Football, Fox and Free-to-air coverage.
Enjoying the growth of football?
Loved the Women's World Cup on SBS?
Imagine if the Socceroos Uruguay had only been shown on Fox.
That will happen for all the 2010 men's qualifiers starting in February.
And wouldn't the A-League crowds have doubled if the games were on FTA. I think so.
It's was a big issue when the Fox deal was signed.
And it's only going to get bigger.
You can hear football blog Hamish Alcorn discussing his concerns as a father of a twelve year old boy on this weeks podcast out on Thursday.
4 comments:
I agree internationals should be on FTA, but A-League?
Surely if every A-League game was broadcast live on free to air it would see a dip in crowds, especially among the 'mum and dad, non committed' fans.
Who's gonna drop $100 to take the family out to the football when you could watch it for free in your lounge room?
fair point John, but maybe wider coverage of A-League would actually build interest and knowledge about the league.
just wonder if many football fans are struggling to get A-League news if they don't have Fox
mayb it's just becasue I live in Canberra:)
I think the ideal solution would be to have a regular one hour A-League highlights on free to air. Would increase interest among general public, but wouldn't have a negative impact on attendances.
Eamonn,
I have this discussion with people all the time. This issue gets raised everytime the socceroos play.
The reason why the socceroos are not on FTA is because they are not on the Gvernments Anti-siphoning lists.
The anti-siphoning scheme is designed to ensure that events of national significance and cultural importance which have traditionally been available on free-to-air television, will continue to be available for free to air broadcasters to acquire.
The reason the government gives is that Football/Soccer is not important cultrally as the other sports.
It's up to people like you Eamonn who write for papers like the Canberra times to put this issue into the public debate. Every other sport has a presence on free to air except Football.
John O'Neill did his best work for Rugby while he worked at the FFA, he hid Football biggest asset the Socceroos on pay TV, while the Wallabies are front and centre on FTA.
When the Socceroos try and qualify for the 2010 world cup the whole nation will not be behind the team, only those that can aford Foxtel will. That is not what football is about.
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