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No HD for Grand Finals, so how did ONE and GEM rate?

What kind of numbers did the MotoGP and Funny Girl pull on their HD channels while the rest of us watched Grand Finals in SD?

Last week sports fans were fuming with neither the AFL Grand Final nor the NRL Grand Final being shown in HD during their live broadcasts.

TEN said it had a contractual commitment to show the MotoGP from Japan, a qualifying round no less, which was staged at the same time.

Nine said it wanted to offer its viewers “the most variety of options.”

So how did they stack up numbers wise?

While the AFL Grand Final was on TEN with 2.6m viewers, the MotoGP on ONE had just 32,000 viewers.

While the NRL Grand Final was on Nine with 2.02m viewers, Funny Girl on GEM had just 45,000 viewers (and it wasn’t even filmed in HD in 1968),

ONE did replay the AFL Grand Final later when it was watched by 71,000 people.

This weekend’s Bathurst 1000 will be broadcast on both Seven and in HD on 7mate.

41 Responses

  1. While 7mate shows a lot of HD-originated content and movies in true HD, the track record of GEM is appalling.

    They have a range of shows which used to be shown in HD on either Nine or the previous NineHD multichannel, but in the last 12 months, less than 1% have been shown in HD quality.

    When people say “I can’t see the difference with HD on FTA”, that’s mostly because GEM and News24 and SBS HD have next to zero HD footage.

    Not even the Liverugby union worl d cup match last weekend was in HD on GEM, which is something that even SBS could’ve managed to pull off.

    Basically, GEM’s equipment needs upgrading, and Nine are being tightwads.

  2. Don’t forget the antisyphoning laws forbid the showing of AFL/NRL finals on anything but the main channells, But from the 1St of January they are allowed to show them on other digital channels so maybe next year will change things so they can show them in HD

  3. @ Russell who, btw its spelt “A*se” in this country… we aren’t Americans.

    The broadcasts actually were in HD, they weren’t shown in HD in Australia.

    Research?

  4. Well i for one did not watch the NRL Grand Final on nine. Like every game broadcast on Nein this year, I have deliberately skipped it and watched the replay on Fox in HD. 630pm was perfect for the Grand Final and to see it in HD was worth shutting down the outside world for 2 hours.
    Every Friday night game was recorded on IQ in HD and watched the next day (or occasionally I would stay up for it).
    I know I may be the only person who does this but I did not spend a bucket on a huge HD screen to watch my favourite sports on, to then get completely shat on by Nein.

  5. 3 channels, 3 times the ad revenue.. What incentive do they have to offer proper HD channels when they can split the bandwidth and triple their revenue?

  6. OK I was grateful it was not on Pay TV. I agree it should have been shown in HD but we have such a waste of HD with ABC 24 for example. I just wonder will the channels move around a bit when analogue is turned off ? I certainly hope so, but in saying that , all the reality stuff, who careswhether that is in HD or SD.
    But if it is available in HD it should be screened in HD.
    I was a film projectionist for many years and I like things sharp, the sharper the better in my opinion, and if you get a chance to watch something that has been transferred from 70mm to Blu Ray Wow Take the Sound of Music, Superb transfer. I would hate to see it on TV again now with ads interrupting it.

  7. Let’s face it

    Nine Ten Seven and ABC1 don’t give a rats ass about HD

    While tiny local stations in Iowa have been producing live local news in HD for 3 years, our networks can’t even produce the national sporting codes grand finals in HD. The same programming they deem to be of national significance by placing on anti siphoning list.

  8. When we complete the analogue free-to-air switch-off (in 2013), will the commercial TV stations still be mandated to show these “national treasure” sporting events in standard definition? By then SD-only digital receivers will be significantly rarer than analogue-only ones are now. As far as I can tell, no manufacturers have SD-only receivers any more. Even the few “sub 1080-line” screens available can receive and down-scale content perfectly acceptably.

  9. @napdav – You have to factor in the TV license fee in the UK with that data. It’s not entirely free in that country. But the point is well taken. FTV in Australia is an ugly mess; many years behind other countries.

  10. I can still recall the fuss made when (gasp) 3D was being introduced! Oh, you can buy a 3D TV and watch every single last sports broadcast in 3D! Oh, yes, 3D all the way.

    And now, the Big Sports Events are in SD, not even HD.

    What a scam 3D was.

  11. Ch10 & Ch9 we’re both foolish & stupid in not airing both Grand Finals in HD.
    It just shows that Both networks don’t give a damn about HD!

    ..lets hope Ch7 sticks to their word and airs the Bathurst 1000 like they said they would!

  12. Free to air TV in this country is disgusting. No wonder people download HD versions of shows. SD looks absolutely horrible on a half-decent plasma. Throw in the ads and all the visual pollution that’s plastered over the middle of frame and TV is now unwatchable. ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Downton Abbey’ look Glorious in HD – yet the viewing public here will never know. Both the BBC and ITV have dedicated HD channels for all their event TV – yet our ‘HD channels’ are so pathetic.

    One wonders why Oz producers bother to shoot drama in HD – they could still be shooting digi beta and no-one would know!

  13. Here in the US, the AFL grand final was telecast live in HD (ESPN2). Pretty sure the NRL final was too, on the Fox Soccer Channel. Kinda sad that you have to be in another country to see a major live sporting event in HD.

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