Yes. Super Rugby teams are more franchised and seen to represent a block of areas, but importantly fully professional, moreso than NRC which is specifically province/area based and while players are professional don’t earn as much.
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It was never going to be a short term performance boost, it’s going to take some time (which at this point Rugby Australia seem to be supportive of) to build the quality of the NRC to make a clearer pathway between the two existing tiers
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Yep. The path between club rugby to Super was seen (and is) too big of a step.
with fox sports 1 changing to fox cricket it’s time foxtel reordered the sports channels.
i’d reorder them like this:
503 to 501 (renamed to foxsports 1)
505 to 502 (renamed to foxsports 2)
506 to 503 (renamed to foxsports 3)
507 to 504 (renamed from foxsports+ to Foxsports 4)
502 to 505 (Fox League)
504 to 506 (Fox Footy)
501 to 507 (fox cricket)
by putting the single sport channels at the end it puts them closer to bein and the various football club channels
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Although I wouldn’t disagree that it’s more logical to have Fox Sports 1/2/3/4 and then Footy, League & Cricket, realistically I think Foxtel would want the three single sport channels (for what are most likely to be Australia’s three most followed sports) to have top channel positions.
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One of the flaws with your plan is that Fox Footy needs a general Fox Sports channel next to it to handle two to three ‘overflow’ matches which occur per round
501 Fox Sports 1
502 Fox Sports 2
503 Fox Sports 3
504 Fox Cricket
505 Fox League
506 Fox Footy
507 Fox Sports+
One issue is that hotels mostly only seem to put Channels 501-503 through to guest rooms.
I think if FOX thinks cricket will be one of its three most popular channels it will go on probably 501.
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Surely one has to be Fox Motorsport channel.
It’s already been announced that Fox Sports 501 will be Fox Cricket from September 17.
As we all know plenty of people watch the cricket in hotels and holiday accommodation places over Summer (many of those with Pay TV only have in-room access to 501/502/503 as it’s already been pointed out), so no doubt that was one of the reasons 501 was selected as the home of Fox Cricket.
I can imagine that actually existing at some point in the future.
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Channel 506 was designated as Fox Motorsport channel in 2015-2016. The emergence of Fox League last year meant Channel 506 had to carry general sport as well.
A Fox Motorsport channel may not be feasible now, unless Fox Sports has enough spectrum to create a new general sports channel to help share the load of three other channels.
we had one in the past - Speed.
at the end of 2014 it became fox sports 5.
now that fox has a lot more motorsport (nascar, Indy, F1, GP2, V8’s all come to mind) it would be good to bring this back
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As I said before 506 is almost a 24/7 motorsport channel. It is where Fox Sports puts its V8 Supercar, Moto GP and F1 races. Let’s not end there:
501: Fox Cricket
502: Fox League (general sport including A-League or NBL in the off-season)
503: Fox Rugby (Union)
504: Fox Footy (general sport including A-League or NBL in the off-season)
505: Fox Golf (similar to the overseas Golf Channel)
506: Fox Motorsport
507: Fox Sports (all other general sports such as UFC, surfing, darts, lawn bowls etc.)
I’m sure Fox would have more than enough material to fill a 24/7 rugby union, golf or motor sport channel.
Also, does Fox Sports still have the rights to NHL ice hockey? If not I’m sure ESPN would snap it up, makes sense that they have all four major sporting leagues in the US all in the one place.
I don’t think there is enough interest to warrant a full time rugby union channel.
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Fox has actually dropped a few motorsport properties - IndyCar has been given back to ESPN and the WEC/Le Mans to Eurosport.
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Not sure how the Eurosport/PGA Tour agreement will work in Australia but Fox could potentially lose a lot of their golf inventory next year if Eurosport becomes the home of the PGA Tour. Therefore, there might not be enough content to fill a potential 24/7 golf channel.
Also, think Fox still has the NHL rights - they aired it last season
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and did a great job with it. When they showed the 10.30pm replays of games each period had no ad breaks in play, with ad breaks only between periods. Something that would not happen had ESPN got their mitts on the NHL (which has happened before, in the early 2000s).
Rugby reporter Louise Ransome leaving Fox Sports News. There’s a possibility she’s going to be more involved in Live sport on Fox, such as the summer of cricket.
NBL continues on Fox Sports
Foxtel will remain the home of the National Basketball League with every game of the 2018/19 Hungry Jack’s NBL season to be broadcast on FOX SPORTS.
Tipping off on October 11, FOX SPORTS will deliver LIVE, ad-break free during play and HD coverage of one of the world’s premier basketball leagues.
The upcoming season will be headlined by the arrival of Sydney Kings star Andrew Bogut, who returns home after 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Head of FOX SPORTS, Peter Campbell, said: “It’s fantastic Foxtel will continue as the home of the NBL with every game of the 2018/19 season. And with the return of one of Australia’s all-time basketball greats, it’s set to be a bumper season.
“Basketball fans have plenty to look forward to on Foxtel. The Opals’ World Cup matches and Boomers’ qualifiers, the WNBL plus the exciting BIG3 US league and the NBA which is just around the corner.”
NBL Chief Executive, Jeremy Loeliger, said: “We look forward to the NBL returning to FOX SPORTS this season. This is a golden era for Australian basketball and this NBL season will be the biggest yet.
“We believe the NBL is the best league outside of the NBA and we’re delighted fans will be able to watch every game on FOX SPORTS.”
FOX SPORTS is available exclusively on Foxtel.
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Unless there’s been a change to arrangements, the games will still be produced by the NBL.
Will be interesting to see if there’s any changes to the coverage in terms of presentation and presenters.