m happy. If this was a critical match late in the year, I would be on them about it. Right now, I might find it annoying but I can’t be too critical.  If it became a weekly habit, I'd waste no time is raising the issue with Setanta and the AFL.

In the days when we got one hour of highlights a week and ESPN moved it 2 hours before for silly reasons, I justifiably criticized them for it. So, with perspective, this is 1.5 on a 1 to 5 scale with 5 being sc**wing up the Grand Final.

-Rob
AFANA Chairman and Site Admin

Unfortunately, there isn't a special link for Setanta Broadband at this time.  If you click from this web site though that helps as they will know we were the referring site. 

Cheers,

-Rob
AFANA Chairman and Site Admin

Hi Travis,

No, we don't know but in the near term I suspect that is unlikely since I don't think they have "perpetual" rights to the matches beyond the current calendar year or the life of the contract.  It is possible that in the off season you might see repeats of matches from the current or very recent times.   They don't have access or rights to video of the period prior to their first AFL coverage in 2006 and I am not aware of any intention on their part to seek such rights.

As noted elsewhere in this comment thread, the AFL has an exclusive deal with Telstra to produce their web site and distribute video thru that site and no other web site is permitted to do it.  This precludes AFANA and Setanta from offering such live or delayed video.  Setanta Broadband uses a loophole that exists in this.  They "relay" the broadcast channel and as long as they do so and limit access to subscribers they are OK.  The Telstra deal runs thru 2011.  We also have a TV FAQ question and answer on this topic.

-Rob
AFANA Chairman and Site Admin

Hi ovalball,

Thanks for the post and a few points: 

1.  The article clearly says that the schedule will be the same as Setanta USA.  That means whenever the matches are on the satellite distributed channels they will be on broadband.  And live matches, because the originating network in Australia times them for domestic audiences, are therefore on during the night on the US east coast.  So, it goes without saying that if that is a disadvantage for you on Setanta USA or Canada, it will be true for Broadband, too. 

2.  AFANA thinks this is a very positive development.  We realize that it doesn't meet the needs of every fan in every situation.  You only have to read the posts we have elsewhere to understand that we are working with Setanta to see they get wider distribution.  However, if you want live coverage (and our fan surveys from 1996 onwards said that was the number one priority of footy fans) then you have to live with the time issues.  The solution for us would be for Setanta to retime the repeats.

3.  There are lots of ways to capture the video including feeding it from your PC to your TV and then capturing it.  That's not trivial technically but I bet there are fans here working at it right now. 

4.  As our TV FAQ said (before being revised for this development), the issue with video via Setanta Broadband or ESPN360 or similiar services was (and still is) the exclusivity clause that Telstra Bigpond has on AFL video via the net.  The loophole that made ITVN possible was that it was a relay of the  "broadcast" channel.  With the demise of ITVN, I assume that provided the same opening for Setanta -- so long as it was a "relay of the broadcast" channel.  And that brings us back to the first point above.  AFANA is always working with the AFL and it's TV partners to make the footy more available.  While we can't take credit for this development, I am sure our discussions over time didn't hurt.

Hope this clarifies the situation for everyone. 

Looks like this is my alternative now, and not a bad one....but wondering if anyone has experienced a comparison between the Setanta stream and the old ITVN one?   Swans500.