A new shot fired by Fox Sports in the broadcaster’s increasingly bitter footy war with Channel Seven has been described as ‘disrespectful’ as the clash over AFL coverage gets personal.
This year Fox is the only way footy fans across most of Australia can watch games on a Saturday for large parts of the season due to a change in the league’s broadcasting agreement.
It’s a move that has infuriated footy fans and left a big dent in Seven’s coverage, which has been bolstered by its huge investment in AFL panel shows with the likes of Kane Cornes and Caroline Wilson.
This is also the first year viewers have had the option of watching every game on Fox, with the pay TV giant’s commentators covering every match, with ratings jumping by a huge amount as a result.
Seven star Brian Taylor has been taking pot shots at Fox by reminding fans that they don’t always send their commentary crews to matches and instead have them cover the games from the studio, where as he and his colleagues are always at the ground.
Fox recently hit back by launching an ad showing a Taylor lookalike banging on the door of a pub when he couldn’t get inside to watch footy on a Saturday.
Pictured: The TV ad for Fox Sports that got Seven’s back up when it featured an actor impersonating their star footy caller Brian Taylor
Taylor (pictured) has been taking pot shots at Fox now that the pay TV giant has footy on Saturdays almost all to itself
That has crossed a line with Seven, with a staffer at the broadcaster hitting the commercial with the ‘disrespectful’ tag, according to The Age.
Taylor hit back last Sunday when Fox commentators Brad Johnson, Dermott Brereton and Anthony Hudson called the Melbourne vs Sydney match from their studio in South Melbourne instead of making the short trip to the MCG.
The former Collingwood star, who is well known for his ‘Roaming Brian’ segment in the dressing sheds after games, unloaded on Fox on live TV.
‘It is just interesting in this magnificent arena on a Sunday afternoon, a beautiful day, that you come here – and it’s magnificent to be here and look across to the box next door of our opposition, and none of them are here today,’ he said.
‘They haven’t come for the two-kilometre trek from South Melbourne.’
Seven rubbed salt into that wound by taking out a full-page ad in Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper bearing the words ‘we turn up’.
Seven director of Sport Chris Jones said he backs Taylor’s digs at their rival.
‘For BT to be able to be there and to be able to get down to ground level, talk to the players before the game, speak to those in and around the team, and then be able to have that full perspective of the ground – it is certainly something that gives him the best chance of calling and being his best,’ he said.
Seven went as far as taking out a full-page newspaper ad to remind viewers that unlike Fox, they send their commentators (pictured) to every match they cover
Three stars from the Fox Footy team (pictured) didn’t make the two-kilometre journey from their studio to the MCG to cover a game in person recently
Taylor’s previous shot at Fox came when he covered the Adelaide vs North Melbourne match in March.
‘It’s good to be here at the Adelaide Oval, the only broadcasters actually at the ground,’ he said during the first quarter.
A couple of weeks earlier BT risked angering his Seven bosses with controversial comments on how many footy shows are on TV this season.
‘The last 10 years we’ve been saying, “Got any money to do a Sunday footy show or something” and they’ve been going “No, no there’s no money to be found”,’ Taylor said on his podcast.
‘All of a sudden we’ve got 15 shows, one every hour of the day.
‘I would also think the appetite of the general football follower, not the person who absolutely can’t get enough of it, but the general go to a game every now and then supporter out there … I would say they’re going to be sick of it by halfway through the year.
‘I have no doubt that this is going to wear people out, people’s opinions on footy.’
His take came at a sensitive time for Seven, with the broadcaster heavily investing in AFL discussion shows this season as it airs The Agenda Setters, Unfiltered, Extra Time, Sunday Footy Feast, Kane’s Call and The Wash Up.
