★★★★★ 0/5

FOX Footy channel ready for first bounce

AFL players and industry identities gathered in St. Kilda for the media launch of the FOX Footy channel.

19
Leave a comment

Profile AFL players and industry identities gathered in St. Kilda last night for the media launch of the FOX Footy channel.

Although the night was billed as Foxtel’s 2012 launch, it was all about footy, as the Pay TV provider seeks to lift the number of Melbourne subscribers.

Richard Freudenstein (pictured, front row, second from right) welcomed guests to his first official engagement as Foxtel’s newly-installed CEO.

“We honour and illuminate the game and take it to a wide audience with the best quality pictures and sound in Australia. We provide a rich revenue stream that goes to the Code to sustain and build the AFL,” he said.

“We will broadcast the AFL season launch, the Brownlow Medal, the All-Australian Awards, just to name a few -all Live.”

New recruit Eddie McGuire also spruiked the new channel, talking up the uninterrupted, siren to siren coverage, and couldn’t resist throwing in a dig at rivals..

“If you haven’t got high definition -like Channel Seven will be broadcasting this year- you may as well be looking through your next door neighbour’s window. It’s as simple as that.

“I feel like I’m back on cutting edge television again, particularly in sport.

“I’d like to thank all those guys, the mainstays of FOX Sports and FOX Footy who have built a magnificent foundation. I love the channel and have over all the years it’s been on and personally it’s an absolute delight and a pleasure to become a colleague of you guys.”

Commentators are:
Dermott Brereton, Matthew Campbell, Leigh Colbert, Ben Dixon, Jason Dunstall, Damien Fleming, Danny Frawley, Gerard Healy, Anthony Hudson, Glen Jakovich, Brad Johnson, David King, Alastair Lynch, Eddie McGuire, David Parkin, Liam Pickering, Mark Ricciuto, Mark Robinson, Paul Roos, Dwayne Russell, Tony Shaw, Mike Sheahan, Gerard Whateley.

Magazine shows will include:
After The Bounce. Live. Sundays 6:30.
EMT Eddie McGuire Tonight. Live Sundays 8:30 premieres March 11.
AFL 360. Live. 7:30pm Monday – Thursday. Premieres February 20.
On the Couch. Mondays.
AFL Insider 8:30pm Tuesdays from February 21.
Open Mike.
League Teams. 8:30pm Thursdays

“That’s just the opening gambit of what we have on the FOX Footy channel,” he said.

Guests took home a Foxtel remote in the colours of their favourite AFL team.

The channel hits screens at 5pm AEDT today and screens the NAB Cup Live from 6:30pm.

19 Responses

  1. Fox Footy is so doing amazingly well. According to OzTam its the most watched channel every week on Pay-TV since the start of the 2012 AFL Season.

    oztam.com.au/documents/2012/OzTAM-20120401-A1MetTTVShrCons.pdf

    The above is a link for the first week of April 2012: Fox Footy attracted a 1.3% viewing share

    The second most watched channel on PayTV was Fox Sports 2 with a 1% share (shows NRL)

  2. Loving it and Eddie is fantastic!! I don’t mind him at all on Fox Footy 2.0 and excellent coverage the only thing I hate is the giant scoreboard which covers half of the TV screen!!

  4. @Bob Sacamano it is not possible to show all 9 games live on the new Fox Footy Channel hence on a Saturday Games 3 (afternoon) and 5 (Evening) will be shown on Fox Sports 1 and on the Sunday Fox Sports 1 will cover Game 8 in the afternoon.

  5. Great news that the AFL has it’s own channel.

    As a non-follower of the code, I hope this means that as of now it won’t be screening on either Fox Sports 1, 2 or 3.

  7. 2chrisb and @maverick. he is right though. 7s coverage will be ordinary at best. the only thing that is garunteed with 7 is. terrible commentary from their commentators and a pointless tool they over use to much in the mega wall, that no one wants or likes.

  8. They will have 5 exclusive games and only three play by play commentators i think that is pretty lame. They have over stacked with experts i still dont understand what Damien Flemming is doing on there, i mean he is with Fox for the Cricket not AFL. As i have stated before in regards to Foxtel’s AFL commitments they have invested a lot into this venture but to make it profitable they will need at least 2 if not three in every tenth person to subscribe if they are to make it profitable. Not a bad lineup overall except Eddie. Still only time will tell, Still like Seven’s AFL Team. The Footy is on 7 in 2012 for me.

  9. I’m a bit disappointed with the line up of shows on Fox Footy. There’s only one new show (EMT). All of the others have been running on Fox Sports before.

    There’s nothing wrong with the shows they’ve got on, I just thought with a brand new channel, some brand new shows would’ve been good.

    In saying that, I still can’t wait for it to start.

  12. It’s funny that Eddie is having a dig at Channel 7 for broadcasting the AFL in SD, but hey Channel 9’s Olympics coverage will be in SD as well, so whats the difference?, i’m sure Channel 7 will broadcast the AFL Grand Final in HD on 7mate.

  14. @sam Head down to your local shopping centre with a Foxtel kiosk. They sell them for $50.

    Can’t wait for this channel to launch. I’ve missed having a dedicated footy channel for 5 years and now that all 9 matches are on it, it’s going to be really tempting to watch more matches.

Leave a Reply