This news just released by AFANA Apparently the AFL and Setanta signed a 5 year deal commencing in 2007 which brings some stability in the coverage for the first time. -------------------------------------------------------------------- AFANA and Setanta Sports have announced that television coverage of the 2008 AFL season will launch on February 16, 2008. The live coverage of the Geelong v Melbourne preseason match will be the earliest ever start to TV coverage in the USA and Canada. More details of the 2008 NAB cup coverage as well as the main premiership draw will be announced soon. AFANA will have full schedules, as they are announced, on our TV pages. Coverage on MHz Networks of the AFL Highlights and Match of the Week will begin on March 31st. Link at www.afana.com
In less than two weeks from this writing -- and for five years. That's great news, and the sort of presence and security the AFL needs on U.S. television!
westcoast, Have you heard anything if that deal also included Broadband Rights for those having Setanta Broadband? Just curious if you knew the answer to that? Thanks in advance!
That is some internet name you have BC, Have made some enquiries on this, The answer is no because Telstra in Australia have World Exclusive Broadband Rights. Telstra offer a International Broadband coverage for a fee from the AFL Web site -- www.afl.com.au However opinions on this service range from ok to not ok depending who you talk to. Apparently Setanta US are limited to Satellite, MHZ, Irish theme pubs etc, but are trying to expand their TV coverage.(Direct TV also gets a mention) Despite this situation the fans are slowly signing up to Setanta it appears according to anecdotal evidence from the USAFL forum. Their early start to the 2008 AFL season is interesting and a first time - Does it mean because of demand or are they trying to creat a demand or did the AFL request it. We will have to wait possibly on an announcement sometime from AFL Broadcasting.
Great stuff (I found an article claiming the UK rights too). With the English premiership gorging itself on financial gluttony, with fans wondering if the plan to play games overseas could be the premiership's waffer theen mint, not to mention Reading's season sinking like a pebbly turd, it will be a welcome early morning distraction. Since September my only exposure to the game was chatting to a west coast eagles fan in the back of a pick-up truck in Phuket, on our way to spend an hour riding on the back of elephants. They are very slow and bumpy, which kind of mirrored his worries for west coast's title prospects in the coming season. It was quite interesting to see the betting for the new season. It's almost as if the bookies think things will be the same as last year finished, except for the Kangaroos doing much worse. It was also interesting, for me if nobody else, to notice that the three teams which had most appeal to me from last season, Geelong, Collingwood (for being the teams whose games I enjoyed most in my 4 stints as a nominal home supporter last year) and Richmond (for being admirably rubbish) occupy the very extremes of the betting. Alas there appears to be no coverage in the UK on the 16th, so I'll have to wait a bit longer.
I have noticed on the AFL Web Site and the Clubs sites they are now offering increased free video clips of AFL games, Interviews and Club activities Previously it was mostly Subscriber viewing only per the Telstra Big Pond Service. It appears that they have realised the benefits of this new free service for the local and International fans. Look for the orange video camera logo on the main AFL page. The Adelaide and Collingwood clubs played in Abu Dhubai in the UAE yesterday and at a pre-match address AFL boss Andrew Demitriou said that in the future the AFL will be playing pre-season games in the USA, Japan and South Africa. The US venue not indicated yet but he talked about LA and I know the AFL bosses have been to the new facilty in Florida. Ex AFL Essendon Coach Kevin Sheedy also now wants an Academy facilty set up in the US for Australian Football and other sports. Australian Football is the official correct title of our game for the new fans out there. Anything else is slang use- ==AFL, Aussie Rules, Australian Rules, Footy etc etc.
Here is the link below to Kevin Sheedys article on AFL International expansion which mentions a Academy in California. His ideas are out of left field sometimes but the $1 levy proposal on admission tickets is a good one because over 7 million fans went through the gates in 2007. The Herald Sun in Melbourne featured in the link revamped their AFL footy website last week and it looks a lot better LINK http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23185843-19742,00.html
Direct TV is a satellite service, you can get Setanta on it for $15 a month US. The big attraction for most is the English Premiership. They did show the NAB semifinals on broadband, which I have, but it doesn't appear the final will be there.
The sharks are circling the parent coy Setanta Sports UK according to the article below. What makes them (Setanta) more attractive is the recent news from the same website that they have won a 5 year TV deal to broadcast the Indian IPL 20/20 Cricket Series into the UK market. IMHO that series will attract huge interest in the worldwide Cricket fraternity which of course includes the UK. A recent comment on this from a US source is the actual offer from whomever will happen probably in about 12 months. If this occurs what effect will it have on their current AFL US, UK and Canada deal (2007 -2011). Will the new owners have to fulfill all previous contract obligations. Is it a case of one step forward and two back. Link: http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/164168/takeover-rumours-surround-setanta-sports
It should be fine. There isn't exactly a lot of other live sport about which takes place between 6am and midday on Saturday and Sunday mornings UK time, and sports channels tend to value live sport. The article also hints that the bidders are media players who'd want to grow the channel, rather than being direct rivals who'd maybe want to rationalise the coverage.
