Ollyroos fans kick Seven plans
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
The Seven Network is already attracting the ire of Olympic football fans over its plans to limit broadcasting of the Ollyroos games.
Seven is reserving its option to screen Ollyroos games, while all other football matches are expected to wind up on SBS.
Seven will screen the Australia v Serbia match on Thursday August 7 in a two hour delayed telecast, interrupting it to cross to an AOC flag bearing announcement.
But fan club The Green And Gold Army yesterday issued a press release claiming Seven had “turned the screws on the Olyroos”.
Of another match it said, “We anticipate it to be the country’s biggest competition game since the World Cup in Germany and Seven have said that they’re cutting away in the last 15 minutes to cover another event – it’s just a kick in the guts for fans.”
A Seven spokesperson defended, “The nature of any Olympics is such that no way is it possible to be able to show uninterrupted coverage of all events.”
According to fourfourtwo.com a Seven employee contacted them within five minutes of the release being sent out to claim inaccuracies in it and threaten legal action against them.
Elsewhere, fans across the country are mobilising across the internet with Facebook groups being set up and emails sent by A-League supporter groups to Seven and the FFA.
Some fans argue that Seven should use its High Definition channel to show Ollyroo games live and uninterrupted rather than just partial coverage on its regular channel.
Source: fourfourtwo.com
2 Responses
If football (soccer) fans feel they are badly treated by Channel Seven, wait until 2012 when Nine and Foxtel jointly hold the rights to the London Olympic Games. If the Olyroos qualify for the Olympics, I think their matches will be shown on Nine’s digital channels (not the main channel) or even Foxtel.
Was thinking about buying ztivo but maybe not