AFL

An official complaint has been fired Seven’s way by the AFL who are disappointed at the way the network has promoted the upcoming Ben Cousins documentary.

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has lodged a complaint regarding the promotion of Such is Life: The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins on the channel.

“I am just disappointed with the way it has been promoted,” Demetriou commented this morning.

The promotion Demetriou is regarding to shows Cousins stating he is a drug addict and scenes showing the AFL player dancing while he is apparently on some form of substance.

“I think the Seven Network has been pretty ordinary with the way they have put it up on their ads, in Packed for the Rafters, which is a family program,” Demetriou said.

“They certainly did that without our knowledge. They were supposed to work with us in the way it was going to be promoted.

“I found that pretty distasteful.

“We have (complained to Seven), but they are all about ratings and exploitation.”

Talkback radio has also received complaints from family members of drug victims.

Source: The Age

5.00pm – 6.00pm (AEST): NATIONAL WEEKEND NEWS BULLETIN
*4.30pm in South Australia and 3.00pm in Western Australia*

Presented by Natarsha Belling with Paul Bongiorno in Sydney, this one hour national bulletin will cross live to Ten’s Senior Political Reporter Hugh Riminton in the tally room as well as a myriad of reporters live from key seats across the nation including Deborah Knight in Bennelong, Bill McDonald in Griffith, Gerard Scholten in Melbourne, Allan Murrell in Sturt and Tamara Akers in Perth.

Sandra Sully will be reporting live from Liberal headquarters with Tony Abbott, while Helen Kapalos will be in Melbourne at Labor headquarters with Julia Gillard.

6.00pm – 6.30pm (AEST): NATIONAL ELECTION SPECIAL
*5.30pm in South Australia and 4.00pm in Western Australia*

Hosted by Bill Woods and Paul Bongiorno in Sydney, TEN will continue its election coverage with live crosses to Hugh Riminton in the tally room as well as a myriad of reporters live from key seats across the nation.

6.30pm – 7.30pm (AEST): THE ELECTION PROJECT
*6.00pm – 6.30pm in South Australia only and 4.30pm in Western Australia*

Join Charlie Pickering, Carrie Bickmore, Dave Hughes and George Negus at their usual 7PM desk for The Election Project. Putting their unique spin on the election coverage, The Election Project will include live crosses to Scott Dooley at the Liberal headquarters in Sydney, Tom Gleeson at the Labor headquarters in Melbourne, Mitch Grady in Brisbane, Julian Schiller in Adelaide and Sam Mac in Perth.

The panel will also cross live to Hugh Riminton in the tally room and will utilise the resources of the Ten News division to bring you the latest from around the country.

7.30pm – 10.30pm (AEST): 2010 AFL PREMIERSHIP with special election updates throughout to keep abreast of the latest election news.
Sydney – Sydney Swans v Western Bulldogs
Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide (6.30pm) and Perth (5.30pm) – Collingwood v Adelaide Crows

10.30pm (AEST): TEN LATE NEWS – ELECTION WRAP-UP
*10.00pm in South Australia and 8.30pm in Western Australia*

Hosted by Bill Woods and Paul Bongiorno, this Ten Late News special will provide a comprehensive wrap up of all the key election results including continued coverage from Hugh Riminton in the tally room, Sandra Sully at Liberal headquarters and Helen Kapalos at Labor headquarters.

2:00pm – Sunday, August 8 on Seven

Both teams have generated real improvement and excitement for their fans in 2010. The Demons will fancy its chances after accounting for the Tigers in Round 4, but the Tigers have been a different prospect in the second half this year.

PLEASE NOTE: Airs at this time in Sydney and Brisbane only. Check local guides for details.

Begins Sat 7 Aug, LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on FOX SPORTS 1HD & FOX SPORTS 1
 
Nth Melbourne v Fremantle, Sat 7 Aug, 2pm AEST
West Coast v Brisbane, Sat 7 Aug, 7.30pm AEST
St Kilda v Port Adelaide, Sun 8 Aug, 1pm AEST
Adelaide v Western Bulldogs, Sun 8 Aug, 4.30pm AEST

11:30pm – Friday, August 6 on Seven

Essendon has beaten top four sides in 2010 but dropped games to lowly-placed teams. The Bombers have the wood on the Blues beating them in their last six clashes. Can Brett Ratten’s Blues break the drought on the big stage of Friday Night Football at the MCG?

PLEASE NOTE: Airs at this time in Sydney and Brisbane only. Check local guides for details.

2:00pm – Sunday, August 1 on Seven

North Melbourne has again defied the critics in 2010 to remain in finals contention, while the Bulldogs are still challenging for a top four spot and the coveted double chance. North will need to prove the pundits wrong again to deliver another upset.

