Go Gerro!

I taped some of the late night cycling on Ch9 and was incredibly disappointed/angry when I fast forwarded though 30 mins of a repeat of Underbelly and then missed the final kms of the race…  I wonder if Ch9 not sticking to their broadcast schedule had any influence on the ratings too…  Thank goodness they had Phil and Paul commenting.  Their live coverage over the weekend was good though.

Wade, there seems to be something funky going on with the percentages.  Take stage 3 as an example, SBS had 2% and 68,000 viewers – meaning 3.4 million people were watching free to air TV at that time.  Channel 9 had 8.1% and 93,000 viewers – meaning 1.1 million people were watching free to air TV at that time.
This seems like a HUGE drop off in numbers watching TV!  Where did they all go?  This drop in numbers is consistant over the whole week, any explanation for this?  Seems to bring the numbers into question…

There’s one thing that no one can yet assess – what will Channel 9 learn and improve?

I was fully expecting that they would make some errors or have a glitch or two. (And that we keen watchers would bag them out.) After all, it’s their first effort with the TdU! 

It’s 9′s response to these bugs that will create more good will – or completely write it off.

Full credit to SBS for their coverage this year. They were the place to go for rider interviews and good analysis. I think the most disappointing aspect of the Nine coverage was their online streaming. This is one area that SBS has it over them hands down.

I just dont understand why it cant be shown at a decent hour on Gem or Go.  They have these other channels that are full of rubbish for the most part.  I really dont think most people would mind watching it on these channels.

SBS was on at 6pm, nine 11:30 pm
people go to bed and the pie gets smaller late night so real numbers are more important than percentages here.

Possible due to the volume of viewers late night (C9) vs evening (SBS)?

I didn’t think Ch9′s coverage was that bad (although it sounds as though plenty disagree). The main issues for me were the timing of the highlights in the week (and the late start one night, grr) and the lack of a genuine expert for Voss to “go to” (sorry Phil and Paul don’t qualify – you seem to love them or hate them, I’m in the latter category). I thought Voss showed genuine enthusiasm and I was staggered on the live coverage when they stayed with the live coverage and didn’t go to the scheduled ad break just as the riders went to the foot of Willunga. When have Ch9 ever done that in any sport? I didn’t even mind the AFL players popping up – at least they were gracious enough to admit the massive power output the riders have on the bikes.

SBS will no doubt remain the home of cycling (along with my beloved Eurosport) and that is great but I think Ch9 might have broadened the audience a bit which can only be a good thing in the week of Warniegate right?

Hopefully Nine will have listened to their viewers this year and will add a highlights package earlier in the evening next year (even if it is on one of their sub-channels) and if necessary keep the expanded late night slot on the main channel.

Hopefully Nine will have listened to their viewers this year and will add a highlights package earlier in the evening next year (even if it is on one of their sub-channels) and if necessary keep the expanded late night slot on the main channel.

The rubbish on Channel 9 currently does not eclipse the rubbish on their digital channels either.

I couldn’t agree more. Give me any world tour pro race in any part of the world at any time of the year and live streaming is always available…somewhere. Whether it is for subscribers or for free you can get pictures via the internet. I believe it to be a major blight on the evolution of the sport in this country that live streaming of the race is not available.

Unfortunately for us cycling fans, in 2012 Nine has it’s eye on sports coverage, in an effort to develop itself and the WWOS brand, through it’s rights as Olympics broadcaster they are seemingly wanting to own the ‘sports’ category in 2012 with the first event being the ‘Tour Down Under.’

Channel 10 broadcast the highlights package of the NSW Grand Prix as well as the ‘Bay Classic’ recently and have done so in previous years.  I am all for sharing cycling amongst media to widen its appeal, to utilise commentary from stalwarts such as Liggett & Sherwen, however the key difference with a larger network to SBS is QUALITY VS. QUANTITY.

Through Channel 9′s coverage we saw:
- Poor time slot coverage (Time of day & movement of timeslots);
- Limited (if any) interviews of international riders (Valverde, anyone other internationals – Jens?);
- Bias towards GreenEDGE (Not that I have a problem with that, only that the race consists of an international field);
- Lack of understanding of race tactics from the program director (missed key points in the weekends racing – Lloyd missing the break, Meyer’s attack);
- Anchorman (Voss) lack of knowledge;
- Final presentation appalling.

