i had noticed that the advertising for their upcoming championship broadcasts was much more aggressive and present than i had ever seen it before; and - conversely - the advertising for the premier league was notably low-key, played down and the content nostalgic and sentimental. i wasn't quite sure how to read this, but it is certainly clear that regulation of TV broadcasting (at least in canada, anyway) must be very difficult to revise and reassign. why else would a company (in this case ESPN, and SkySports) find it necessary to assign more of their broadcast rights to its bankrupt competitor's international subsidiary rather than to its own territorial affiliate network; or - as would need to be the case with SkySports - create its own international subsidiary in that particular territory? my only conclusion, is that it must be long and difficult to re-work these issues and to actually get your hands on a broadcast frequency. the reason for that would probably be CRTC regulation. there is also - and unrelated - the setup logistics, which would undoubtedly entail massive advertising, and an extensive campaign of product promotion.
whatever the case, SETANTA SPORTS CANADA seems to have expanded its overall coverage to include 60 championship matches, and will retain the 150 premiership matches that it broadcasts here every year. everything else is status quo; The Score (cable channel 53) has its regular sunday morning Footy Show, followed by a one-off broadcast of a high-profile premiership match; but everything else - just as it was last year - has been licensed to SETANTA. even the venerable old canadian show SOCCER SATURDAY (featuring craig forrest with gerry dobson), with a history dating back to well before the advent of the premier league - now has a SETANTA-specific broadcast in addition to its regular Rogers Sportsnet show. i've yet to hear what's going on with the FA CUP broadcasts; but - and as opposed to last year, when SETANTA had exclusive rights - it was better and more extensive coverage when FOX SPORTSWORLD had some of the broadcast rights to that as well. just when you think everything is going to be dispersed and reassigned, it suddenly centralizes and amalgamates!
the point of greatest interest in all this - and for myself personally - is the increased coverage of the championship. this is the most extensive television coverage of the second tier of english football ever seen in this country, and an indicator of several effects of the development of the game here.
newcastle united's performance last season marks the first time that one of the clubs who became well-known here through TV and have traditionally been a regular television draw, have been relegated. moreover, this is the first time that such a relegation will have had such impact and meaning. when there was only SOCCER SATURDAY on TSN (and later on moved to Rogers SporstNet) and with just the two premier league matches on TV every weekend, it seemed like i was perpetually watching nothing but endless variations of manchester united, arsenal, liverpool and newcastle united playing tottenham hotspur. with the recent and significant development here of supporters clubs, cable, satellite, closed-circuit TV and close to complete coverage of the premiership season - as well as the all-important "big four" - this will be the first relegation that will have been really understood and felt in this particular market.
with the phenomenon of the supporters clubs here being solidly based on the popularity of the "big four", most football fans here have never had to think too much about relegation and what it means. from time to time a man. united supporter may wonder what happened to charlton athletic or wolves? who they remember on account of key games late in the season with united on one of their perpetual runs for the league title - but by and large, it is something they would rarely think about or are ever likely to be following.
but it's different with newcastle this year, as anyone who has been following english football for more than 5 or 6 years will remember the 3rd, 4th and 5th place finishes they achieved in the league standings just a few years ago, and their famous premier league victories over the likes of liverpool, arsenal and man. united... their years of high-flying, high-scoring football with fanatical fan support. despite the mediocre performances of the last couple of years, there is no doubt that enough of the followers of the "big four" clubs will realize at least some of the implications of a traditionally top ten team being relegated to - what is in this country - the largely unknown and obscure championship.
if you had told me at the outset of the premier league that it would one day produce a "big four", much like the "old firm" in scotland, or the near complete domination by 3 or 4 clubs in italy, spain and portugal respectively - i would have thought that surely newcastle united would have been one of them. i mean, judging the club by its standards in the days of andy cole, alan shearer, les ferdinand, and the like - i would have thought them a more likely "big four" proposition than i would have chelsea. although - and especially when i was a kid - chelsea promoted itself to a younger and rowdier crowd who would grow up to be chelsea supporters as adults - and now with kids of their own. so it's not a total surprise.
the added attraction of 60 championship matches on TV this year means that somebody must have seen this coming. where english football used to be much more fluid in movement between the top two divisions, the premier league and its tremendous TV revenues has created a situation whereby the gap between being a successful or consolidated premier league club, and being a successful championship club is so vast that it has - in effect - made it nearly impossible to gain promotion and remain in the premiership for more than a couple of seasons.
last year's freshly promoted pair of hull and stoke city both managed to hang on to a place in this year's premier league; but you can bet that hull is a favourite for relegation; and although stoke is considered the more likely of the two to survive once again, there is no doubt they will also be a bookies' choice for relegation, along with sunderland, portsmouth, burnley, birmingham city and wolves. of the 24 clubs that comprise the championship, no less than 15 have played in the premiership before; and there is probably a similar number beginning the accrue in league 1. in fact, the climb out of the second-tier has become so difficult to navigate in the last 10 years that it is considered (in some circles, anyway) that newcastle united is more likely to be relegated to league 1 than they are to gain promotion back to the premiership, at this point. it has also created a whole class of team, in the likes of west brom, wolves, birmingham city, sheffield united, crystal palace, cardiff city, bristol city and a few others - who dominate the promotion and playoff spots in the championship, but flounder in the premiership, and can only hang on for a couple of years at the most, before being relegated again.
obviously, with the english game expanding its international fan-base and interest; along with the need to find cash in order to make second-tier promotion to the premiership a more competitive proposition, this supplied the motivation for expanding into broadcasting weekly matches from the championship.
in the end, i am happy with the recent developments. most of the football league websites have made their live audio commentaries - as well as highlight videos and news-clips - available to a wider audience by allowing a broader range of software platforms to access these features; and the football league championship will have consistent and regular TV coverage in my part of the world this year. tomorrow morning i will see the baggies' open at home against newcastle united in the second-tier of english football - something i thought i might never see.
indeed - i am going to england for 2 weeks in september, and plan on attending the two home matches at the hawthorns on the 12th and 15th (v plymouth argyle and doncaster rovers respectively). before SETANTA announced that they would be carrying weekly championship games, i was sure that i would have no alternative but to follow the baggies by reading the live text commentaries on the BBC; and, that i would not get a chance to see them play before i got there. in the last few weeks everything has changed - and thankfully, it seems - for all the right reasons.
meanwhile, middlesbrough and sheffield united kick-off... live and in colour, as they used to say!
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