Eddie McGuire’s production company behind Telstra’s new AFL TV show
Nine presenter Eddie McGuire’s production company McGuire Media will this weekend begin producing a weekly live AFL television show for Telstra, the telco revealed today.
In an announcement this morning, Telstra said that Sunday Footy Wrap – a live one hour show to be broadcast on Telstra’s NextG mobile phones and on Big Pond – will be produced by McGuire Media and Abundant Media.
McGuire was a long time host of Nine’s AFL Footy Show and he is also president of Melbourne’s Collingwood Football Club. According to Nine’s profile of McGuire, McGuire Media is “his own production company”. He remains one of Nine’s biggest names and currently presents quiz show Hot Seat for the network.
The collaboration is a curious one because BigPond is already a competitor to NineMSN, which hosts Nine’s online Footy show presence. And Telstra has its own ambitions to challenge TV companies with the launch of IPTV service BigPond TV which will be available on internet-linked televisions and its own T-Hub device which is currently being heavily advertised.
Sunday Footy Wrap team. From left: Trevor Marmalade Dermott Brereton Lawrence Mooney
Big Pond’s Sunday Footy Wrap – which launches at 7.30pm AEST this Sunday – will be hosted by Dermott Brereton and Trevor Marmalade. The launch edition sees them joined by comedian Lawrence Mooney and AFL commentator Michael Christian.
In the announcement, Chris Taylor, director of Telstra Media said: “With Telstra set to launch BigPond TV through IP televisions and the new T-Box during the 2010 footy season Sunday Footy Wrap will soon be available in the living rooms of the fans as well as through the mobiles, the web and Telstra’s new T-Hub.”
“Developing local content and supporting Australian production is an increasingly important part of Telstra’s content plans, especially as we roll out IPTV,” Chris said. “The Sunday Footy Wrap will be a terrific addition to our slate of live sports production.”
“Thousands of Telstra customers have an insatiable appetite for AFL content and have made it one of the hottest items on BigPond so we look forward to bringing them some great new content.”
Host Brereton said: “Rather than wait until later in the week, Sunday Footy Wrap will be the first footy show on television to wrap up the weekend’s highlights,” Dermott said. “An essential part of the program will be viewer participation through social media services like Twitter and if we think their opinion counts, we’ll have them on the show in the following weeks to talk more,” he said.
Telstra already provides a range of AFL content through BigPond Sports Weekend, a live sports program.
Sunday Footy Wrap is free and unmetered for BigPond customers watching online, while NextG mobile customers will need to buy the $5.95 per monthly AFL action pack.
There is also a further connection to Nine in the second production company involved, Abundant Media, which was co-founded by former Nine MD and sales director Paul Waldren.
At the time of posting, Nine and Telstra had not yet responded to requests for further clarification from Mumbrella on McGuire’s role.
Update: A Telstra spokesman told Mumbrella: “While Eddie hasn’t got a hands on role in the show, his production company McGuire Media is producing the show under the watchful eye of the company’s CEO Cos Cardone.” Cardone was formerly head of entertainment at Nine and was also the network’s executive producer of AFL.
Update 2: A Nine source tells Mumbrella:
“This is an independent production deal signed off by Nine management in accordance with McGuire Media’s agreement. Ed personally will not be appearing on the show unless invited in his capacity as Collingwood president. Dermott Brereton, a Nine contracted employee, was also given permission to be involved in the AFL site show. There is no conflict as the AFL site is the only site that can do this type of show due to its internet rights.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Abundant media
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Chris Taylor
Eddie McGuire
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Luke Waldren
ninemsn
Telstra
Since you haven’t used the words, I will:
Conflict. Of. Interest.
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Telstra and Eddie Maguire. A perfect brand alignment to generate an exponential lack of appeal.
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Behold I have seen the future of ‘new media’ and it looks virtually indentical to same old shite they been pumping out for years on ‘old media’.
Oh the humanity.
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Who does Paul Waldren work for now?
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sounds dodgy to me … paul waldren using the company he and his brother founded to help produce the series …
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