History of ATCC/V8SC/VASC & other Touring Car Television coverage & TV deals pre-2015

[one five five]

I'm interested in starting a discussion and working up a personal database of the various TV deals and telecasts that the Championship and Touring Car racing in general has had over the years prior to the new-for-2015 Foxtel/Channel 10 deal.

From what I remember and can make out.

Pre-1983 - Generally ABC or Ch7 showed ATCC rounds, sometimes live, sometimes tape delayed, sometimes no TV coverage, the tracks worked their own TV deals out for their events

1983 & 1984 - ABC got the TV rights for all events, negotiated by CAMS. Except for Round 1 1983 at Calder, as Calder had an exclusive TV contract with Channel 7. All the rounds were live except for the city in which the event was taking place, in which case it was a delayed coverage that night.

From 1985 to 1996, Channel 7 got the ATCC rights. Winton 1985 was tape delayed a week later, but all other rounds were live into Sydney and Brisbane, and other centres got them sometimes live, sometimes delayed if it clashed with the AFL. In the later years of the Channel 7 deal it became tape delayed in all major centres, even in Sydney which could care less about the AFL.

In 1997 the rights went to Channel 10, who had a standard 3-5pm telecast time in all centres, except for Mallala and Wanneroo which were a week delayed in 1997 and 1998.

Then when 7 got the rights back in 2007, we started getting a lot more Saturday TV coverage from all the events compared to the previous deal.

What was the TV coverage like for the other non-ATCC events like AMSCAR, the Endurance events etc... We used to get edited highlights of the AMSCAR races in Melbourne as a kid, but obviously the full events got shown live in Sydney.

Then obviously Bathurst, with Channel 7, then 10 , then Channel 7 again... plus of course the Kerry Packer bid of 1979 for the TV rights to go to Channel 9 which was unsuccessful

What were the TV contracts worth in the original ABC deal in 1983, or the Channel 7 deal for 1985, or the Channel 10 deal in 1997?


PS...I'm not interested in the pros/cons of FTA vs PayTV with the 2015 deal, so hopefully that can be left out of it. I think this can be an interesting discussion, so hopefully it can stay somewhat on topic and pre-2015

[simonracer]

The first Bathurst 500 seems to have been shown by a TV station to some extent, at least there is footage from it on Youtube which has Evan Green announcing it as "and here's how our commentators called it in 1963"... the chances of the original version of that still surviving must be pretty low if the rest of it hasn't turned up by now unfortunately.

There's also the years where the F1 and the ATCC/V8 Supercars were on different networks, so I guess Channel 9 must have broadcasted some of the AGP support races over the years since they did the F1 for a while.

Who showed the Super Touring Series? Was that Channel 10? I have the 98 highlights video on VHS somewhere which has Greg Rust commentating, did he ever work for anyone other then 10?

[chavez]

Rusty start on Speedweek.

[chavez]

Supertouring started off on Channel 9, then 10 and finally with 7.

[chavez]

Channel 0, which later became 10, also showed selected ATCC Rounds pre 1983.

[chavez]

All of the Great Races going back to Phillip Island received TV coverage.

The Phillip Island races were shown on Channel 9.

[Umai Naa]

Originally Posted by chavez

Supertouring started off on Channel 9, then 10 and finally with 7.

Yep, was 9 for '94 and '95, 10 for '96-'98, 7 until '01.

Mr Rust has a funny story with regards to the ST coverage, involving Mr Murphy, a Volvo S40 showcar, and some precariously-placed camera equipment.

[Average Punter]

I was working in Jabiru in the NT in 1987.

In those days in the Top End, the Great Race was shown on TV on delay. By a week.....
Yep it was on Seven the following Sunday!

I got sent a VHS express from Sydney and was quite the hit at the Club when I had the race on the tele there on the Wednesday night.

[racer69]

SKY Channel showed a few races too, 1989 Pepsi 300 at Oran Park, and the 1989 Sandown 500.

In Sydney we always had pretty good coverage in the Channel 7 days, even in the latter days before Channel 10 took over.

Only night time broadcast i recall was Mallala in 1995, it must have clashed with a Swans match?

Originally Posted by one five five

1983 & 1984 - ABC got the TV rights for all events, negotiated by CAMS. Except for Round 1 1983 at Calder, as Calder had an exclusive TV contract with Channel 7.

That is quite funny (in a not really funny way). Finally CAMS negotiated a proper TV deal for the Championship, and the first event is carried by the other network.... Is that why Calder wasn't on the 1984 ATCC calendar?

Originally Posted by chavez

All of the Great Races going back to Phillip Island received TV coverage.

The Phillip Island races were shown on Channel 9.

