Does TV ignore fishing?
It's been 20 years since A River Somewhere was on ABC. Is TV casting its net wide enough?
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
I must admit this isn’t really something that’s crossed my mind, but an article today at the Daily Telegraph accuses ABC of ignoring Fishing as an entertainment genre.
“The national broadcaster has not aired a locally produced television fishing show for two decades,” writes Al McGlashan.
“Elsewhere, on free-to-air channels and pay TV, there’s plenty from which to choose.”
He notes there are 5 million Australians who partake in fishing once a year.
“Unbelievably the last Aussie fishing show on ABC TV was A River Somewhere (pictured). It was broadcast in 1997 and 1998.
“The series, where comedians Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch travelled around Australia and the globe fly fishing was a roaring success.”
Just what Fishing shows are there on TV?
TEN has Fishing Australia, Fishing Edge, I Fish, ONE has IFS Championship, Reel Action, Robson Green Extreme Fisherman, Merv Hughes Fishing, Escape Fishing With ET 7mate has Hook Line & Sinker, My Fishing Place, AFN Fishing Show, Mark Berg’s Fishing Adiction, NITV has Get Your Fish On.
So in the intervening 20 years since Working Dog’s travelogue there is probably a lot more Fishing on TV thanks to multichannels, albeit not on ABC (does Miss Fisher count?). It is important to note some of those are branded content and international shows.
Pay TV has Fishing Impossible, Oz Fish TV, and I guess Incredible Fish, Deadliest Catch, Fish Tank Kings and Wicked Tuna.
And a shout-out to FishCamClassic on Channel 31!
ABC declined to comment.
15 Responses
A River Somewhere was a lovely show.
They don’t have any shows on greyhound coursing or duck shooting either.
“Fishing as an entertainment genre”. This is not April 1 yet, is it? Every time I stumble onto one of those ‘fishing’ shows on TEN it appears to be paid/product placement/sponsored (or whatever the term) filler material. Can we please keep ABC fishing-free!
Next week “The national broadcaster has not aired a locally produced television 4WD/caravan/DIY show” writes Al McGlashan.
Incidentally, the fact that “on free-to-air channels and pay TV, there’s plenty from which to choose” probably implies that there is no need for ABC to cover the genre. Gosh, if they did, the Daily Telegraph would be accusing them of muscling in on the genre and unfairly competing with the commercial sector.
I also had no idea fishing was of such a concern to the Daily Telegraph. How many stories are they running on fishing every week???
Wow, they’ll use any excuse to have a dig at the ABC. Talk about clutching at straws.
Their attacks on the ABC are relentless and now ridiculous.
River Monsters is the only one I watch.
Oh no! No fishing on ABC! Tell me this is a nightmare! No! It just cant be true!
Thinking of it as “entertainment“ was their first mistake…
C31 in Melbourne seems to have fishing or 4WD shows on just about every night. I don’t watch them but they always seem to be there as I’m flicking past channel 44!
Landline!
Well ABC2 has Catfish: The TV Series, much more entertaining than those other fishing programs mentioned above, even if it’s staged and partly scripted.
“an article today at the Daily Telegraph accuses …”
Well, yes. Do they do anything else?
Maybe they should try reporting this new thing called “news”? I hear all the hip young adult folk of today think it’s cool…
(Besides, it’s been over 45 years since the The Tele – or even any of its Ltd News stablemates – have had regular columns on any of my hobbies. Hypocrites, much?)
Couldn’t agree more!
The Daily Telegraph criticising the ABC? Never!
While not entirely about fishing, 7 Queensland’s ‘Creek To Coast’ (Saturdays 5.00 pm) has enough of it to please the local angling fraternity.