Football on Free-To-Air? No thanks

Football on the rise? A-League booming, Socceroos in town, watch the Free-To-Air Channels start to sniff around.

Hate to say it, but Football on Free-To-Air in Australia. No thanks!

The A-League is booming, even if it's only on Fox Sport. Australia's favourite national team the Socceroos are about to start their World Cup Qualification campaign, a campaign which can only be seen on Fox.

Of course for the game to grow we need Free-To-Air coverage, but I for one hope we never get it, ever!

Australian Sports fans are, so they say, some of the most passionate in the world. And you just have to look at the crowd averages for AFL for proof.

Record crowds this season in Queensland, Adelaide, Gosford and even Sydney. Yes Sydney FC pulled in over 33,000 yesterday.

All this after just three years of the new league.

The Socceroos have sold 44,000 to see the World Cup Qualifier against Qatar on Feb 6th. But of course any national team in any code from Qatar always pulls a crowd in Australia!

And slowly you can feel the free-to-air channels like 7, 9 and 10 looking enviously at their friends from Fox Sports.

Why wouldn't they?

The Socceroos campaigns for World Cup Qualification are about to start. Midweek games to fill up the TV Channels. What could be better?

The A-League continues to gain more viewers at the grounds (Crowd averages for League and Football are around about the same, 16,000 v 15,000 per game) and on TV, (The A-League ratings have already surpassed the Super 14 Union tournament which is over ten years old).

And so FTA will come knocking.

But, with the exception of Fox Sports, why do the fans have to put up with such shocking TV coverage from Channel 7,9 and 10 the major FTA sports broadcasters?


For years codes in League, AFL and even cricket are stumped with adverts all over the ground and screen. Cut to the news early? Never mind that. What about the games that go for over three hours on TV due to delayed coverage and an increasing number of adverts. Adverts after a try in League or a goal in AFL are tedious and ruin the TV fans experience. And of course the commentary , generally, is biased, jingoistic and lacks scrutiny. (Commonwealth and Olympic games fans can attest.). And the commitment to sport is weak. Oh yes we all love Tennis...this week, but pity the poor tennis fans for the other 50 weeks!

Australian Sports fans have been cheated for years by some of the worst sports coverage in the world.

Channel 9, Sports Leader? Don't make me laugh.

So if a successful A-League means football coverage moves to Free-To-Air, let's hope we don't grow any further!