Fairly certain during Rio that AFL took priority. To be fair, live Rio action didn’t clash with every game
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It varied - many games were on the main channel but Seven showed a replay of the opening ceremony in Melbourne and Adelaide on the main channel instead of AFL according to this discussion.
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You’d expect in 2018 every channel to be in HD so we wouldn’t have this problem. Nevertheless, it’s disappointing that the footy isn’t on the main channel for those without Foxtel. I don’t think the Commonwealth Games are as big an event as Seven think.
Its the fact they are being held in Australia. Rio wasn’t. This is going to be promoting Australia. The tourists that have come over to watch the games etc. You don’t really want any vision to be in SD. So I can understand why they are giving it priority over AFL. Unfortunately Seven knew this before purchasing the rights.
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It’s also well worth remembering that when the AFL was shifted to 7mate and SD-only coverage during the Rio 2016 Olympics, it was August and probably a critical part of the season with the finals just around the corner.
By contrast, coverage of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games will only really affect Rounds 3 and 4 (from memory). I’m sure it’s frustrating for AFL fans without Foxtel, but somehow I think there’d probably be even more complaints from viewers if Seven decided to prioritise AFL in HD over GC2018 coverage in HD!
Agreed.
I think even the AFL know that the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games are a bigger event for Australia than a couple of rounds of early season football.
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According to your own weekly notes (and Channel 7’s and the AFL) of the AFL coverage for rounds 20-22 2016 all the matches were on 7 in Melb/Adel. Usual Friday night pregame on 7mate (just like now). That’s actually what happened, not sure what the other quote is?
Only time Vic has had a live AFL game on 7mate was last year’s Anzac Eve match.
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It’d be nice if Seven handballed (see what I did there?) the AFL to SBS for two weeks so it could still be in HD on FTA.
But I know that’s wishful thinking in this day and age…
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It was referring to 6 August when the AFL was shown on 7Mate in Melbourne and Adelaide.
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Rio 2016 also wasn’t anywhere near as big as it could’ve been, due to the time zone. Much of prime-time was just a highlights (replays) show.
Gold Coast 2018 is obviously our time zone, with the biggest events live in key prime-time.
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Maybe most of Seven’s production crew will be working on the Gold Coast?
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Funny that, wasn’t on 7mate here in Tasmania and, outside of news, our feed is the same as 7 Melbourne.
So am I correct to assume Seven gives Foxtel a HD feed?
I’m pretty sure they get the feed directly out of the OB truck which would be HD.
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I think you’re right, as it must be a clean feed.
Unless it still goes via BCM?
I don’t think SBS would do this unless they were getting a share of the advertising revenues. And why would Seven want to give this up?
If only Seven did what SBS have done and had a multichannel in HD then it wouldn’t matter!
I vaguely remember something like this happening way back before multichannels, possibly before digital.
And Seven and SBS have form sharing, with the two sharing Olympics rights in the not too distant past.
But, anyways, it was just a vague daydream rather a concrete desire or prediction.
When will GetUp start a petition to make all HD channels or all channels for that matter MPEG4? 
Channel 9 used to pass the Ashes test that clashed with Wimbledon over to ABC, also some of the top end series that clashes with NRL on weekends. Channel 7 occasionally passed on early rounds of home Davis Cup ties to ABC too. There’s bound to be a few more examples.
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