so what 10 won’t be capable on showcasing the last 2 events on the Supercar 2020/21 season. Surely it would be catered for that to happen.
I think it’s clear the network is now changing direction.
Sad to see Matt White depart from Ten Sport.
More surprised that Sports Tonight “will return”.
They probably just don’t want to confirm it’s been shelved, even though the writing was on the wall for that show.
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Nine hasn’t shown Motorsport since 2002
I agree. Most networks dislike saying that a show has been axed / shelved for some odd reason. I used to enjoy watching the show years ago, but ZERO people watched it in 2019. Why bother mentioning the show in their press release baffles me
I don’t think this is a turn against sport from 10, they’ll look for opportunities where they arise (i.e. the horse racing which has been discussed that they ultimately appear to have missed out on). But the big three are currently tied up for a while.
While I feel sorry for Matt losing his job, it appears a role (head of sport) that 10/ViacomCBS believes they can do without now. I don’t think he would have had much presence on the frontline negotiating contracts etc so I’m not sure what power/influence the Head of Sport role ultimately actually would have had other than being a nice title.
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Could 10 still use Matt just on a freelance basis for the Melbourne Cup coverage, which is what they’ve done with Michael Felgate? Or is there now ‘bad blood’
Why the hell did Felgate leave Seven to cover a one off event?
He had a very good role at HSV7.
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I mean, he seemingly got made redundant today so probably too early to ask that.
They could hire him freelance but it would depend on the terms of his redundancy and indeed, whether either party wanted to.
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Not really. He should’ve been weekend sport presenter but Sean Sowerby (then his wife) was and he was overlooked.
The move does seem a bit puzzling though, from a prominent sport reporter to covering something for four days (amongst other commitments which doesn’t seem that prominent at all).
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Horse racing is his forté, he has other work in that field too and has won awards over the years for his work.
Him and a reporter at 10 (used to be on Sports Tonight think his name was Andrew Brown but was based in Sydney) used to take turns at winning the Melbourne Cup / horse racing media industry awards many years ago.
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Doubt that’s their strategy considering part of the network’s spending cuts includes not spending money on one-off sports events
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As you allude to Felgate also has radio commitments at racing station RSN, hosting a weekday morning show if I recall. Would make sense for him to stick around the horses.
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Th blackbox podcast reinforcing that ten aren’t interested in sport and won’t be bidding for many sports rights moving forward.
From what I gather if they are going to follow the channel 5 model they won’t be needing any sport and focus on entertainment only. A shame given they do a good job of sports coverage. It looks like when Viacom merged with cbs there has been a complete change of strategy.
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Ten are doing well with their general entertainment lineup in primetime, sometimes out-rating 7.
Indeed they’re doing well. Sport really needed for weekends though but maybe the cost isn’t worth it regarding getting in the revenue.
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They’ve got to be committed to the Melbourne Cup carnival for some years yet though
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That’s it though. Not much. 4 days a year.
Rugby and V8 is finishing up this year and reports are they’re not interested in any of these rights in the future.
We can pick at little things all we want but overall and broadly they’re no longer interested in sports. They’ve made a head of sport role redundant. They’re not active in getting rights. They’re simply not interested under their new viacomCBS strategy. They’re now mor aligned with the UK model as opposed to the CBS in the US model.
Would it be particularly bold (no pun intended, haha) to predict that the Melbourne Cup Carnival will most likely return to Seven once the current deal with Ten expires?