Football on Foxtel, Friend to the Lonely Traveller

Phill Chadwick has found solace in Foxtel's availability on the road, his mission now is to get hooked up at home.

There are precious few benefits to be had when work assignments take you away from home for several weeks. After all, you are sleeping in strange beds, eating too much take away food, and are generally deprived of the comforts of home.

On the plus side of the ledger, there is no-one else vying for the TV remote, and you can leave the toilet seat up with impunity.

But when, after a hard days work, you return to your dreary motel room, brain-weary and lonely, lo! and behold! they have Foxtel on the TV.

When the FFA re-negotiated its television deal with the pay-TV operator, my main thought was all that lovely money and what it could be used for in promoting and improving football in this country.

I gave hardly a thought to the deal from Foxtel's point of view. No doubt they had been happy with the first season's results and felt able to pay a lot more to ensure that they could hold on to the rights into the future.

This sort of investment does not come from the goodness of their hearts. They need to see a return on that investment. And the only return they are interested in is the attraction of subscribers.

Foxtel now have their money committed to the game of football in Australia, and it is up to them, in large part, to develop the game as a television event.

The FFA and the clubs have the responsibility of getting fans to the games. A Romario, or a Collymore may help in the short term, but guest players are like samples at the supermarket. If the product itself is not good, you won't go back to buy it next time.

With only about a quarter of households subscribing to their subscription service, Foxtel are on the back foot when compared to the other football codes shown on free-to-air. So they will have to work hard.

In my own situation, I do not yet have Foxtel on at home, and infrequent trips away are my main chance to soak up the televised A-League. I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised by both the extent and quality of the coverage.

When compared to some of the "boofheads" commenting on AFL and NRL, Foxtel's football analysis seems professional, and serious. They certainly seem to take the game seriously, and give our local clubs and players the respect due to professionals.

So my mission, when I return home, is to begin my campaign of gentle but unrelenting persuasion to get that magical Foxtel box connected. Maybe an appeal to the attractions of the Lifestyle Channel will help.

My only problem then will be finding time to watch all that lovely A-League football.

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