Some more good news on US/Canada AFL Internet Coverage for 2008. Setanta have recently added the coverage to their "Setanta Broadband Service." There was an inquiry earlier on this thread about this service. Here is Link-- http://www.setantanorthamerica.com/NA_broadband/setanta_broadband.aspx
The new Setanta Broadband service has receiived a mixed bag of comments from the fans. Some are happy and some are not. What happens is sometimes footy fans from Australia move to the US/Canada and expect the same TV coverage as back home - All games covered by either Free To Air or Pay TV (Foxtel). Reality can be a blunt object occasionaly and when they receive it overseas they are not happy vegemites. Link to article ---- http://www.afana.com/drupal5/node/908#comment-449
Setanta USA recently announced that a Cable TV service network would be taking their Sports coverage. It appears to be a bit of a breakthrough on the Cable TV front and negotiations are continuing with others. Read about it here -- http://www.afana.com/drupal5/node/1000
Setanta Sports Ireland is no longer up for sale and has withdrawn from the market. This brings some stabilty to the sports cover it does in the US and Canada. The next step would be to expand it ops to a wider range of operators in the US. Link-- http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/166571/setanta-calls-off-sale
Here is some not so good news for US Aussie Rules fans. It appears that the Setanta Broadband Service to show the AFL has been discontinued from a couple of weeks ago. They were in breach of their AFL TV agreement to also run the BB service. The normal Setanta TV cover is still running as per usual and is not affected. ------------------------------------------------------------ Also the new Aussie Sports TV service (Replacing the AFL Website Telstra Big Pond) has got off to a shaky start- However when it is ok it is an improvement over the old service.
Damned right it's shaky. I'm not finding near the content BigPond had, and what content they have is added slowly. I'm not happy with it at all.
Arrgh. I'd only watched a handful of games, but it was good knowing it was there. Find myself listening to more games, though.
Just wondering how you relate to the radio call of our game -If you are an American. The radio guys use a lot of local slang when describing the play -Because the game is so quick now they sometimes struggle to keep up. The speed of the players is not so apparent also unless you are at the actual game.
It helps that I've been watching on and off since 1981 - if it was available on cable TV, which is was for probably 20 years of that, I watched nearly every week. I'm sure I miss some of the slang references, but I get a fair number of them. Plus, there's a certain entertainment value to it - I'd seen enough of Cometti over the years to get him, and I've now been introduced to the bizzareness that is Rex Hunt. There is nothiing here like the way 3AW does games, it may be overdone, but somehow, for me, it works. The only thing I struggle with is that I haven't seen enough games lately to be truly comfortable with the full squads, so I can't always figure out which team has the ball simply by hearing a name. The Live thing on the AFL site helps some, though.
Yes, Rex Hunt on 3AW has made an art form out of the "Fat Lady Singing" theme- When he starts that high pitched scream - Anybody new to the sport -what the????
Ditto. Although Rex Hunt is so over the top that I have a hard time following the action on 3AW and I'll end up switching.
After watching the Aussie Sports TV service for a couple of months, I can categorically state that it is CRAP. Yes, the video quality is improved. But the only content you can find on the service are match replays and quarter time updates. There's no team press conferences. Theres' no AFL feature content. There's no team generated content. And, if you click on a link on AFL.com to a video highlight, you're automatically redirected to Aussie Sport TV which doesn't have the video in its library. And every time I complain about the service I get a form letter response apologizing for not having replays on line in a timely manner. Why? That's the only content you have! It's like they've lumped all their offshore subscribers together and said amongst themselves, "we can offer them crap service, they'll buy it because it's all they can get...besides, they're not sophisticated enough fans to need all that other content." They're going to lose me as a subscriber post haste.
The AFL`s executive main focus is on Australia- They appear not to know or care about International subscribers at times. There have been many International complaints on various forums I go to since this service started. Currently the Setanta service is all they will offer as an alternative to US fans. Hopefully they (Setanta) can increase their viewer base over time so that they can offer more services over the whole country.
This appears to be one of those times. For here we sit on Saturday night in the States...Sunday afternoon all across Australia...3 of the Finals matches are in the books...AND NOT ONE MATCH REPLAY IS AVAILABLE ON AUSSIE SPORT TV. I've sent many an e-mail to customer service at whatever the parent company's domain is, and still yet, not a response (I even sent the e-mail from my Telstra account so maybe they'd think I'm an ex-pat worthy of response). They won't see my subscription $$ next year.