The following are news articles relating to ABC cuts to local sport: With the confirmed axing of lawn bowls on the ABC and the increasingly "no comment" being provided by Mark Scott, is SANFL and WAFL heading down the same road?
The Australian - 31st August 2011
THAT staple of Saturday afternoon TV viewing, lawn bowls on Aunty, has been cancelled by the ABC after 30 years on air.
Every Saturday at 5pm, more than 200,000 people in the five mainland capitals (regional viewing figures were unavailable) watch the broadcast of the bowls, one of the few sports remaining on the national broadcaster.
But bowls has fallen victim to an ABC strategy to slash much of its internal production.
ABC-produced programs Arts Nation and The New Inventors have already gone, and 100 TV production and technical services staff across the country have been made redundant.
Without dedicated outside-broadcast vans, camera crews and production staff in each state, covering sport is impossible.
The head of TV sport and events, Justin Holdforth, told The Australian the ABC had decided not to renew its agreement with Bowls Australia after this season.
"From 2012, ABC Television Sport has decided to redirect its very limited resources into alternate programming," Mr Holdforth said.
"ABC television will fulfil its commitment to the final two bowls events for 2011 in Tweed Heads and Moonta."
Donald Beard, a member of the Adelaide Oval Bowling Club, was very unhappy to hear the bowls program had been cancelled. Dr Beard, 86, plays bowls all year and loves the Saturday program. "It's a terrific program; good comperes and good bowlers, of course," Dr Beard said. "It's one of the highlights of the sporting week. I played cricket for 50 years and when I retired from cricket I took up bowls at 68. I've found it to be a fascinating game."
The ABC has also axed local sport in the Northern Territory -- The NT Sport Awards, The NT rugby union finals and the Tiwi Islands grand final. Mr Holdforth refused to confirm or deny if local football in other states was at risk. "No decision has been made regarding the broadcast of other local football codes in 2012," he said.
Bowls Australia chief executive Neil Dalrymple said the decision was "disappointing".
According to Bowls Australia, over the past five years 350 hours of women's or mixed bowls have screened on the ABC and Fox Sports, which rebroadcasts the matches on pay-TV.
Mr Dalrymple said it was a setback for a key women's sport -- consistently ranked in the top five in Australia for hours broadcast.
Bowls Australia hopes to renew its agreement with Fox Sports.
*****************************************************************************
The Australian - 1st September 2011
FEDERAL Sports Minister Mark Arbib says the ABC's move to cancel its lawn bowls coverage is a bad decision.
The national broadcaster today announced it was discontinuing its coverage after 30 years.ABC managing director Mark Scott said the bowls audience was "quite small" and it cost $1.3 million a year to cover the sport.Senator Arbib said he would meet Mr Scott next week to discuss the matter.
"For the ABC to be moving away from bowls I think is a bad decision," he told Macquarie Radio today.
"We need to make sure that the smaller sports like bowls have a place on public television."Bowls was an important part of Australia's social fabric, with about 800,000 people playing it each year, Senator Arbib said.
*******************************************************************************
The West Australian - 2nd September 2011
Mark Scott still can't decide what to do with sport!
ABC managing director Mark Scott has given WAFL fans hope that telecasts of the State league will continue next season.
But it is possible that live coverage will be replaced by matches on delay and the ABC will only cover games at a limited number of grounds.
There has been speculation for the past month that budget cutbacks and a change of program focus meant the ABC would abandon coverage of State football leagues around the country.
But Scott said yesterday that no decision had been made and that while the ABC might step away from covering some live sport, it was more likely to axe elite events rather than grassroots sports.
He said no decision has been reached about WAFL or SANFL coverage or other local sports. "I said we won't be competing with commercials for prime- time sport," he said.
The ABC's WAFL coverage is estimated to cost $800,000-a-year or about $15,000-an-hour. It is the league's greatest marketing asset.
While the WAFL itself has said virtually nothing about the potential loss of the coverage, observers in the sports marketing industry believe it could be retained at much lower cost.
"Delaying coverage by 30 minutes so that you could do away with things like the half-time packages could save thousands of dollars a season," a WAFL marketing expert said.
"And given one of the biggest costs is using outside broadcast vans, why not hardwire one or two grounds like Medibank Stadium and Fremantle Oval so that they are television-ready and only games played there are televised?"