PLEASE NOTE: Airs at this time in Sydney and Brisbane only. Check local guides for details.

Begins Sat 31 Jul, LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on FOX SPORTS 1HD & FOX SPORTS 1

Port Adelaide v Hawthorn, Sat 31 Jul, 3pm AEST

Brisbane v Melbourne, Sat 31 Jul, 7pm AEST

Richmond v Adelaide, Sun 1 Aug, 1pm AEST

Fremantle v West Coast, Sun 1 Aug, 4.30pm AEST

11:30pm – Friday, July 30 on Seven

The Bombers have narrowly beaten the Saints in their last two clashes and are the only team to beat St Kilda twice in the last two seasons, proving the Saints defensive supremacy can be penetrated with fast running attacking play. But Essendon will need to be at its best again to beat one of the 2010 flag favourites. It promises to be another tight Friday Night Football tussle from Etihad Stadium.

PLEASE NOTE: Airs at this time in Sydney and Brisbane only. Check local guides for details.

Communications Minister Senator Conroy has met with executives of the three free to air commercial television networks to discuss up and coming changes to anti-siphoning laws which govern the ability of free to air networks to use their secondary digital channels to show sporting events before they are shown on the main channel.

The networks’ ability to use their digital channels for sports coverage instead of their main channel would allow them to be more flexible in sporting coverage allowing for normal programming on their main channel with sport continuing on other digital channels. It could also allow for AFL and NRL matches to be carried live into their opposing market while shown live on the main channel in their respective core markets.

The impact, however, would have the most likely effect of reducing the availability of events to Foxtel as the free to air networks would suddenly have more channels they can present sport on. For this reason, a decision in relation to anti-siphoning will not be made until after the August 21 federal election so as to avoid a backlash from Foxtel and other parts of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

The lack of a decision either way is impacting on negotiations of the 2012-2016 AFL broadcast rights deal which currently are on hold as a result. The NRL broadcast rights for 2013-2017 are also in discussion with Nine having a 90 day lead time over any other network to negotiate the deal.

The possibility of all three commercial free to air networks having another digital channel available in the next 12 months has been raised. With ABC now offering four distinct channels, there is no reason why technically the other networks couldn’t either although the likely consequence under the current system would be poorer quality over existing high definition and standard definition channels due to bandwidth constraints.

The potential result would be for more sport on free to air television which would benefit viewers but put pay TV providers on the back foot as free to air would be able to show more events at the same time over more channels.

As the analogue switch off roles across the country over the next few years, with everyone being 100% digital by the end of 2013, the concept of anti-siphoning over free to air digital channels no longer makes sense. The outcome of current discussions, however could be impacted by a change of government should the coalition win the August 21 election.

Sources: The Age, SMH, TVT

So who controls what – sport controls what we see on TV or TV controls when we see sport?

The AFL TV broadcast rights for 2012-2016 are under negotiation, and said to be worth a billion dollars. All three free to air commercial networks and Foxtel are engaged in the negotiations with the likely outcome to see AFL carried over two free to air networks with coverage on Foxtel as well like it is now.

Games that start at 2.10 on weekends and public holidays are likely to be moved back to a 3pm start so that the game leads straight into the 6pm news for the networks, without the network having to delay coverage. Nine delays its coverage of Sunday afternoon NRL games by one hour so they lead directly into their 6pm news in Sydney and Brisbane.

With extra teams in the competition from 2012, there will need to be one extra game per week, almost likely to be held on Monday nights. The AFL have, in recent years, experimented with both Monday night and Thursday night AFL games. Meanwhile, the NRL have held Monday night games for some time now, but with low attendance figures and games only available on Pay TV, the clubs are questioning their value.

Monday night AFL would certainly prove an interesting dilemma for the network that broadcasts it – we would end up with regular programming in some markets and sports in others. While AFL on Monday night would probably rate well, the network who runs it would have to be weary not to kill those overall ratings by having poor programming in the markets not showing the AFL live. While they can get away with this on weekend nights (when AFL is on Seven on Friday nights, the NRL markets have movies on), Monday night would be a completely different story.

As part of Nine’s bid to be part of the AFL rights, they are promising games on Friday night to be live – like they already do for one of the NRL games. Interestingly, if Nine had both the NRL and AFL, Friday night would see both codes on at the same times in their respective markets and would provide the network with a guaranteed ratings boost. Currently Seven delay Friday night football opting to show Better Homes and Gardens at 7.30 instead.

Potential changes to anti-siphoning laws could see networks use their digital channels to provide AFL coverage at times when normal programming would otherwise be airing as well as using these channels to air games live in the opposing market.

With an election looming, and changes to media laws imminent but on hold, negotiations for 2012-2016 AFL TV rights are also on hold pending outcomes.

Source: TSR, The Age.