0/5

Costs at heart of Marngrook Footy Show axe

"We have to make tough choices about how we spend our limited budgets," says NITV.

The decision by NITV to axe the Marngrook Footy Show is being attributed to costs.

The show was produced Live each week at the Burwood campus of Deakin University with a small studio audience. It was previously produced at the former ABC Ripponlea studios, when it screened on ABC2.

In a statement, NITV’s channel manager Tanya Orman said, “The Marngrook Footy Show has been an important part of NITV’s schedule for 12 years. The media landscape has changed significantly over that time, and we have to make tough choices about how we spend our limited budgets across our programming.

“While it was a difficult decision to make after such a long run, NITV remains committed to delivering quality AFL coverage from a uniquely Indigenous perspective.

“We are looking at formats for a new show that will join our existing sports coverage including the Northern Territory Football League, the Koori Knockout, Over the Black Dot and the National Basketball League.”

Avid fans are unhappy with the decision and have taken to social media, including with a Change.org petition now over 4000 signatories.

Marngrook is hoping to find a new home for 2020.

10 Responses

  1. Let’s make some thing clear here, out of a crew of 30 working on the show, the majority were interns from Deakin University in Melbourne gaining real experience working on a live to air show. Nitv need to reassess just what production costs to make a 90 min show live to air. We now have young people working in television due to the training they received on this show.

  2. Costs!? It was produced in a uni studio with a percentage of uni students on the crew. The smell of an oily rag would be big-budget by comparison. They’ve said they’re considering alternative formats. The only other cheaper format would be an hour of test-pattern.

  3. I’ve heard more about Marngrook in the past few days than I have in the previous few years. Outside the box marketing, perhaps? Then again I am a cynic…

  4. Maybe if nitv didn’t have such a restrictive charter about sponsorship of productions the cost to nitv wouldn’t have been that great. Any money raised by Marngrook for the show, a percentage, had to be payed to nitv first before it went into the program. The show was only ever advertised on nitv or sbs , no outside publicity was ever given. How do they expect the show to grow to a bigger audience if it’s not being publicised, word of mouth can only go so far.

  5. It’s a shame community TV doesn’t get that much funding. it’s a shame that the big three networks can’t invest some money in to keeping community TV thriving. I know it’s not a money making machine, but some of biggest names have come from humble beginnings on community TV

    1. Sydney lost its community TV end of 2015….supposed to have gone to internet…but I have not searched for it…just want to watch on TV…There was so much good stuff on there. ?

Leave a Reply