So where does this elastic break? At the expense of the cycling fans? The positive is bringing cycling to the mainstream right? Whilst Warniegate manifested itself in parallel to the event, perhaps community announcements with the AGF could have also been worthwhile?  One offset is could this coverage in mainstream media raise interest in sponsorship for GreenEDGE?

As Tomo says, the upside is, SBS audience may increase through a raised interest in the sport in the mainstream media. SBS had it wrapped up even if they weren’t the ‘official’ broadcaster.

I’d be interested in how much advertisers paid to advertise during the late highlights?
Were these comparable costs to what one may pay to advertise on SBS? 
Was this the reason the broadcast was late at night?

Channel 9 won’t be around to cover the 2013 TDU, guaranteed.

Great article Wad, however I just wonder what the figures for ’9′ might have been for a high;lights package. Let us all hope that they do not get their grubby little hands on the TdF.     Can anybody imagine ’9′ treating cricket fans in the same manner.  We need to get active and put pressure on the ’9′ Network to give some assurance that the Highlights will be on at a reasonable hour.

Great article Wad, however I just wonder what the figures for ’9′ might have been for a high;lights package. Let us all hope that they do not get their grubby little hands on the TdF.     Can anybody imagine ’9′ treating cricket fans in the same manner.  We need to get active and put pressure on the ’9′ Network to give some assurance that the Highlights will be on at a reasonable hour.

Sport is not the market that either Gem (housewives) or Go! (late teens-early twenties types) are targetting. They are more distinct from 9 proper than, say, 7 Two is.

Sport is not the market that either Gem (housewives) or Go! (late teens-early twenties types) are targetting. They are more distinct from 9 proper than, say, 7 Two is.

Agree completely. I can even laugh at Nine crossing to  ’special’ comments from AFL players Nick Riewoldt and Dean Brogan during the live broadcast of Willunga Hill but you cannot argue that they are broadening the audience coverage by playing highlights at 11:30pm.
 SBS’ online Cycling Central absolutely rocks for on demmand highlights/interviews etc.

Hey hey hey…back off from Phil and Paul or im going to open up a suitcase of whoop-ass! 

I’ll look into this Manning and let you know. I’m also guessing that it has to do with the time of day

Phil and Paul were obviously told to focus on some educational commentary for the Nine audience. I disagree with this approach. I reckon new fans want to see the full authentic presentation. They can work out the technical stuff themselves. The bloke they used to host is a goose and certainly should not have been let near Merckx. A well informed interviewer could have actually conducted an interview. And leave the footballers out of it. I can’t recall Gerro’s interview at the AFL Grand Final pre game!

It was the Clarkie-factor which caused the spike in viewers for stage 2. Then thankfully they stuck with it.  Aussies love an underdog story

It was the Clarkie-factor which caused the spike in viewers for stage 2. Then thankfully they stuck with it.  Aussies love an underdog story

I would just say that if the pie got bigger due to the Cadel effect, then Ch 9 cannot claim credit, and maybe the pie would have been bigger if it stayed on SBS.  Remember Top Gear numbers fell from  SBS to Ch 9.

I would just say that if the pie got bigger due to the Cadel effect, then Ch 9 cannot claim credit, and maybe the pie would have been bigger if it stayed on SBS.  Remember Top Gear numbers fell from  SBS to Ch 9.

I didn’t mind the footballers, because their club has a link with the GreenEGGS & Ham team, & have incorporated cycling into training/recovery. Even better, they were from Warnies’ beloved Saints!

Well I remember a fair bit of press that potentially Cadel was going to appear at the MCG at the Grand Final.

Regarding the coverage, I didn’t bother with the highlights, couldn’t stream them, and even in WA they were on to late. But the coverage of Stg 5 was first rate, and the viewership is excellent. Looking at the bigger picture, its viewer numbers like this that encourage companies to enter the sponsorship of the sport.

I’m happy for the event to stay on CH9 next year, coverage and production was better this year than any other. Hosts were as equal or better than any SBS has, except Matt Keenan, maybe he can be lured to CH9?

Competition for coverage and events being split between broadcasters is a good thing for us fans, if you stick with one provider  they can get a bit complacent and take their coverage or status for granted i.e. there have been some events within the last 8-10 months that SBS have done a pretty ordinary job of hosting PR, RvV, Australian Road Nats.

