Following earlier speculation, Eddie McGuire has been confirmed as a Foxtel AFL recruit, in a deal which sees him shared with Nine.
He will host his own football show on FOX Sports and will call at least a game a week, but none involving Collingwood.
He will continue to host Hot Seat for Nine and other major events, such as the Olympics, for Nine.
“I’ve been very lucky in that David Gyngell and Jeff Browne thought that it was a great idea … and ultimately we were able to pull it together,” he told the Herald Sun.
“I think I’m the first person to sign with two networks at once.”
Apologies to Molly Meldrum who has been with Foxtel and Seven for several years…
Both McGuire and Foxtel have clearly moved on from the stoush that went on during the Vancouver Olympics when Foxtel boasted broadcasting a Gold Medal ceremony for Torah Bright while Nine was running ads for Woolworths.
At the time Foxtel said: “This follows a disastrous 48 hours for the free-to-air network after hosts Eddie McGuire and Mick Molloy made homophobic comments about two US ice skaters. These comments have now hit America’s second largest website Yahoo! Sport while the “Eddie McGuire is Ruining the 2010 Winter Olympics coverage” Facebook site now totals 3,340 fans – one thousand more than five hours ago.”
Guess a lot of ice has flowed under the bridge since then.
Former Hawthorn player Dermott Brereton is also expected to join Foxtel.
The FOX Footy channel will launch on February 17 for the opening round of the NAB Cup.
Can not stand the man big turn off. The guy is soooo up himself. Bad moove foxtel . I will not be watching if he is on. Go saints
It will be Bill yes.Just found out last night about that.Originally they said it will be called Fox Sports AFL but they must have changed there minds.GoCats!
@Craig(Buzz) – the channel will be called ‘Fox Footy’
Can’t wait ’till 17 February with the return of Fox Footy
he is better than a lot of commentators on tv. i wish he never left the footy show. it has gone down hill ever since he left
Hi Jimmy……Won’t be a relaunch because the original name unfortunately is not suitable anymore after other codes once again stole our word we had been using we are now known to be as AFL Football with the new station being called Fox Sports AFL.Be great to hear Eddie calling,Good stuff
@ Jake….Hot Seat a flop? What rock you been hiding under? I’m South Aussie and don’t actually mind Eddie. Wish it was February 2012 already
Correction, Jake. Eddie has had several top rating quiz shows, including ‘ Who wants to be a millionaire’. Hot Seat currently wins it’s time slot as well. And by the way, I also can’t stand watching his shows, but credit where credit’s due.
I knew there would be a downside to Foxtel getting all the games! Eddie commentating… no thanks!
Eddie is totally over rated!!! No wonder his game shows are all flops!!! I refuse to watch anything that he is in!!!!
The FOX Footy channel was first broadcast from 2002 to 2006, I have seen the new logo for this channel & it looks good, a bit like the FOX Sports logo, Dermott Brereton would be another good signing for Foxtel as well.
@Ryano
Seven are actually going to Love this. They have been wanting to get a hold of Eddie in the past. They actually said it live one night when they spoke to him a couple of years back if you remember. They joked about it. So the fact the games involving certain teams that will be aired in their own markets means its a win in a way. The thing is though Nine and Foxtel are practically sleeping together as they own part of both networks so it was only a matter of time something like this happened. Eddie got his way i guess. He gets to cover AFL and he doesn’t need Nine to do it.
I think he is good at commentating but not anything else. lol
I presume Channel 7 wont be too happy about this, since some non-Victorian 7 stations will be taking the Fox Sports commentary feed throughout the season.
Eg Carlton V Fremantle game on Foxtel (possibly commentated by Eddie) shown live on Channel 7 Perth.
I’m confused. Does this mean that we will have to combine the AFL and NRL ratings now?
How does Eddie get likes on Facebook in the first place
Don’t you mean relaunch? I remember ages ago there was a fox footy channel