GTV9 in Melbourne covering the Armstrong 500's meant that in Sydney, presuming they Phillip Island 500's were shown in Sydney, the races would have been shown on ATN7, as they had a content sharing deal

Originally Posted by Umai Naa

Yep, was 9 for '94 and '95

They were quite good shows to watch, particularly the 1994 programs which i remember as a kid setting the alarm to wake up at 6:30am to watch them, then the Commonwealth Bank Cup schoolboy rugby league game afterwards.

As a kid at the time i loved those timeslots.... as an adult, not so much... Those edited highlights did fit alot of racing into the half hour telecasts though.

1995 from memory they played the races on Sunday nights, generally following the F1 or 500cc telecasts.

[one five five]

I remember SBS doing a fair bit of racing in the early 90s, Sandown 500s, Eastern Creek 12hrs, Calder NASCAR/AUSCAR etc..

Originally Posted by simonracer

the chances of the original version of that still surviving must be pretty low if the rest of it hasn't turned up by now unfortunately.

I agree, but then again, for YEARS the story that did the rounds was that Channel 7 had thrown out all their archives of motor racing and very little was left, the story was the common one peddled and thought of as fact.... then all of a sudden over the past 5-10 years all this old Ch7 footage has come out of the woodwork and it turns out alot of it was kept. Who knows what might turn up.

Originally Posted by Umai Naa

Mr Rust has a funny story with regards to the ST coverage, involving Mr Murphy, a Volvo S40 showcar, and some precariously-placed camera equipment.

Would love to hear the story

I remember Murph pulling off the rare trick of being able to commentate the first round of the 1997 Super Tourers at Lakeside....while at the same time driving his HRT Commodore at Winton

[Umai Naa]

Originally Posted by one five five

Would love to hear the story

I remember Murph pulling off the rare trick of being able to commentate the first round of the 1997 Super Tourers at Lakeside....while at the same time driving his HRT Commodore at Winton

we had a camera hanging off a special arm on the side of the car. @gmracing51 & I got talking and forgot. Nearly ripped it clean off on a tyre wall coming into pit lane

I think all the commentary was done in post-production a few days after the event, as it was usually televised a week or two later.

[one five five]

Originally Posted by Umai Naa

I think all the commentary was done in post-production a few days after the event, as it was usually televised a week or two later.

Most certainly was, and i think TOCA even turned down a chance of same day TV coverage for Channel 10 at one point (probably 1996, before they got the V8s) in favour of post-produced packages a week later, as that is what worked so well for the BTCC on the Beeb.

[Kingair]

In the Apple Island, Bathurst and Sandown(500 or Hang Ten 400) were always live.
Touring car rounds were a different story, Symmons Plains was always replayed on the Monday night for whatever reason. The other rounds were always delayed and shown late on the Sunday night, but if the Grand Prixs were on, they got moved to Monday or even Tuesday night! The only round shown live might have been the opening round at Calder because it didn't interfere with the footy!
Keep in mind those days TNT 9 was the only commercial station in the north and they received product from both Channel 7 and 9.
VFL football ruled the network, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, after South Melbourne became The Sydney Swans.
However we used to get the Better Brakes AMSCAR series from Amaroo Park on a regular basis on Sunday afternoon, from the late 1970's. Also their was a package put to air of sports sedan racing shown as well, I remember seeing Alan Grace and Frank Gardiner- but only black and white not colour.
The Australian Grand Prix, when it was run at Calder in November was always shown live on the Sunday afternoon, remember some of the F1 stars would come out and race against the likes of John Bowe, Alfie Constanzo, Andrew Miedeke etc.
The only racing on TV in the early 90's was the BTCC package.
Like Average Punter, I spent time in Jabiru-the only motor racing was Bathurst but fortunately in 1989 it was the live coverage. Didn't see any Grand Prix, or ATCC races that year, Darwin TV and Imparja was all football, the NT news rarely had any Motorsport news, unless it involved a crocodile in the story line!

[DV_08]

Originally Posted by racer69

SKY Channel showed a few races too, 1989 Pepsi 300 at Oran Park, and the 1989 Sandown 500.

I got a highlight package of the 89 Sandown race years ago, never worked out who broadcasted it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I79okTmtCDQ.

[chavez]

Originally Posted by DV_08

I got a highlight package of the 89 Sandown race years ago, never worked out who broadcasted it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I79okTmtCDQ.

I believe it was shown on Sky Channel.

[one five five]

Originally Posted by chavez

I believe it was shown on Sky Channel.

Going through TV guides of the times indicates that Sky Channel showed a bit of racing back then, they'd show midweek repeats of ATCC rounds, midweek repeats of F1 races etc..

Channel 7 also showed some highlights of the 1989 Sandown 500 on Sportsworld, which by then had replaced World of Sport in Melbourne.

Did the TV coverage improve in 1987 for Melbourne and South Australian viewers when Ch7 lost the AFL rights that year? I had moved North from Melbourne by that point

[chavez]

Originally Posted by one five five

Going through TV guides of the times indicates that Sky Channel showed a bit of racing back then, they'd show midweek repeats of ATCC rounds, midweek repeats of F1 races etc..

