How to make Saturday Nights friendly for television AND spectators

Currently the Saturday Night games start at 7.40pm, which is a good time for television, granted, but it is a major pain for spectators, especially as my team always seem to get 7.40pm Saturday Night home games. 7.40pm starts work fine for rugby union, league and football (soccer) because those sports go for less than two hours. An Aussie Rules match goes for nearly three hours and by the time I am home after a Lions home game it's around 11-11.30pm. It is simply way too late for families. FFS I'm a uni student and I'm bitching about it. I thought 7.10pm as a starting time was pushing it a bit but this takes the cake.

So here is my solution (realistically won't happen until 2017 and done under the assumption that 7 keep the rights and keep their news service at 6pm).

Have the first Saturday Night game at 6.40pm AEST.
Have the second Saturday Night game at 7.10pm AEST.

Have both games shown on free-to-air, one game live and the other on replay. Of course both games live in Foxtel.

Victoria and Tasmania FTA viewers will always get the 6.40pm game first and the 7.10pm game afterwards.

South Australia and Northern Territory FTA viewers will always get the 7.10pm game first (which of course starts 6.40pm their time) and the 6.40pm game afterwards. If a South Australian team is playing on a Saturday Night they will always get the 7.10pm AEST game.

Queensland and NSW/ACT FTA viewers will normally get the 6.40pm game first and the 7.10pm game afterwards, unless if the local team is playing the 7.10pm game, in that case they will get that game first on FTA TV.

Western Australia FTA viewers will get whichever game is more appealing to the neutral first, unless if their local team is playing, in that case they get that game first.

This is good for spectators because games don't start ridiculously late and they can watch a game on television afterwards, which is good for viewership. Television viewers get a double header and 7 get extra ratings because of the double header and the first game starts straight after the news (except in WA).

The other three games on Saturday can start at 1.10pm, 2.10pm and 4.10pm.
 

Footy Karma

Senior List
Aug 6, 2012
157
77
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Currently the Saturday Night games start at 7.40pm, which is a good time for television, granted, but it is a major pain for spectators, especially as my team always seem to get 7.40pm Saturday Night home games. 7.40pm starts work fine for rugby union, league and football (soccer) because those sports go for less than two hours. An Aussie Rules match goes for nearly three hours and by the time I am home after a Lions home game it's around 11-11.30pm. It is simply way too late for families. FFS I'm a uni student and I'm bitching about it. I thought 7.10pm as a starting time was pushing it a bit but this takes the cake.

So here is my solution (realistically won't happen until 2017 and done under the assumption that 7 keep the rights and keep their news service at 6pm).

Have the first Saturday Night game at 6.40pm AEST.
Have the second Saturday Night game at 7.10pm AEST.

Have both games shown on free-to-air, one game live and the other on replay. Of course both games live in Foxtel.

Victoria and Tasmania FTA viewers will always get the 6.40pm game first and the 7.10pm game afterwards.

South Australia and Northern Territory FTA viewers will always get the 7.10pm game first (which of course starts 6.40pm their time) and the 6.40pm game afterwards. If a South Australian team is playing on a Saturday Night they will always get the 7.10pm AEST game.

Queensland and NSW/ACT FTA viewers will normally get the 6.40pm game first and the 7.10pm game afterwards, unless if the local team is playing the 7.10pm game, in that case they will get that game first on FTA TV.

Western Australia FTA viewers will get whichever game is more appealing to the neutral first, unless if their local team is playing, in that case they get that game first.

This is good for spectators because games don't start ridiculously late and they can watch a game on television afterwards, which is good for viewership. Television viewers get a double header and 7 get extra ratings because of the double header and the first game starts straight after the news (except in WA).

The other three games on Saturday can start at 1.10pm, 2.10pm and 4.10pm.

Nah.
 
Such an Australian mentality. NBA has midweek games that start at 9:30pm to allow for double or triple headers. Are you really having a cry about getting home at 11pm on a Saturday night?
You're a West Coast fan. The latest home game you guys get is 6.40pm. Of course you wouldn't get why I am whinging about it.

Have issues with the 7:40 game on a Saturday but nothing about the 7:50 Friday night game?
My team doesn't get 7.50pm games on Friday Night (home or away) so there's no need for me to complain about it. Also I said that time is good for TV, just not spectators.
 
Such an Australian mentality. NBA has midweek games that start at 9:30pm to allow for double or triple headers. Are you really having a cry about getting home at 11pm on a Saturday night?


Yes, but the games are much shorter, and the TV crowd is a much bigger issue than those who will be at the game.
 

Silent Alarm

sack Lyon
10k Posts
Jul 9, 2010
24,163
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Fremantle
My team doesn't get 7.50pm games on Friday Night (home or away) so there's no need for me to complain about it. Also I said that time is good for TV, just not spectators.
You don't care because your club isn't affected by it? So this about the AFL being a convenience you? Jesus.

]
 
You don't care because your club isn't affected by it? So this about the AFL being a convenience you? Jesus.

]
If my team did get 7.50pm Friday Night games on a regular basis I'd probably complain about to.

But (predictably) it's the West Coast and Fremantle fans that are telling me to stop complaining.
 
Nov 8, 2000
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South of the river
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Peel Thunder
7:40 would be better than 5:40 that we cop. 5:40 is too early for dinner, and it finishes too late to do much afterwards, given i'm not 23 anymore. Much rather have a normal dinner at 6 or so and head off to the footy at 6:30.
 
Such an Australian mentality. NBA has midweek games that start at 9:30pm to allow for double or triple headers. Are you really having a cry about getting home at 11pm on a Saturday night?

There are also 41 home games every NBA regular season, so it's not as though if a fan misses one that it really matters knowing that there's another 40 chances to see them live.
 

Giants FC

Premiership Player
Aug 2, 2005
3,293
606
Greater Western Sydney
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GWS
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Sydney FC, Sydney Kings, NSW
The reason for the 7:40 start is so that the 4:40 game is all over before it starts.

On weekends when a WA team has a Saturday night home game, another option could be to dump the twilight fixture; and play both Saturday afternoon games at 2:10, a Fox game at 6:10, a FTA game at 7:10 and the WA game at 9:10 (7:10 WA time).
 
The reason for the 7:40 start is so that the 4:40 game is all over before it starts.
Hence why I suggested the 4.40pm game gets moved back to 4.10pm.
 
Apr 29, 2012
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34,585
Perth
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Carlton
7:40 would be better than 5:40 that we cop. 5:40 is too early for dinner, and it finishes too late to do much afterwards, given i'm not 23 anymore. Much rather have a normal dinner at 6 or so and head off to the footy at 6:30.
Maaaate, WA footy is perfect on Friday and Saturday nights

Couple of six packs, polish off four in the first half, at half time, race up to the shops, grab Subway, come back in time for the bounce, knock back the other eight, game finishes at 8:30 ish, get on the shots, hit Northbridge by 10:30/11:00 quality night.
 
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