Aussie fans - should free TV be banned from covering sport?

When it comes to their efforts in the sporting arena...

On Channel Nine, it's all about the commentary team, not the game.

On Channel Seven, it's mostly about the other shows on the network, and occasionally about the game, but you mightn't see all the action.

On Channel Ten, it's more likely to be about the game, but hardly ever live, and with a bunch of tosspots in the commentary box talking more crap than the entire subi contingent on this forum combined.

On the ABC, it's sport, but usually competitions nobody's interested in or heard of. (Please note, this only refers to ABC TV, most of the radio sport is first class.)

On SBS, it's soccer. And occasionally cycling. And even less frequently cricket, but Mod knows what commentary team they'll have with C4 not doing the host broadcast. At least that smug git Jones has left SBS and gone to Fox.

But on Pay TV, the sports coverage is, funnily enough, all about the sport being covered. Sure there are programs which deal in inanities (The Back Page, anyone?) but the coverage is almost always live, and almost always uninterrupted.

So should free TV just be told to hand over the keys, or at least be made to compete for the rights on the open market?

Meh. Proper coverage is available for those who want to pay, and there's still some free stuff, though of a far lower quality, for those who can't afford or choose not to have pay TV.

However, I do think Channel 9 should be ferociously fined every time Tony Greig or Ian Chappell open their mouths audibly.

Proper coverage is available for those who want to pay,

I take it then that you didn't watch seven's abortionate coverage of the Olympics, or the cringeworthy guff they've been running in the lead up to the AFL Grand Final this morning... No Pay TV equivalent. More's the pity.

You're right, I listened to the Olympics on radio, and I won't be turning the TV on until the game starts.

Well Seven just dished up Neal Kearney 'interviewing' a five-year-old Geelong fan, and got her to sing the club song.

Great viewing.

Red Symonds once said that children who sing on TV should be shot. Never seen anything that's disproved that.

Aye, there was a time when people called Red could be relied on to say sage things.

Anyway, I'm off to throw things at the TV until the game starts. Good luck this arvo.

Thanks mate, I'll be a quivering mess until a) the game is over, if we get over the line; or b) I turn the TV off in disgust if we choke (again).

I do like Ray Warren.

I wouldn't mind if everything was on cable. We could have minimal ads and we wouldn't be treated with contempt by networks who like to screen the sport around the other rubbish they show. And of course they constantly subject us to previews of said rubbish between goals or wickets, not to mention actually having it as rolling adverts on the bottom of the screen while the action is taking place.

I wouldn't mind either, but I can't live without my Foxtel.

But I'm mindful of others that chose not to or can't afford to have Foxy. I think you've got to have the mainstream Aussie sports on free-to-air. Cricket, AFL, Leeg, Olypmics, at least.

He's a decent caller surrounded by farkwits unfortunately. Aliens could come to this planet, watch their first channel 9 call of an NRL game and know instantly where the commentators loyalties lay.

Greenpeace should really tow Phil Gould out to sea, prferably in an area where the Japs are.

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Sagacity from qm3.

Red wrote:I wouldn't mind if everything was on cable.

You have cable in Aus?

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We do. Is that just a dumb question or a lame attempt at a Hicksville barb?

We get Fox/Optus on both cable and via satellite.