Overall I would say the TDU and Events SA would  have to be happy with 9′s coverage? Surely?

I would say the biggest factor was GreenEdge … that’s the only reason I stayed up to watch so guess a lot of others felt the same. Biggest problem is 90% of the targeted audience are early risers so go to bed well before nines coverage starts.  

You’d be forgiven for thinking that there was an actual bike race on last week with distractions in the form of this Ch 9 issue, Warnie and idiot(s) with tacks. 

Let’s look at broadcasting in the broader context of the sport.  Broadcast rights are one area that supposedly could be exploited to a greater degree to generate higher returns for investment in cycling (at least according to dis-affected team owners).  With this in mind, and if it ultimately comes to pass, will SBS be able to continue to broadcast Paris-Roubaix, the Tour etc?  I doubt it.

Granted the 11.30 time slot was silly, why should SBS be a protected species?  Yes they have genuinely promoted cycling coverage and we should all be grateful, but this does not given them the right to broadcast cycling in perpetuity.  If so, then someone tell Ch9 to allow the ABC to broadcast the test cricket.

Contrast the use of footballers (who are presumably contracted to Ch 9 in someway in any event) with the complete lack of cycling knowledge that Tomolaris showed (and still sometimes shows) when he started in the role back in the 90s.  If Ch 9 should have had people who knew what they were talking about, then the same rule should have applied to SBS.

At the end of the day, the Tour Down Under is put on for all sorts of reasons.  The SA Government want an event to show case the state and bring in tourism (and surely they have succeeded if all the pictures on this site of Victorians riding around the roads of Adelaide are any guide).  The UCI want to expand the reach of cycling and have a willing investor in the SA Government.  The teams come because they are presumably paid to do so and it is good training for the more important races down the track.  Throw in broadcast rights and why should a government funded multi-cultural broadcaster automatically get the gig?

I am not a fan of Channel 9 at all but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of their TDU coverage (other than a lack of live stages during the week).   I had assumed the worst but thought that in the end it was a good first go at pro cycling.  Given Voss is basically a rugby league commentator I thought he did well - he’d obviously done some research, for the most part used the correct terminology, did a good job of explaining some of the key aspects of the sport for the first time viewers and generally carried himself well.  Contrast this with Tomalaris, a 15+ tour veteran, whose commentary is an insight-free zone,  gets all the terminology wrong, conducts painfully average interviews with experts and riders and seems to still be grasping the basics of the sport. 
 
While it wasn’t for the die-hard fans , I also didn’t mind Voss throwing to the AFL players.  This is just the sort of thing the average joe, channel 9 viewer with his HSV ute needs to hear to convince him that pro cycling may be worth a look and to demonstrate just how impressive these guys really are.  Make no mistake, Reiwolt and Co giving the cyclists respect for their physical abilities counts for a lot in those circles.  
 
Considering it was Channel 9, it was only the TDU (and not an important event like a classic or a Grand Tour) and considering it was trying to cater to fanatics, first timers and everyone in-between, I think it was a job well done.  At the end of the day, having the race on a high profile network rasies the visibility of the sport which ultimately benefits us all.

i am no Channel 9 employee, however have learnt the hard way many many times on Eurosport to make sure you always record the item after cycling as they always run behind on their schduling due to normally the womans tennis…..

nothing like watching a great race and missing the end…

Unfortunately its not just Channel 9 that has that problem!

I suspect if Wade looks through the archives of this site in 2020, he’d be amazed that the issues we’re discussing here were important.

In the not too distant future, the majority of the Australian population will have access to broadband internet that’s easily fast enough to stream several channel’s worth of live HD video. 

In that world, why does an event like the TDU need Channel 9 or SBS at all?  Hire a production company (as I understand it, much of the production is already outsourced anyway), and they can deliver their own live coverage supported by whatever combination of subscriber payments and sponsorship they choose. 

So while I think it’s important in the here and now, much sooner than we think networks in their current form are going to be almost irrelevant to cycling.

Incidentally, the ABC and SBS are adapting to this world a lot faster than the “commercial” channels.

I suspect that I’ll be amazed at 90% of the dribble I write about!

For people outside of Australia, the Nine online streaming was not geo restricted like the SBS broadcast of Nationals. So in that respect, I strongly prefer Nine to SBS. A few comments about the online feed:

1. I couldn’t get the feed to expand to full screen, so I was stuck about 1m from the telly staring at a tiny box. I might have an incorrect plugin? Did anyone else have a similar experience?