Channel 7 also showed some highlights of the 1989 Sandown 500 on Sportsworld, which by then had replaced World of Sport in Melbourne.

Did the TV coverage improve in 1987 for Melbourne and South Australian viewers when Ch7 lost the AFL rights that year? I had moved North from Melbourne by that point

Yes, all the ATCC races were live in '87x

[Umai Naa]

That's pretty impressive for back then.

[gts300]

Originally Posted by Kingair

In the Apple Island, Bathurst and Sandown(500 or Hang Ten 400) were always live.
Touring car rounds were a different story, Symmons Plains was always replayed on the Monday night for whatever reason. The other rounds were always delayed and shown late on the Sunday night, but if the Grand Prixs were on, they got moved to Monday or even Tuesday night! The only round shown live might have been the opening round at Calder because it didn't interfere with the footy!
Keep in mind those days TNT 9 was the only commercial station in the north and they received product from both Channel 7 and 9.
VFL football ruled the network, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, after South Melbourne became The Sydney Swans.
However we used to get the Better Brakes AMSCAR series from Amaroo Park on a regular basis on Sunday afternoon, from the late 1970's.

A couple of other Tassie memories...

At some stage in the early to mid '80's there must have been a complete abandonment of ATCC broadcasting by TNT9 (in favour of VFL no doubt). To voice my disgust I asked Channel 7 for the cost of supplying a tape post event. I was thinking something along the lines of a hundred or two, but no, their straight faced reply was for many thousands of dollars.


As well as the regular Amaroo AMSCAR coverage in the '70's and '80's there was coverage of Calder events. Both were magic ways to while away a Sunday afternoon.

Locally ABC TV for a number of years ran a live outside broadcast on a Saturday afternoon from Baskerville. They gave up on that for live local footy. Again, that's probably late '70's, well before I found where the track was.

[one five five]

Originally Posted by gts300

As well as the regular Amaroo AMSCAR coverage in the '70's and '80's there was coverage of Calder events. Both were magic ways to while away a Sunday afternoon.

One of the interesting things to note about the coverage of Amaroo race meetings and Calder race meetings was how different the actual broadcasts were, despite being under the banner of "Channel 7", the different ownerships of ATN7 in Sydney and HSV7 in Melbourne produced quite different broadcasts.

Some commentators were the same, like Evan Green, Garry Wilkinson and Mike Raymond, but Peter Landy would appear on HSV7 Calder telecasts but not on the ATN7 telecasts of Amaroo or Bathurst.

HSV7 also seemed to not have any access to Racecam.

[chavez]

Originally Posted by one five five

One of the interesting things to note about the coverage of Amaroo race meetings and Calder race meetings was how different the actual broadcasts were, despite being under the banner of "Channel 7", the different ownerships of ATN7 in Sydney and HSV7 in Melbourne produced quite different broadcasts.

Some commentators were the same, like Evan Green, Garry Wilkinson and Mike Raymond, but Peter Landy would appear on HSV7 Calder telecasts but not on the ATN7 telecasts of Amaroo or Bathurst.

HSV7 also seemed to not have any access to Racecam.

The timing system at Calder was put to good use with on screen graphics with timed gaps. Something ATN struggled with even in the mid nineties.

Racecam made an occasional appearance at Calder Park. '83 AGP Meeting for example.

[racer69]

ATN didn't even always run the latest Racecams at Amaroo. There is an AMSCAR round from 1983 or 1984 with Garry Willmington's XD carrying a unit that seemed to be locked in the one position facing forward and unable to rotate, Bathurst 1979 style. (its been a while since i've watched the DVD of that AMSCAR round, but from memory it didn't move)


Was Evan Green's absence from the 1984 Bathurst Channel 7 telecast ever explained? He commentated earlier in 1984 for them, and also called the 1984 Australian Grand Prix for them, yet is missing from the big one? He was making the ABC show "On the Road" during 1984, but it didn't seem to affect him calling other events for 7?

[chavez]

Originally Posted by racer69

Was Evan Green's absence from the 1984 Bathurst Channel 7 telecast ever explained? He commentated earlier in 1984 for them, and also called the 1984 Australian Grand Prix for them, yet is missing from the big one? He was making the ABC show "On the Road" during 1984, but it didn't seem to affect him calling other events for 7?

One of the Great Race books says Green was unhappy with Raymond after the '83 Great Race due to not devoting enough time to Evan when he was calling from the pits.

[one five five]

I don't think Evan Green really enjoyed what the race was becoming either, he was more of a Series Production fan as per the original Armstrong 500s wasn't he?

He reappeared on Channel 10 for the James Hardie 12hrs in the early 90s.....

Speaking of which, who remembers Eddie McGuire calling the Winton 300 one year?