News Archive:
Seven signs ‘Lethal’ Leigh
Former Brisbane Lions coach Leigh Matthews is joining Seven’s AFL commentary team.
Matthews, an AFL Hall of Fame inductee, resigned at the end of the season after 10 seasons and 3 premierships with the club. He will join the Seven line-up which already includes Bruce McAvaney, Dennis Cometti, Nathan Buckley and Tim Watson.
“Seven has a long and proud association with football and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my involvement with Seven over the years,” he said. “I look forward to seeing all the action and excitement of the season unfold and giving viewers an …
Looking for the magic touch
TEN’s line up for 2009 includes more factual series than ever, returning favourites and new international content. After a disappointing 2008, especially in the second half, TEN will need the magic touch to win back loyal viewers.
The network made the announcement today as part of a three day tour across the country.
Headlining the announcement is the acquisition of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Cooking show MasterChef Australia will replace Big Brother across a 7pm timeslot mid year.
Another 7pm strip show is yet to be announced.
The new locally produced factual shows include …
C7 appeal begins
Here we go again. Channel Seven has begun its appeal against the now-infamous C7 courtcase last year.
In July 2007 Justice Sackville dismissed the claim made by Seven against many of its rivals, including News Limited, Telstra, Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd and Optus, for allegedly conspiring to “kill” its pay-TV arm, C7, in a battle over broadcast rights for AFL football and rugby league.
The overlong lawsuit (it started in 2002) saw Justice Sackville rule against Seven on all counts, while severely criticising the network.
Justice Sackville labelled Seven as “far from a …
TEN wants AFL night final
The push is on again for an AFL night final. Channel TEN’s general manager of sport David White has said “I’d like to see a 5.30pm bounce.”
“They (the AFL) know we’re very keen on a twilight Grand Final,” he told news.com.au
Mr White said he preferred a 7.30pm start but believed the AFL was open to a twilight match.
An AFL spokesman said the league remained committed to a day Grand Final although CEO Andrew Demetriou has previously flagged a twilight start.
Pushing the game towards 6pm would drive the audience into primetime …
Sport to roar on TEN multi-channel
TEN looks set to launch a dedicated 24 hour sports channel as part of its multi-channelling next year, with programming tipped to include NBA basketball, US Open golf, US Masters golf, IPL Twenty20 cricket, Trans-Tasman Netball League, Formula One Grand Prix, the Nascar series, World Golf Championship events and tennis.
With sport the biggest drawcard on subscription TV, the new channel will create headaches for Fox Sports.
The Age reports that TEN execs remained tight-lipped, but enjoyed a big buy last week in Monaco at Sportel — the international trade show of …
How AFL delayed local drama
Daylight saving may be coming this weekend to most Australian states but viewers in NSW and Qld are already ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to Australian drama.
City Homicide is still screening one week ahead of Vic, SA and WA due to a repeat episode airing against the Brownlow Medal. Seven obviously didn’t want to compete against the AFL’s biggest night so it slipped the repeat quietly under the radar, leaving those states behind.
Next Monday NSW and Qld will see an episode with a killer’s links to …
New, local content wins Seven week
It was the week the “Prince of Darkness” descended upon Nine, the Imparja takeover of NTD9 inched closer, Seven lost an appeal relating to a children’s court case and lost a packet in the financial freefall, TEN signalled the return of boxing only to have its promoter caught up in a drug arrest, two networks fight over the contracts of one presenter, ACMA cancelled a community broadcasting license while a leak led to a Federal Police raid, the Government introduced a bill to firm the switch to digital, TEN turned off …
2.58m goal for Seven’s AFL
Updated: Channel Seven’s broadcast of the AFL Grand Final was the biggest television audience of the year -outside of its own Olympics coverage.
The biggest audience tuned in for the end of the game, when a whopping 2.58m viewers watched Presentations. Seven has merged its separate listings for Presentation, Post Match, Pre Match, and actual match to ascertain an average audience of 2.49m. It peaked at 3.86m across metro and regional audiences.
In Melbourne alone 1.29m viewers watched the match, followed by Sydney…
AFL Grand Final
The 2008 AFL Grand Final was greeted with perfect weather on the last day in September, as a sold out audience packed the Melbourne Cricket Ground. No doubt the game will attract one of the biggest TV audiences of the year, despite the fact that out of prime time it doesn’t factor in to weekly shares.
The AFL Pre-Match Entertainment always gets people talking, usually with lots of question marks at the end of the sentences. This year as part of the 150th Anniversary Celebrations a giant mural was rolled out onto …
AFL: Your complete Seven guide
And here is your complete guide to Seven’s AFL week for all (Seven) states including the Grand Final, AFL Game Day, The Season’s Best, Grand Final Parade, Grand Final Marathon and Sunrise.
If you can’t get your AFL fix out of this take up bocce…
Press Release:
AFL on Seven Grand Final Week
Wednesday The Season’s Best, 9.30pm, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth
Friday Sunrise from AFL Live Site, Federation Square Melbourne
6.00am, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth
Friday Grand Final Parade, 12.00pm, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth
Saturday Grand Final Marathon 12.00am Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth
Saturday North Melbourne Grand Final Breakfast
8.00am Melbourne, Sydney, …
Past Idols to hit Melbourne
It’s always a tradition for Australian Idol singers to make an appearance in Melbourne during Grand Final week, usually culminating with a performance at Federation Square (or even the game itself).
This year it’s being left to former alumni to wow the crowd. Ricki-Lee Coulter, Axle Whitehead, Dean Geyer & Jessica Mauboy will appear at Federation Square tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12pm, in a free concert.
None of the 2008 Idols are scheduled to appear (either the budget is cut back or they must be shopping for Kyle Sandilands’ wedding gift).
2007’s Natalie Gauci isn’t …
Bored rigid by lack of competition, it’s Seven.
It was the week that Seven and Nine argued over Karl Stefanovic, Grant Hackett signed with Channel Nine, ASTRA again attacked the anti-siphoning rule –prompting an hilarious “bored rigid” response from Seven, Nine denied a takeover of its Darwin affiliate by Imparja, Grant Denyer landed in hospital, a former Idol was assaulted, WIN trimmed its Queensland newsrooms, SBS said sponsors wouldn’t affect its editorial on Top Gear Australia and networks and advertisers all held their breath as the US financial market went into meltdown.
And unsurprisingly it was another win by Seven …