2. Like in cricket or footy, you show the score; in cycling you show something like km to go and various gap lengths.

3. There are no adverts during the online feed. Brilliant.

4. Absolutely no lag or any difficulty streaming. Brilliant.

I thought that Phil and Paul were relatively normal. From profound observations (“The riders  are pushing to the limit, their heart rates probably rising to levels around the 160 to 170 beats per minute.”) to Paul’s interview with Valverde in Spanish (actually very impressive), they delivered in line with expectations.

Finally, I’ll take Voss to Anthony Tan any day.

For people outside of Australia, the Nine online streaming was not geo restricted like the SBS broadcast of Nationals. So in that respect, I strongly prefer Nine to SBS. A few comments about the online feed:

1. I couldn’t get the feed to expand to full screen, so I was stuck about 1m from the telly staring at a tiny box. I might have an incorrect plugin? Did anyone else have a similar experience?

2. Like in cricket or footy, you show the score; in cycling you show something like km to go and various gap lengths.

3. There are no adverts during the online feed. Brilliant.

4. Absolutely no lag or any difficulty streaming. Brilliant.

I thought that Phil and Paul were relatively normal. From profound observations (“The riders  are pushing to the limit, their heart rates probably rising to levels around the 160 to 170 beats per minute.”) to Paul’s interview with Valverde in Spanish (actually very impressive), they delivered in line with expectations.

Finally, I’ll take Voss to Anthony Tan any day.

Tim, I got caught by that initially too.  There was no indication that I could find, but if you double clicked on the feed window it expanded to full screen.  Not that I was impressed with the quality at full screen; a bit too pixelated to be watched on a 42cm TV.

wow, I think I fractured my jaw. 

How can you say the coverage was better when we got less than sbs provided last year. (Last Year SBS: Live Crit and two live stages with nightly highlights and excellent streaming, This Year 9: two live stages and nightly highlights with terrible streaming online)

Hosts, so you prefer Andrew Voss to Mike Tomilaris

Jeez, I would not say SBS’s job in the last year has been ordinary. Last year was one of their best with PR, First time RvV, First time Road nats, live Giro, live vuelta, live tdf, live cali, Live WC all having excellent streaming.

Being based in France it was great to be able to watch the live streaming of the event on 9′s website (admittedly quality was pretty average). Not sure whether SBS have done this previously as being from Adelaide I have previously always had the joy of watching it live.

For those interested, a one hour package was run on free-to-air over here in the middle of each afternoon which was very well received. The images were fantastic and the French commentators were loving the racing. A great showcase for Australian cycling. If I can find some stats on viewer numbers, will let you know.

Congrats to GreenEDGE and we look forward to watching you in the pro-peleton in France in the coming months.

Will 
 www.sportspulsions.com
 

apparently tv broadcasting regulations state they cant show and event on secondary channels before showing it on their primary channel first – same issue during rugby world cup.

It was crass.
Riewoldt saying “yeah I’d get a Scott from Gerry and [other stuff]” – I mean, come on. So blatantly crass. We don’t need that.

I agree. The actual production values etc were good.

I agree. I’d like to see numbers on SBS after a Cadel Tour win . UNfortunately we don’t have unbiased like for like data.

Great for everyone overseas (seriously I mean that).
Unfortunately here I am in regional NSW sucking eggs.

Not good for you guys – hopefully with time it will continue to improve.

Cycling on television in France is the equivalent of the coverage Tennis gets in Australia. All the major races are shown with the pinnacle events, ie. TdF, Giro, Roubaix, etc shown live on free to air with the smaller events and things like Cyclo-cross shown on pay-tv.
 
Cycling is a part of the lifestyle over here though and the the volume that either ride socially, compete or both from a very young age is hard to fathom. Australia is developing this and the commercial side that goes with it will result in improvement for viewing.

I watched most of Nine’s coverage during the week and no complaints from me, one improvement would be a bit earlier highlights for the early stages but on the flip side their highlights were double the length SBS used to run and better quality. Overall excellent quality, reached a bigger audience and it was refreshing to have different hosts.

I watched most of Nine’s coverage during the week and no complaints from me, one improvement would be a bit earlier highlights for the early stages but on the flip side their highlights were double the length SBS used to run and better quality. Overall excellent quality, reached a bigger audience and it was refreshing to have different hosts.

