Viewers hit tennis volleys at Seven
Just 3 days in and Tennis fans around the country are already making their feelings known about Seven's coverage of the Australian Open.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Last year viewers outside of Sydney and Melbourne were slamming Channel Seven for their coverage of the Australian Open, notably for delaying evening sessions to fit with its evening schedules.
Just 3 days into the 2010 tournament and the complaints have already started.
On Yahoo messageboards there is feedback (and that’s about the nicest thing you can call it) with posts on:
– Why is the Open not live tonight in Qld?
– Channel 7 has 0 idea how to show tennis.
– Get rid of Courier.
– Who do we complain too about 7?
– Delaying a National Sporting Event.
– Why doesn’t Seven show more live Tennis?
– Sack Jim Courier And Tracey Austin.
– Criticise 7 and risk being banned.
– Unacceptable Advertising.
– Too much tennis ! Stop now !
Additional messages have begun on Seven’s messageboard.
It isn’t a landslide yet, but Seven will be fortunate if it doesn’t gather momentum across the Open.
One viewer generously offered a thread: “Excellent Coverage- Thankyou Channel 7.”
TV Tonight has also been receiving complaints and questions, mostly regarding delayed broadcasts. They are particularly frustrated that there are viewers overseas watching the matches live when they are up to 3 hours late in Perth.
The issue of not using 7TWO for additional coverage relates to the limitations of the Anti-Siphoning List. It is currently under review by the government.
In 2009 SCTV in Darwin finally buckled to angry viewers and abolished its 1.5hr delay in the closing days of the tournament. At the time Seven declined to start evening sessions earlier in some states because it would be interrupted by Seven News, Today Tonight and Home and Away. “Because our viewers want to watch the entire match. That’s the reason why we do it like that. That’s what the feedback tells us,” a spokesperson said last year.
Current scheduling would suggest it hasn’t wavered from that position 12 months on.
FOX Sports advised TV Tonight it was unable to come to terms with Seven on an agreement to share the 2010 rights this year.
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- Tagged with Australian Open, Home and Away, Seven News, Today Tonight
88 Responses
In terms of the commentators, I think Jim Courier’s fine.
Easily the worst part of the commentary is the cross-promotions of other shows. Sandy Roberts is one of the worst culprits here. “Alicia Molik looks almost as nervous as she did on Dancing with the Statrs” (or something to that effect.) That’s what ruins the coverage for me.
@Guy who thinks 7 cover sports well
Did you miss the Olympics where 7 had delayed coverage of Aussies winning Gold because they were showing other rubbish?
That happened with Steve Hooker and Matthew Mitcham.
I think these are the consequences when some of these FTA channels become Over-commercialized. Well, of course they need to show commercials, but not to the point where you make viewers become sick of looking at them.
Do you know that it takes like 20 mins (ads ads and more ads) after a match is completed before Channel 7 is finally willing to move on to the other match? I mean, this is preposterous. 20 mins of non stop ads, if you’re not sick of it then you must be the one of the most patient people in the world!
I think Nine actually did a better job for its Wimbledon coverage last year when what is Channel 7 is giving us now. How awful is that? Australian Open is the home slam yet the quality of the coverage is down to the drain.
And Channel 7 seems to have some really stupid reasons to defend the criticism which is almost laughable.
And to add fuel to the debate.
7Two is now delaying the start of 24 because of the Tennis on 7
please think for yourselves, not all of us like the teniis so we turn over to other chns. David would be good to see ratings for that period!! when they are available
Very harsh by alot of you.The tennis is live,in Victoria but people in other states have different time zones so when you get to see it.It’s always on a delay.No matter what the subject there are always people unhappy about something.Well Done Channel 7 keep up the good work
@ fedex – I love Home Improvement but to go to a decades old repeat instead of live tennis is a joke. Did they actually cut from live tennis or was the day session finished?
And who cares if Courier is American he has a great knowledge of tennis and is a likeable guy. I just wish they’d get McEnroe back!
Channel Seven are not selfish for not letting Foxtel show games. Foxtel are the ones to blame here. Seven asked for an amount of money and Foxtel should have paid. They get Paid from the subscribers. Seven dont.
I enjoy Seven’s coverage and its great. It has been every single year but you people continue to scathe the network. I think if the laws allowed it then Seven would have 4 or 5 channels covering the tennis but these laws are in place and you cant break them.
I think Seven cover sports well. You just wait to see the awful coverage i expect from the Winter Olympics on Nine. If the Commonwealth Games coverage they produced on home soil is anything to go by then we are in for a shocker!
Chris: The other main issue with DST, is actually getting a vote on it in QLD. “Jetset” Bligh, won’t listen to the people, and send us to the polls to settle this, and I reckon with the influx of southerners in SEQ, any DST “Yes” vote would succeed. I don’t care about faded curtains, sour milk or the other myths. Besides, “Anyone for delayed tennis”, sounds silly.
It’s embarrassing that Ch 7s Aussie commentators aren’t good enough
oh dear…Seven screws up sport again. But then again these days, its all about profits and promotion instead of broadcasting quality content.
The coverage during the day isn’t really that bad, dunno if it’s live in Adelaide, if not it should be. They usually show bits and pieces of matches going on at similar times to show us results. But night coverage is pathetic. Should be Live around the country, and get rid of Courier and Roger Rasheed. Courier is so annoying, why can’t he go commentate for America, don’t we have any Aussie commentators. And Rasheed copped so much crap the first year they had him, and they still use him. Why?? And now all he does is finds ways to mention his player Gael Monfils. Quote “If he can move himself around the court like a Murray or Djokivic, or even my man Gael Monfils”. Oh please.
