The New Year ticked around and every aussie cycling fan was eager to see new World Tour team GreenEDGE in action for the very first. We mowed the lawn early in the day, took the dog out for a walk and finished all the tasks around the house, so we could sit down and watch the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic and some of Australia’s hottest cycling talent. But surprise, surprise, there was no live race coverage of the event. Apparently, the TV rightsholder was going to pull together a highlights package of the race. Europeans would be shocked that a classic event like this was not telecast somewhere on free to air telecast in this country.
Cycling in Australia is currently in a growth phase, partly on the back of the historic win by Cadel Evans in the 2011 edition of the Tour De France. In August 2011, the Australian Bicycle Council’s National Cycling Participation Survey revealed that in a typical week around 18% of Australians ride a bicycle for transport and recreation with around 3.6 million people riding for recreation, leisure or sport and 1.2 million people making at least one transport journey. In 2010, it was also reported that Australian bought more bicycles than cars.
Yet, these figures have not translated into greater TV coverage of Australian cycling events. This would not happened if it was AFL, rugby league or rugby union.
Cycling fans are treated as the sporting poor cousins compared to other sports fans. We need to rush to the computer and get racing updates from twitter feeds or text messages from friends at the event.
Late last year, we were confronted with the news that Channel 9 bought the TV rights of the Tour Down Under, outbidding SBS. Judging by comments on twitter and facebook, cycling fans were outraged by this decision, as everyone remembers what Channel 9 did to the coverage of the FIFA World Cup in 2002. However, competition for sporting events brings innovation in sporting coverage. But Channel 9 coverage in 2012 will offers nothing new for cycling fans. According to its media release - ‘the Broadcast partnership will see the final weekend of the Santos Tour Down Under broadcast live on Channel Nine in 2012, with the remainder of the event shown in a dedicated highlights package each evening. These live stages will also be streamed live on the Wide World of Sport website’.
Cycling fans are being ripped off again. There is no added coverage of the TDU under the new Channel 9 contract. It is just replicating which existed under the previous television partner. It appears that the new television partner was brought in for financial reasons and to push SA tourism to the global market rather than get more cycling fans in front of the television set.
But don’t get me started on SBS either. I was sitting down watching Cycling Central yesterday. It was publicising SBS coverage of the National Road Championships in Buninyong. Maybe, I misunderstood, but it appears that SBS will only be covering the Men’s Road Race live, and only the last 2 hours. No different to last year!!!! I was hoping that SBS would step up to the plate and cover more races at the Nationals. We will hear the same old excuses; it is expensive, difficult to schedule the coverage, blah blah blah. Italian network RAI, did not have any issues with televising their national championships. But then again, Europeans do have a cycling culture that is not in existence here. Surely, SBS could use some of the funding freed up from missing out on the TDU rights to boost its coverage of the Nationals.
The cycling summer season has well and truly started in Australia. Like previous years, cycling fans will again have to rely on alternative media for our cycling coverage as there is very little live cycling coverage on TV. TV rightholders continue to bundle up highlights packages because they do not want to disrupt their normal crap summer programs. God forbid, showing cycling live in Australia might actually get some additional TV viewers at a time when most Australians are at the beach. But, we will never know!!!!
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