I for one was happy with the 9 coverage, lets face it they got better interviewers of the riders and we didn’t have to here Thomo and Keenan spill their boring drivel….  If Phil and Paul are on board I don’t care which channel present it..

I believe the cadel effect and green edge have had a huge effect on ratings, that’s why nine bidded on the rights to the tdu. To take full advantage of it. They would not have done so if cadel had not won or ge had not become our first pro team. so imo who ever had the rights this year was going to meringue from that. The dissipating thing is c9 failed to listen to the viewers and insisted on usa wipeout instead of showing the tdu.
But I wonder why? maybe there lack of experience left them undermanned and they didn’t have the time to put the highlights together in time? But overall we have been spoilt with the professionals at sbs lets hope they have it back soon!.

Agree totally – would like to hope the cycling crowd is above that type of bogan rubbish.

Argh, that Women’s Tennis on Eurosport is evil!  Always making me miss the end of cycling races!

 90% selling yourself short aren’t you?

Might be interesting for you to compare coverage from outside Oz – I’m in the UK, and it was being covered by Sky Sports. At first I thought Ch9 might be a Murdoch venture, hence the Sky Sports coverage here, but turns out it’s not.

Sky’s coverage consisted of a highlights show at 6.30 pm every evening, as well as the last two stages live in the middle of the night (12-5am and 2-5.30am). We got the same pictures as you guys, as well as Paul and Phil’s commentary (South Australia Tourist Board mini-adverts voiced by Phil included), but additionally for the ‘buildup’ to the live stages, we had an anonymous sky presenter and Chris Boardman in the studio.

In terms of on-the-road coverage, I thought it was good – the quality was miles better than Eurosport’s shocking SD coverage of the Vuelta last year. Although as somebody else has mentioned, a km counter would’ve been nice – I was doing other stuff while watching the flat bits of the Willunga stage, and with the circuit layout, got very confused as to how far along we were.

The Sky guys in the studio focused a lot on the Sky Pro Team before the race and during the odd five minute cut out of the coverage – to the extent we got interviews with Cav, who wasn’t even in the race!

Anyway, I thought it was decent enough in the end, and I actually thought the coverage was better than Eurosport’s of the Vuelta last year.

Nice troll post there buddy. I smell a Ch9 employee. There was no part of this years TdU coverage (not content) that was better in any measurable way than last years. At best, the live stages 5 and 6 were close. But I will conceed that competition for coverage is good for fans, as displayed by SBS’s excellent wrap ups during the week.

I recorded the first stg late night highlights on Ch9, but never watched it as I’d seen both the results and other highlights packages several times before going to bed. I only hope they provide some commitment to improve their broadcast for the next two years (if they have any interest after the Olympics are over – clearly this was a training excercise) – here’s hoping they find a suitable replacement for that muppet, Andrew Voss. It was like watching Elmo from Sesamie St host the Donkey Kong World Championships

I agree with JM. Hands off Phil and Paul… We listen to them commentating throughout the year. They are part of the cycling calendar and it wouldn’t be the same without them……. Some people are hard to please.

Oh poor Hunter, let him watch c9….. The serious cycling fans will be watching the professionals at work on SBS…. Voss over Tomalaris………Yer jokin ….right?????

The name says it all………

It’s because the percentages are the Share of audience i.e. based on the number  of people watching television at that time.

Rating percentages are based on the percentage of the total population, which would show the sort of differential you are expecting, but they aren’t given here, only the total number of viewers.

It would be interesting Wade, if you can prevail on your friend with access to the data, to look at the Reach figures. Reach is the number of people who watched any part of the program.

From what I’ve been reading here it seems that part of the rationale for moving to Ch 9 was to broaden the audience beyond the niche who watch on SBS. So if they had higher Reach then they could be said to have achieved that.

where do they get those figures from anyway? i dont know of anyone who has ever had one of those monitoring/ratings boxes connected to their tv.

the coverage was dumbed down and had a large focus on the australian riders only – which was a pity. cycling is a world wide sport but tv producers think we are only interested in sportsman from our own country – wait for the olympics – it will all be our aussie battler/heros. 

 i think greededge had something to do with the coverage being on ch 9 – greenedge needs exposure and a major sponsor.

