SBS at risk of losing Tour Down Under

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Stuart
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Postby Stuart » 03 Nov 2011, 08:56

http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2011/11/sbs ... ent-292962

IMO giving the TDU or any cycling coverage to channel Nine would be a backward step for cycling promotion in Australia. I know they'd just take the same commentary from Phil & Paul but can you imagine Ray Warren or the anti-cycling mungo Phil Gould or some ex-swimmer doing the pre & post race stuff? No more commentators who actually cycle like Thommo & Tan do. SBS have spent years supporting and nurturing cycling in Australia - look at how Nine buried and butchered the Rugby World Cup in order to protect Rugby League from competition. Will the TDU end up being replayed late at night or packaged into half hour highlights slots? It may also mean that regional centres miss out on the broadcast altogether as Nine is not a truly national broadcaster like SBS.

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weiyun
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Postby weiyun » 03 Nov 2011, 09:38

That'd be pathetic!

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marc2131
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Postby marc2131 » 03 Nov 2011, 13:20

Not to mention the over the top number of ad breaks

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weiyun
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Postby weiyun » 03 Nov 2011, 15:50

Not to mention the over the top number of ad breaks
I think Ch 9 prefers short interval repeats while SBS targes 20min endurance intervals.

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T-Bone
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Postby T-Bone » 03 Nov 2011, 21:09

If it was ONE rather than 9 it wouldn't be so bad. ONE did quite a good job with cycling last year.

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Stuart
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Postby Stuart » 04 Nov 2011, 07:50

I agree that ONE would be a better option than Nine but since Murdoch got on the board of Ten he's not buying any more Sport as it competes with daddies paytv channels too much. I'd still prefer to see it stay on SBS.

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Postby timyone » 05 Nov 2011, 14:54

yeah, ONE would be better, nine would odds on not put as much coverage in, if they promised to show it all, I wouldn't mind

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Stretch
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Postby Stretch » 07 Nov 2011, 17:14

I believe that there's some crazy allocation of sports events in Oz where SBS and the ABC only get the coverage if the full commercial stations decline. (terms of the broadcast licence or something)

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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 07 Nov 2011, 20:47

Doesn't it boil down to money?

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weiyun
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Postby weiyun » 07 Nov 2011, 20:55

Doesn't it boil down to money?
Should it be all down to money?

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Postby Chris96 » 11 Nov 2011, 16:37

We can now confirm that the Tour Down under will not be broadcast on SBS in 2012. All the best to its new broadcast partner Channel 9.
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weiyun
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Postby weiyun » 11 Nov 2011, 18:38

Oh well, money speak. Now we'll see how the fans speak. Probably not much. :(

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T-Bone
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Postby T-Bone » 12 Nov 2011, 14:13

We just have to wait and see what channel 9 do...

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Stuart
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Postby Stuart » 12 Nov 2011, 17:49

As suspected, only two live stages and the host is a league commentator - I'm sure he knows all about cycling, like his broadcaster mate on the league who blamed cyclists for him being late to the studio and said they should be run over / get off the road (can't find the quote on-line - have been looking for ages). On SBS all the stages were live. Organisers claim this will help them reach a 'wider audience' - I say bollocks to that, regular watchers of channel nine wouldn't give a crap about cycling. This is a backward step and nine will butcher it.

Lets all watch it on Versus instead.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-11/t ... tion=sport

'The Nine Network will broadcast the final two stages LIVE and cover the Down Under Classic and the first four stages via a daily highlights package on Nine. There will also be a dedicated page for the event on the Wide World of Sports website'.

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weiyun
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Postby weiyun » 12 Nov 2011, 17:55

As suspected, only two live stages and the host is a league commentator... I say bollocks to that, regular watchers of channel nine wouldn't give a crap about cycling.
All pretty disappointing. But,

1) Maybe Ch9's regular audience can relate to that league commentator better.
2) Brain dead Ch9 zombies will get force fed by the little bit cycling broadcast and swallow.

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T-Bone
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Postby T-Bone » 12 Nov 2011, 19:57

At least we'll still have Liggett and Sherwin, though i'm not sure how many ads will be interrupting them.

There could be some positives coming from this if SBS have sparefunds now and can broadcast some more of the big classics, and week long tours. Though having to watch the live stages from some other source isn't a positive, and that ABC article reminded me that we have to wait and see how many swimmers we have to watch standing around when the Olympic cycling is on.


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