Wednesday, 6th December, 2006
It's possible that I should not be writing this criticism today being, as I am, in a place of deep sorrow - but the truth is I am totally pissed off with Channel 9 in general and its coverage of the cricket in particular and I'm writing about it as a form of therapy. (Hermann Hesse said that it's good to write out one's bile as "some of the poison sticks to the verse").
The second test took place at the Adelaide Cricket Ground - a delightful place, with people sitting on the grass and with glorious views beyond the ground of trees and churches, just the sort of place cricket should be played - (unlike the vast Gabba stadium, obviously built for football and pop concerts and grim-faced security officials). Stumps were drawn at around 7.00 pm and on the first and second days Channel 9 (as one would expect) put back the news until the cricket finished. On Sunday, without a word of warning, they pulled the plug on the cricket at 6.30 pm and put on the news. I rushed to the telephone immediately and was kept on hold for twenty minutes during which time I turned on the radio and listened to the cricket commentary. Eventually a weary woman told me I'd have to phone Programming in the morning as she (like John Howard and the members of his cabinet) hadn't been told anything.
I decided to send Channel 9 an email but apparently it can only be contacted by phone or by letter, so at 9.00 am the next day I spoke to a gentleman in Programming who said they had to stop the cricket because they had a commitment to the news. He couldn't explain why such commitment hadn't applied on the previous two evenings so I asked him, with cutting Geminian sarcasm, if they intended to stop the NRL cup final half an hour before the end, his reply being an emphatic negative. On Monday evening, not only did they take the cricket off one hour before stumps, they also replaced The Cricket Show, which runs for a half an hour while the teams are taking lunch, with Hi Five! What the ...?
Yesterday, Tuesday, the final day of the test - guess what? The Australians were winning and Channel 9 followed the cricket through until 7.30 pm. I am certainly not insinuating that this occurred because the Aussies were winning - it may well be that on Tuesdays Channel 9's commitment to the news is never as strong as it is on Sundays and Mondays and it would be churlish of me to imagine that Programming's decision would have been any different had the Poms been ahead.
Having said all that, there is no reason why I should be at all surprised at Channel 9's behaviour: it rarely shows anything of quality and when it does give us a treat with Six Feet Under or The Sopranos it chops and changes it schedule, letting previous programmes (such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire?) overrun so that it is impossible for anyone to pre-set their VCRs. No wonder that it was voted the channel which treats its viewers with the greatest contempt.
I know I'll look back and laugh about all this - probably in about half an hour.
It's possible that I should not be writing this criticism today being, as I am, in a place of deep sorrow - but the truth is I am totally pissed off with Channel 9 in general and its coverage of the cricket in particular and I'm writing about it as a form of therapy. (Hermann Hesse said that it's good to write out one's bile as "some of the poison sticks to the verse").
The second test took place at the Adelaide Cricket Ground - a delightful place, with people sitting on the grass and with glorious views beyond the ground of trees and churches, just the sort of place cricket should be played - (unlike the vast Gabba stadium, obviously built for football and pop concerts and grim-faced security officials). Stumps were drawn at around 7.00 pm and on the first and second days Channel 9 (as one would expect) put back the news until the cricket finished. On Sunday, without a word of warning, they pulled the plug on the cricket at 6.30 pm and put on the news. I rushed to the telephone immediately and was kept on hold for twenty minutes during which time I turned on the radio and listened to the cricket commentary. Eventually a weary woman told me I'd have to phone Programming in the morning as she (like John Howard and the members of his cabinet) hadn't been told anything.
I decided to send Channel 9 an email but apparently it can only be contacted by phone or by letter, so at 9.00 am the next day I spoke to a gentleman in Programming who said they had to stop the cricket because they had a commitment to the news. He couldn't explain why such commitment hadn't applied on the previous two evenings so I asked him, with cutting Geminian sarcasm, if they intended to stop the NRL cup final half an hour before the end, his reply being an emphatic negative. On Monday evening, not only did they take the cricket off one hour before stumps, they also replaced The Cricket Show, which runs for a half an hour while the teams are taking lunch, with Hi Five! What the ...?
Yesterday, Tuesday, the final day of the test - guess what? The Australians were winning and Channel 9 followed the cricket through until 7.30 pm. I am certainly not insinuating that this occurred because the Aussies were winning - it may well be that on Tuesdays Channel 9's commitment to the news is never as strong as it is on Sundays and Mondays and it would be churlish of me to imagine that Programming's decision would have been any different had the Poms been ahead.
Having said all that, there is no reason why I should be at all surprised at Channel 9's behaviour: it rarely shows anything of quality and when it does give us a treat with Six Feet Under or The Sopranos it chops and changes it schedule, letting previous programmes (such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire?) overrun so that it is impossible for anyone to pre-set their VCRs. No wonder that it was voted the channel which treats its viewers with the greatest contempt.
I know I'll look back and laugh about all this - probably in about half an hour.
posted by Rosie at 4:05 PM
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