And ABC use to show Hopman Cup day and night, i absolutely love that tournament, my favourite tennis tournament. But now they only do day matches, what changed???
Maybe if QLD voted for daylight savings like normal ppl, then they wouldnt have the problem of delayed tennis!!!
Its live in VIC, NSW and TAS and only 30 mins and an hr delayed for SA and QLD – its not that bad – surely u can resist not looking at the internet, especially when its not on late at night (in that state – it still starts at 7pm).
The commentators are fine, and if 7 could, im sure they would use 7TWO but they cant because of the anti-siphoning laws.
Im sure if it was on any other channel, they would do the same thing, re the news, but it might be worth 7 trialling the news earlier – at least for the finals.
Well, it is just obvious that 7 Network doesn’t have to guts to try out new things. They are the last network to come out with the 2nd digital channel, they just don’t dare to take risk!
Sick and tired of Channel 7. Australian Open is such a wonderful event, with so many great matches at Melbourne Park, yet Channel 7 is showing us so few matches, we are missing so much fun! Not to mention those stupid delayed night session coverage. Please don’t let me start this again.
In short i think the best “coverage” one could hope for is if they were to be at the event itself. The television coverage has gone dramatically down hill over the last few years.
I used to have a sly giggle when the various commentators would break from the commentary to plug whatever show 7 was trying to cross promote at the time. It’s gone from once in a blue moon, to every couple of games between a set. Next year (or by 2012) i bet they’ll have it occur after every game. It has also been creeping into Ch 9’s cricket coverage over the last few years (and Tony Greig is even more laughable – if he’s not flogging memorabilia – he’s now plugging Underbelly!!).
Trying to squeeze in as many commercials as possible in between featured matches is a pain, and pointless exercise. Especially when they tend to start coverage when the game is in progress. Over recent years i’ve noticed how they goto a commercial break after the player introductions as they walk on to court, i’d rather watch them do the player warm up (part of the anticipation) ahead of having to sit through 2+ minutes of various programming or product advertising.
Jo Griggs and Chris Dittmar are the only negatives when it comes to the presenting/commentating side of the coverage.
The Hopman Cup, the Brisbane International and the Sydney International are not on the anti-siphoning list, yet the night sessions of these tournaments are not shown on the digital channels of ABC and Seven. Fox Sports show the night sessions of Hopman Cup, while Seven replay the night matches of Brisbane and Sydney Internationals at 10.30pm. I agree with the sentiments that delayed coverage of night tennis must stop, and that more matches should be shown live on digital channels.
The Seven Network should not be allowed to show any sports at all. They are probably the worst sports broadcasters in Australia, maybe even the world (for FTA standards anyways). Everything they touch turns to stone. V8 supercars, theres more ads than race coverage, for the Australian Open theres some tennis amongst the cross promotional “new programs for ” and for the AFL in the northern states, viewers have to wait til some ridiculous time the next morning just to watch the game and the brownlow.
Whatever happened to multi-channeling even some games on 7TWO? or is the anti-sophoning laws still in place for sports coverage in Australia?
Also, what happened to the FOX Sports coverage of some of the outside courts? Did Stokes lose it becuase he lost the C7 vs The World case. So this is his revenge to Foxtel subscribers?
Emm, they actually cut off the coverage to show “Home Improvement”, i almost puked when i saw that.
Anyway, I just called up Channel 7 and filed a complaint regarding the delayed night matches coverage. The lady was friendly and gave me some really laughable explanation. But still i requested a complaint to be filed.
Channel Seven Brisbane
GPO Box 604
Mount Coot-tha QLD 4001
Ph (07) 3369 7777
channel 7 coverage is the worst of any australia n network
-the leave tennis games early (to show deal or no deal) and why start home and away next week and they gonna delay the games then too?
-dont get me started on the afl footy coverage
channel 7 are also selfish not allow foxtel to show any games
Channel 7 = Worst network in the world. NBC look great compared to 7
@Andrew B: Nine do not show the cricket live everywhere! One-day and T20 matches that are played on weekdays are shown on delay in Perth!
I say sport needs to be shown live!!!! Use it (live) or lose it…
I completely agree with others who say that they should move the news and TT to 5pm in Queensland. I would note that during Seven’s coverage of Rugby Internationals that are played in New Zealand (and are hence earlier in the night) the news is moved to ensure that the match is live. If Seven can do it for a few run of the mill rugby matches, surely it can play live, Australia’s premier annual sporting event.
Haha. People working in 7 Network are bunch of jokers.
As I said, 1st world country, 3rd world coverage.
It’s actually quite amusing that Yahoo!7 calls themselves the “official online broadcaster” but shows zero live matches online. All these livestreaming services are all available in Europe and America, where people can choose whichever match they would like to watch, yet i see nothing in Yahoo!7.
I’m sick and tired of Channel 7. Will be not watching Channel 7 anymore this year after the Australian Open. Was actually quite tempted to try some of their new shows, but i guess i would rather just view them elsewhere than to watch it in a pathetic channel like Channel 7.
Cheers!
7 don’t take critical comments very well. I was banned from their yahoo message boards for complaining about their delayed coverage. What a joke 7 are.
Give it to ABC. The hopman cup coverage was fantastic.
Plenty of valid points here and agree with most Seven are treating tennis and it’s viewers with as much disrespect as they do AFL. What irks me the most is the constant advertising of their shizen tv shows and then the idiot commentators like JA going on like they are huge fans of said shizen show..makes me sick!
However..I think Tracey Austin and Jim Courier do a great job and there is no such thing as too much tennis!
Get rid of Jim Courier??? Are they crazy! He is the best thing about their tennis coverage…