The ABC of complete indifference
This isn’t a plea to have netball replace Dancing With The Stars in the prime time schedule, however when a world championship semi final, involving Australia, isn’t deemed important enough to bump the kids cartoon Gerald McBoing Boing, then we have a problem.
The relationship between netball and the ABC has always been fractious. Netball gets treated with utter disdain by the ABC, as if the network would rather be with its various mistresses. The problem is Netball hasn’t got anywhere else to go, so it has to fold its arms and put up with the constant philandering.
The clash between Australia and England started at 4.10pm eastern summer time. The coverage commenced at 4.40pm. Why? Good question. Nothing overly important was showing before or after the game, so the unnecessary delay was almost a show of arrogance simply for the sake of it.
Tomorrow’s final, a potential classic between arch rivals Australia and New Zealand, starts at 6.10pm. Yep, they’re sirens you can hear. Can’t risk touching the news at 7pm, can we? Sacrosanct. Goodbye live coverage. Except for this - ABC has a second station, ABC2. Less than half the population has access, but better than nothing, right?
Wrong.
Classic movie buffs will delighted to read A Damsel in Distress will keep its coveted timeslot. You see, if you want to tinker on ABC2 you have to get Government approval. Lots of red tape, snap board meetings and papers to be signed. A bit too much effort for our girls, it seems.
Makes you wonder why ABC even bothers to purchase the rights.
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I agree that more of the championships should have been live, especially on ABC2. That is one of things things ABC2 is for.
As for netball having nowhere else to go, that is no longer the case. The domestic competition of Australia and NZ will be on Fox Sports as of next year. The championships aired on pay TV in both NZ (where the FTA TVNZ has historically given excellent coverage) and the UK.
The ABC could have cheaply bought the rights to the NZ league in the past for ABC2, but now that opportunity is passed. Perhaps it will take up some UK league coverage (if it becomes available) to fill the netball gap created by the new Australasian pay TV competition. But then again, perhaps not.