The Boxing Day Test only had the 3rd session live unless it was a sellout
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Not just Boxing Day but all tests had blackouts on the city where it was played and sell outs were and still are very rare.
ODIs and domestic one dayers got the first two hours live.
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Always remember my Dad at this time changing the tv antenna direction on the roof, so he could pick up WIN (Bendigo) to watch the cricket. These were the days.
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Plenty of people around Sydney had their antennas pointed south to pick up WIN from Wollongong, as it came in handy when cricket matches played at the SCG were blacked out on TCN.
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“I’ll have the Number 23 with black bean sauce.”
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Seven’s endless summer of tennis. It’s good that over the years the number of tournaments has been reduced.
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“It’s pure bloody ecstasy!”
How long did Ten has test cricket rights for?
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couple of years, I think. Seven had the cricket for a year or so as well but IIRC it was always in parallel with ABC. Also because ABC had regional coverage whereas the commercial networks were limited in that respect.
That’s when Packer stirred the pot with World Series Cricket, poaching all the test cricket talent for his own competition. Eventually it settled that Nine would cover the test cricket in metro areas and ABC would maintain its own coverage to the regions. Once aggregation came along the ABC dropped out of the cricket coverage as the Nine affiliates essentially took Nine’s coverage.
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Have they? The NSW Open became the Sydney International, the Brisbane International was created from the Australian Men’s and Women’s Haardcourts held separately in Adelaide and Brisbane (later Gold Coast) and if we were lucky we’d see the Aussiea in the Davis Cup final in December. I’d say we see more tennis broadcast now than in the 70s and 80s. The exception being the demise of the Indoor tournaments usually on the 0-10 Network.
0-10 also had thee rights to the Gillette Cup domestic limited overs series until the end of WSC.
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In the Summer of 1979/80 there were six straight weeks of tennis on Seven in Sydney, within only one day off for Christmas Day, which was preceded and followed by the Davis Cup. Back then it did seem like it would never end. There was a similar amount of tennis on Seven in 1978/79.
5 - 7 Oct 1979 - Aus v USA Davis Cup semi-final, Sydney.
24 - 25 Nov 1979 - Satellite Circuit, Melbourne
26 Nov - 2 Dec 1979 - Toyota Women’s Classic, Melbourne
3 - 9 Dec 1979 - Sydney Women’s Classic
10 - 16 Dec 1979 - Berri Fruit Juices SA Open, Adelaide
17 - 23 Dec 1979 - Nabisco NSW Open, Sydney
24, 26 - 31 Dec, 1979, 1 - 2 Jan 1980 - Marlboro Australian Open, Melbourne
3 - 6 Jan - Australian Hardcourt, Hobart
8 Feb - 10 Feb 1979 - Aus v Japan Davis Cup, Hobart
Source: SMH
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and in the early 1980s the Australian Open was split into two tournaments: the women’s (sponsored by Toyota) in the first week and the men’s (sponsored by Marlboro) in the second. Both were at Kooyong, and were held in the first two weeks of December.
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December 31st 1980 (40 years ago) - Melbourne
Excuse any errors, since i’m not from Australia.
I wish everyone on MediaSpy a very pleasant 2021!
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Excellent work as always Gabe. My only suggestion is that Play School at 9.30am on ABC only went half-an-hour. From 10.00 there would have been a test pattern until the afternoon programs begin. Newspaper guides may have left that out.
Happy New Year and I look forward to more of your contributions in 2021 
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Bob Denver must’ve popular in 1971 with Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (4.30pm TEN10), Gilligan’s Island (6.30pm TEN10) and The Good Guys (6pm TCN9) all airing. Can’t say I’ve ever seen an episode of the last one but I’d like to seek one out considering The Skipper and Thurston Howell III from Gilligan’s Island guest starred in several episodes.
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There are a few episodes on YouTube. This is one with Alan Hale:
The series is owned by CBS.
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Thanks. Was going to have a look on YouTube for it.
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