Sleazy programming #101: roll your dud programme a few minutes late so that the real viewers turn on and catch the end of it, and hopefully tune in next time, or at least you fudge the ratings your way.

Notice how few ‘good’ programmes or sports events start on the advertised time on Channel 9 etc these days?

It aint due to sloppy standards in the programming box.  

I’m surprised that no one mentioned Wiggle advertising on Ch9 during the race. I’ve spoken with many in the bike industry who are outraged with this.

Yeah certainly a slap in the face. 

Although it might be argued that it is a dose of reality…

SBS may say that they run various events “LIVE” but in fact they are delayed in the West and other States that don’t fit in with their own time zone. This was not always the case and if they went truely live I am sure their ratings would improve dramatically. As a potential viewer and commited cyclist, who has other options for time wasting, one option that grates and as such is mostly excluded is the broadcasting of ‘LIVE’ events delayed by 2 hours or more.

+!

I’m fairly certain no one was “outbid” for the coverage of the TDU;
EventsSA or whoever looks after those matters gifted it to Ch9 in
the hope that the race would receive more national exposure if
I understand correctly.

Not sure if you can blame ES directly for the poor Vuelta coverage.
They would just be taking the local feed, just like other networks, and
adding their commentators/graphics to it. 

”
 i think greededge had something to do with the coverage being on ch 9 – greenedge needs exposure and a major sponsor.”

I’m sure you have some actual evidence/facts to back up this
claim and it’s just not a random accusation based on absolutely nothing at all….

The TDU coverage was effectively _given_ to Ch9 by the event organisers. 
I think they did a fair job, considering it was their first hit out.
Enough said really.

Agree with you regarding cycling being part of the lifestyle in France, although not sure that this just equates with the number of people actually cycling.  Go to any race and the number of ‘non cyclists’ will outnumber those on bikes.  Possibly thye just prefer cycling to football. 

The “bike industry” needs to take a good hard look at itself.

(1) A company in Portsmouth UK can import stuff from Asia, break it down into units, and re-export it to Australia cheaper than distributors in Australia can do the same for supply to bike shops? (note that this isn’t a GST issue, since GST is refunded for the intermediate sales being discussed here)

(2) There are a million bikes sold in Australia every year. “The industry” doesn’t sell the major proportion of those.

From a production values point of view, there really was no discernible difference between Channel 9 and SBS – the reason for this is that Channel 9 used the same (3rd party) production company that SBS have used previously. The cameras on the backs of motorbikes and attached to helicopters were all wielded by exactly the same people as in previous years. The big difference was in the lowest-common-denominator analysis provided by the likes of Andrew Voss as well as the appalling (and constantly changing) scheduling of the highlights.

Channel 9 don’t care about cycling, they never have and they never will. What they were interested in doing was trying to build some audience for cycling events at the London Olympics – the broadcast rights of which they hold and for which they need a large audience for in order to get any kind of return on that massive outlay.

Channel 9 still hold the rights for the TDU in 2013 but the big question is will they be even bothered to exercise that right. The jury is out … but I’m sure one of their ‘carpet strollers’ will be back to you with an answer some time in late August at the earliest.

No comparison.  SBS was right with the Broadcast Time, balance between advertising and content (and no product endorsements – was it me but Phil Ligget sounded jaded peddling Maggie Beers Products) ?

I was lucky enough to be riding and following the Tour D U in Adelaide with mates who I brought with me from Victoria and Qld (not for the first time) and we keenly looked forward to the updates.  We all wanted to see what happened on the day as we were out on the road and spending coin in the SA economy –  after all this is what the SA Government wants as an outcome) but looking for and waiting for the Ch 9 update was astonishingly bad.  For example waiting for a tired Mel Gibson “Maverick” movie to finish on one particular evening (I think it was supposed to finish at 11.00 but went to past 11.15) only benefited the breweries – we kept drinking – it ruined our morning ride :-)Sack the Channel 9 producer and one give them more chance, I say.  Channel 9 WAS the “Sports Channel”.  Perhaps the Private Equity owners may need to start managing their investment perhaps cos’ on the basis of the Ch 9 aint the “Sports Channel”. Kerry Packer would have sent the Sports Department to hell in a handbasket for the rubbish served up for the Non-Live stagesPerhaps the SA Government needs to get control of the “product”.  Its losing its charm………