And you could guarentee something would happen after they pissed off to the news
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Also when it came to regional based NRL Teams. When did local affiliates stop broadcasting their team’s games? Like NBN with the Knights in 2003.
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The worst I can remember was missing Darren Gough’s hat trick at the SCG in 1998-99.
BITD they used to play on until 90 overs were bowled. I remember it was 1845 when Steve Waugh hit the last ball of the day to bring up his century in 2003; I was lucky enough to be at the ground so I’m not sure if Ch 9 showed that. That would have been a huge miss if so.
Also in ODIs, A Current Affair would mean that you missed the first 6-7 overs of the run chase. This pissed me off no end when Adam Gilchrist was in a mood.
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The Optus network only covered parts of the major cities back then, the majority of Australians would not have been able to access the Optus channels even if they wanted to.
While it’s a fair point that back in those days “regular programming” typically rated better, one could also argue that if Nine were that concerned about primetime ratings they could have passed on the rights to someone who would cover it properly. The SBS coverage in 2005 was brilliant for example.
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And once again you can guarantee something significant would happen.
I think Capital TV only covered the Raiders/Steelers games in 1989 (first year of aggregation)… after that, they appear to have only shown whatever TEN-10 Sydney aired.
I recall WIN showed the Cowboys games in Nth Qld for a while, but really don’t know what years that ran for.
Prior to aggregation, WIN and NBN collaborated on televising the Knights/Steelers game to both markets a couple of times.. I recall Rex Mossop called the game once for both stations, the other time each station had their own commentary teams.
And in 1988, NBN-3 showed highlights of the Knights games the following Saturday (guide example below for Sat 8 July, the game against the Roosters was played on Sun 2 July).
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Another example of regional broadcasters collaborating on sport.. on 14 July 1990, Prime Canberra and NBN Newcastle both aired the Canberra Cannons vs Newcastle Falcons basketball match (not shown on ATN-7). Guides below.
I think Phil Lynch called the game for both stations.
NBN aired it at 10.20pm
Prime Canberra aired it at 10.45
For reference, ATN-7 showed Knots Landing at that time
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They did show it live on Nine. The news got delayed.
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IIRC Nine got better in later years (but still prior to the multichannels) at being happy to delay the news to allow viewers to watch the end of the cricket. But for a long while there they cut away at 6pm on the dot.
And @dxnerd not sure if you ever watched via WIN but I recall being in regional Victoria and having to sit through both the local news at 6 then National Nine News at 6:30 before only coming back to the cricket at 7 too. Was almost worse if Australia were 1/not many and you saw Gilly was out…
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Even if ACA was still on they would still provide coverage for overseas stations of the first overs, especially when the UK and NZ started taking full coverage. And they would call it to the end for overseas stations too. That’s why in the Ashes of 1998-99, when there as a hat trick, it was just Simon O Donnell polishing off the day, rather than some else being with him in the box. Sky had their own coverage for the Ashes, obviously.
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No different to having news+ACA on the metros. I think I recall WIN delaying ACA until after 2200 (so after the day night match). Never was set up for Wollongong, though I did try and watch it on rabbit ears without much success during the Sydney tests that weren’t shown in the city of origin.
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Hang on, wouldn’t they have always done this for the non AEDT time zones anyway?
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Yes, here is 14 December 1993, when AUS played SAF at the SCG.
Both NBN and WIN delayed ACA until after the cricket, as the game was at the SCG, back then Nine could only show the first 2 hours of the ODI in the host city. Also includes the replacement programming for TCN-9 from 4.30pm as well.
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Pay tv coverage of Wests Tigers v Newcastle Knights round 25 2000. Also shown on NBN.
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I believe the deal was that NBN supplied camera and personnel for home games and in return got delayed coverage rights. Was that right?
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That was the infamous game that South Africa got bowled out for 69.
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In latter years most of the ODIs involving Australia at the SCG were sellouts, so were shown in full. A lot of the tests were also sold out on Day 1 and Day 2.
A better policy might have been to show the game but on several hours delay. May not have worked for tests though, because that would mean the coverage spilled over into prime time.
This policy is why you see legacy Wollongong antennae on the roof of just about every pub in Sydney. In Melbourne it’s probably a combination of Gippsland, Bendigo and Ballarat antennae.
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But this was the collective advantage you guys got in Sydney that you have a thimble-sized cricket ground. In Melbourne we had a cauldron that almost never sold out, so never got the games on TV.
Nine did sometimes used to do a highlights package, an hour long or so, after the end of the game that would air into the host city (usually late at night). They certainly did this for ODIs but I can’t recall if they did it for the tests as well.
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I think with Tests, they only usually showed the last session of play in the host city, but joined coverage from the start of the tea break (so around 3.40pm) so that allowed for 20 minutes of highlights to catch up on the days play before the final session resumed at 4pm, as well as a wrap in the 6pm news, so probably not as much of a need for late night highlights.
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Yes, this is definitely what they did for non sell out days of test matches.
That is a great point @tamago_otoko and probably the only metric in which Sydney was a bit regional 
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