A question about the 1987 commentary team

[spell_check]

Of course it's the year that the ABC ad exclusive rights to broadcast the VFL matches. The commentary team as a result changed quite a bit as a contrast to the Channel 7 team, with people like Lou Richards, Jack Edwards, Sandy Roberts not joining Channel 2. People such as Tim Lane, Doug Heywood, Drew Morphett and Peter Gee - a good one for the "Where are they now" category, though I do believe he is involved in TV in Tasmania somewhere - became the face of VFL bradcasts.

But the question I ask is that I have noticed that from the Electrifying 80s' video I have and seeing the matches that have been played on Fox Footy from this year is that two different commentary teams were heard on each source. For example, the GF of that year had Dennis Cometti, Peter McKenna and Bob Skilton on the 80s' video but Tim Lane, Drew Morphett and someone else I can't remember on the FoxFooty version. Both had the same footage. Is this because Channel 7 used a dubbed tape of a radio commentary? Or did Channel 7 used their own sports commentators so that it used for their archives? Or something else?

 

[HorseHead]

...But the question I ask is that I have noticed that from the Electrifying 80s' video I have and seeing the matches that have been played on Fox Footy from this year is that two different commentary teams were heard on each source. For example, the GF of that year had Dennis Cometti, Peter McKenna and Bob Skilton on the 80s' video but Tim Lane, Drew Morphett and someone else I can't remember on the FoxFooty version. Both had the same footage. Is this because Channel 7 used a dubbed tape of a radio commentary? Or did Channel 7 used their own sports commentators so that it used for their archives? Or something else?

I don't believe Channel 7 were involved in any way. From memory, there was an independent company known as Powerplay (I think it was called Powerplay... or Sportsplay... or something similar. I'm pretty sure they had their corporate logo painted on the surfaces of football grounds that season. It was white with black writing from memory) that were also involved in football telecasts that year.

Edit: I found this page:

http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache...df+broadcom+vfl+1987&hl=en&gl=au&ct=clnk&cd=5

"...Seven held the rights for most years, but temporarily lost them in 1987 to Broadcom, which on-passed them to the ABC..."

The company was Broadcom. At a guess, I'd say Broadcom had their own commentary team, while the ABC used their own people for the matches they broadcast that year.

 

[My North]

at a guess The ABC had the footy rights for the home and Away season, while Channel 7 did the Finals. Just a guess at that one

 

[spell_check]

I don't believe Channel 7 were involved in any way. From memory, there was an independent company known as Powerplay (I think it was called Powerplay... or Sportsplay... or something similar. I'm pretty sure they had their corporate logo painted on the surfaces of football grounds that season. It was white with black writing from memory) that were also involved in football telecasts that year.

Sportsplay it was.

 

[spell_check]

at a guess The ABC had the footy rights for the home and Away season, while Channel 7 did the Finals. Just a guess at that one

I don't think that's the case, because when Sydney beat Essendon with that score of 36.20, the Electrifying 80s' tape had Peter McKenna as the commentator. But Fox Footy had Tim Lane, Doug Heywood and Kevin Bartlett as the commentators. I think on another couple of occasions during the minor round on that 80s' tape it is the same sort of thing.

 

[Kenny Hunter]

From the 80's , what year was the match??

87 , yes The ABC had rights

But before that in the early 80"s both(stations) had the rights so for example u can get games that have 2 different sets of commentators

Hope that helps

 

[spell_check]

From the 80's , what year was the match??

87 , yes The ABC had rights

But before that in the early 80"s both(stations) had the rights so for example u can get games that have 2 different sets of commentators

Hope that helps

Yes 1987 it was, the matches I am thinking of are all from this year. But in years before that, the ABC and Channel 7 had not just different commentators but also different camera footage. That's why I put the "same camera footage" in bold, because that I don't understand why that was in 1987 when the ABC had exclusive rights but two different commentator teams used the same footage (apparently).

 

[spell_check]

Bump.

 

[TuskenRaider]

at a guess The ABC had the footy rights for the home and Away season, while Channel 7 did the Finals. Just a guess at that one

ABC had it for the finals as well.
I know in the GF video I have it's ABC coverage with commentators like Drew Morphet.

Sportsplay was the company involved which I think was a trademark for Broadcom. I think it was a forerunner to pay/Sky TV, and that may be why you would have a different commentary team. I don't think you could get it at home like today's Pay TV but was to be sold to pubs etc. I could be wrong on that though.

But ABC were the sole free-to-air station.

 

[spell_check]

So it might have possibly been part of Sportsplay/Broadcom that they hired Channel 7 commentators such as McKenna and Skilton to commentate game that were live into pubs and clubs. Sounds like the only logical reason to me.

 

[joe444]

Six years too late, but here's your answer.

BROADCOM bought the rights to distribution of games for '87 and '88.

They sold the satellite rights to SPORTSPLAY (hence the ads you'll see on the umpires' backs in 1987 games).

They then farmed out right to various states. From memory, Seven had the rights for Perth. Channel O/Ten had the rights for Brisbane and Sydney.

In Victoria - the heartland - it was the ABC.

Just to complicate things more, part of the rights deal was for each states' holder to provide the basic feed of footage. So Seven in Perth televised all Eagles games (with their own graphics and perhaps even commentary). O/Ten in the north provided their own feed but just stuck with the Broadcom commentary (McKenna, Skilton, Bree and your cheesy host Ken Hose).

In Victoria, the ABC covered two games a round and Broadcom did their own game with McKenna and Skilton calling. Usually any away game for the Eagles/Swans/Bears. It was always a bit loose. One round saw the ABC provide both footage and graphics for Broadcom, the one where Lockett kicked his 100th goal. There was a tremendous uproar when neither ABC or Broadcom chose to televise Collingwood v Carlton. In the end, the ABC backed down a little - they took the footage from the VFL Park scoreboard and added a commentary from Gareth Andrews. The game turned out to be a classic, so they showed about 20 minutes of it that night.

Different times.

In the finals, footage was pooled. The footage of the 87 finals comes from the ABC, with their weird habits of the time (strange greenish colour, showing as much of the crowd on wide angles as possible, using one 'ground level' camera instead of two to cover the play).

The 1987 Grand Final was called by Cometti, McKenna, Skilton and Breen for most of Australia. But the footage came from ABC (which is why graphics often don't match up with what is being shown).

In Victoria, it was called by Lane, Morphett, Bartlett and Gee. Fox have showed it once because they've bought the rights to ABC's VFL library. Seven's is largely lost to the dust of history, courtesy of incompetence and a fire.

Hope that helps.

 

[footyfan1978]

ABC had it for the finals as well.
I know in the GF video I have it's ABC coverage with commentators like Drew Morphet.

Sportsplay was the company involved which I think was a trademark for Broadcom. I think it was a forerunner to pay/Sky TV, and that may be why you would have a different commentary team. I don't think you could get it at home like today's Pay TV but was to be sold to pubs etc. I could be wrong on that though.

But ABC were the sole free-to-air station.

 

[FootyJunkie]

West Coast yellow shorts... very 80s, very Burswood.

 

[raymond35]

Joe444 has summed it up pretty well, but i was totally unaware that ch 0/10 showed the matches in northern states.
I was in melb at the time and assumed that the abc coverage went to all states, thus explaining the bizarre coverage time on a saturday of 4:00-6:00, hosted by tim lane.