Yep. 7 paid $1m in 1977 to secure the rights to Moscow in 1980. A lot of money back then but the price shot up to $9.2m paid by Rupert Murdoch for the Ten network for the 1984 Olympics and then $10m for the 1988 Olympics.
Then Christopher Skase went against a gentleman’s agreement between the three networks when he bid something like $40m? (Citation needed for I can’t remember for certain) for Barcelona. Not sure if that amount included Atlanta and Sydney although I think they were locked in later.
I think that coverage was quite successful; though potentially it could have been otherwise if Australia had joined the US boycott. The Russians were the first to put more effort into the presentation with a spectacular opening ceremony (Misha the bear) and a live cross to space.
BTV6, GMV6 (and SES8, judging by other days in this edition) appear to be screening episodes of Neighbours only a day behind Ten. So given recent discussion in another thread, aggregation would have no impact in these areas at least in maintaining continuity with Neighbours, assuming that BTV/GMV6’s successor VIC TV kept running the show up until the changeover.
Prime is also screening Home And Away in sync with Seven… well, actually, 30 minutes before Seven to account for local news.
Prime Television (AMV4) is pretty much relaying the Seven schedule, 3 years ahead of aggregation (which at the time was intended to happen January 1993). There are some exceptions during the week: 60 Minutes (delayed to screening after the Sunday movie), Turn Round Australia (Sunday morning religious series which aired on Nine), Good Morning Australia, Days Of Our Lives, The Cosby Show and its spin-off A Different World, Rugby League Test Australia v New Zealand (from Nine).
BTV6, GMV6 and Southern Cross Network all showing an hour of news at 6.00pm although in reality this was regional news at 6.00 followed by National Nine News from Melbourne on delay at 6.30.
RTS5A showing Ten News, presumably from ADS10 in Adelaide, and SES8 I believe relaying National Nine News from Melbourne.
“Bizarre” showing late night on Ten was a Canadian sketch comedy series best known for producing the character Super Dave Osborne. It had been off the air in Canada for 3 years by the time the above episode was aired.
Not a Classic TV Listing, but I’ve noticed that the “Newcastle Herald” is no longer listing programming differences for the Sydney channels. Though the only real differences these days are late at night, particularly with Prime7’s penchant for all night TV shopping.
Of course, pre aggregation, ATN-7, TCN-9 and TEN-10 and also ECN-8 used to get the same amount of space for listings as NBN-3 in the Herald’s TV guide.
That series lasted 3 years, but 1976 was the only year where the VFL teams were involved. In 1977 the VFL installed lights at their ground at Waverley, had a night series involving their own clubs covered on Channel 7 on Tuesday Nights, the NFL (which at the time was the supposed governing body of Australian Rules Football) invited the VFA clubs to fill the breach and the coverage was switched to Channel 0. Eventually the NFL’s competition was absorbed into the VFL series, and for 3 years all 12 VFL clubs, the 10 SANFL clubs and 8 WAFL clubs plus representative teams from Tasmania, NSW, Qld and ACT competed in the series run by Channel 7. Eventually the representation outside of the VFL clubs dwindled to Grand Finalists (with the exception of Swan Districts in 1982/83 who were banned for fielding a weakened team) from the SANFL and WAFL until the WAFL clubs pulled out after 1985.
The NFL ran the night series in conjunction with the VFL until 1986 (when North Adelaide made the semi finals), after which the VFL ran the series from 1987 when the Eagles and Bears joined the comp. It was moved after 1986 from a midweek format with a GF in June to firstly a pseudo pre-season format in 1987 (covered by 7 even though they lost the rights to the expanded VFL comp EXCEPT for the final which due to industrial action ended up on the ABC who had secured Victorian rights for the VFL that season), then to a full pre-season comp until the competition became a series of practice matches.
I was largely oblivious to the whole NFL competition, so thanks for the background
So how did the NFL night competition work in with the Tuesday night VFL competition that used to take place on Tuesday nights? I think it used to be called the Escort Cup, named after a brand of cigarette I suppose
The VFL broke ranks and ran their own comp, not having any involvement with the NFL competition for the 2nd and 3rd year of its run.
The VFL comp the AMCO Cup to start with for 1977/78, then Escort Cup (or Escort Football Championships) for a couple of years, then the Stirling Cup for a year before Fosters, then National Panasonic took over.
Not too much to highlight here. Lots of multi-skilling from TV presenters. Particularly at Channel 7 where Brian Naylor, Jocelyn Terry, Danny Webb and Madeleine Burke are all handling multiple roles during the day.
Brian Naylor reads the evening news on 7, Eric Pearce on 9 and John Royle on ABC.
And riveting children’s TV with Adventures With Stamps on ABC during the Children’s TV Club
ABC also has the Sydney edition of Woman’s World, listed as a direct telecast. Live interstate link ups were rare in those days, and I imagine being done by microwave links as the coaxial cable connected Sydney and Melbourne a couple of years later.
Another school rugby league on Ten at 7am. I think there was a similar broadcast on an earlier listing I put in this thread. On the other weekday mornings Ten starts its day at 9am.
Channel Ten also has a kids program called… Studio 10
Ad man John Singleton hosts The John Singleton Show on Channel 10, followed by reruns of Number 96.
Aussie drama well represented with The Young Doctors, The Sullivans, Cop Shop and Skyways. Skyways would prove to be the weaker of the bunch as it was the youngest of these titles and was axed only a few months later. (Though personally it was probably my favourite as I’d occasionally be allowed to stay up late to watch it)
My mother used to listen to John Singleton on 2KY back in the day. He was difficult to listen to as a a talkback radio host. I can’t imagine how bad he would’ve been presenting a “current affairs, variety, entertainment and interview” show. I don’t even know how such a format would’ve come together on the screen. I imagine it would’ve been a bit like The Mike Walsh Show.
I don’t think we ever got The John Singleton Show in Melbourne. ATV0/10 instead used to have The Peter Couchman Show which I think ran in various formats from about 1978 to 1980, and later tried The Ted Hamilton Show and The Saturday Night Show (the latter picking up where Seven’s former Penthouse Club/Saturday Night Live ended off).
ATV certainly seemed to try and tackle Nine’s hold on variety on and off during the 1970s but never really caused a dent in Nine’s dominance. The Don Lane Show was unbeatable.
It would’ve been a big investment producing a 90 minute show running from 10.30pm until midnight. I don’t remember Ten in Sydney making much of an effort with variety. I do remember Don Lane being a big deal in our household. Even though it was on well past my 8.30pm bedtime, I do remember watching the show on occasion and loving Don and Bert play off each other.
Funny to see so much live television being produced for late night slots back then when next to none is produced now by the FTAs.
I occasionally would get to see The Don Lane Show as a kid, and on the night of its final show I was allowed to stay up to watch it in full even though it went way past 11.00 because my parents said there would not be another show like it again. And I think they were right. It was sort of the last of the big Channel 9 variety shows, except for perhaps Hey Hey It’s Saturday.
Mike Walsh was class, whereas John Singleton was rubbish. He also previously did a Saturday night show in 1979 on Ten. I found this interview Singleton did with Australian Playboy in 1981. Singo recalls how his television opportunity came out of a post midday radio show he did with John Laws on 2UW in 1978 - The Ogre And The Ocker. I remember Singo on 2UW and watching both his shows on Ten, and my memory is that they were not very good.
