SBS Sport

Pretty sure SBS’ current FIFA rights deal ends after the 2022 Qatar World Cup. As such, the 2023 Women’s World Cup would be the first major event under the next rights deal

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SBS is a completely inappropriate network for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. They don’t have a long, rich history of covering soccer/football on Australian TV! :wink:

Of course I’m actually fine that our multicultural broadcaster has the rights.

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SBS has the rights to the 2022 World Cup exclusively. The 2023 World Cup is bundled with the 2026 and 2027 World Cups.

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SBS and ABC should fight over it, like last time Australia hosted an international soccer tournament.

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Why?

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Each day’s race will be streamed live on SBS on Demand to all states. The TV broadcast will be delayed to viewers in QLD, SA, NT and WA.

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Has “The World Game” been quietly axed? It hasn’t been on air for a while.

In recent years, it aired as a weekly 30-minute highlight show, airing on Monday nights, at approx 11pm or so (after the Late News). It showcased mainly the EPL, and the other leagues, including the A-League, briefly.

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Haven’t noticed it on tv for a long time now. I think there’s an online version hosted by Zelic on TWG website but it seems very infrequent and is almost unrecognizable compared to the Les days.

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Are you referring to the weekly podcast?

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Quite possibly.

Man those Sunday afternoons were great when TWG was in its heyday.

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As mentioned in SBS operations thread, the broadcaster announced this morning that it would close the World Game football website. It would also close the Cycling Central platform, and consolidate its sports coverage into one website.

SBS’s announcement

Bringing some of the world’s best sports to Australians for free continues to be at the heart of what we do at SBS Sport, in the coming months we will be updating our website offering by consolidating our current sites into one online destination showcasing all our sports coverage.

The SBS Sport website will be the home of all our sports coverage, and the current websites for The World Game and Cycling Central will not be continuing.

At www.sbs.com.au/sport, you can access our coverage of key events and competitions, such as the Tour De France, NBL, NBA, and the 2022 FIFA World Cup – as well as more of the range of sports covered by SBS.

We’ll also be increasing our focus on providing live sport streaming and improving our catch-up service on SBS On Demand, so you can easily access more of our sport coverage.

SBS remains the home of cycling in Australia - broadcasting major cycling events including the Tour de France, which will continue to be available exclusively to Australians on SBS under our current broadcast rights deal until 2030.

We are also proud to be the exclusive Australian rights holder to the 2022 FIFA World Cup and will continue broadcasting a number of international football events.

While our websites for The World Game and Cycling Central will no longer exist, we will continue to engage audiences with unique and diverse content on alternative platforms.

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No, the website. It is still used as a podcast and, sporadically, on air.

Nine Newspapers report the World Game brand would be dropped altogether.

UPDATE: an SBS spokesperson told Mumbrella:

A small number of roles will be impacted as a result of these changes. SBS is working closely with the employees directly affected.

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The World Game imagined that it was football in Australia. It was a fantasy that has never been realised. Just go back to calling it soccer.

Thw World Game has a good base on Facebook (and has great links to their website). I thought it was strong (well, healthy enough to keep it open). A shame the brand will close.

SBS has been progressively losing football rights - this doesn’t surprise me. Les and Johnny would be rolling around in their graves (if they’ve been buried that is).

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The World Game could be preserved as a sports blog run by fans.

Nine could just buy the rights to the name and brand, bring Lucy Zelic across too. :slight_smile:

Sad to see a well-known brand go

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My favourite segment on The World Game when it was on Sunday afternoons was Fan’s Corner with Damien Lovelock.

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