The person looking after the most critical content at ASTRA’s 2016 Channel Of The Year laughed when Mediaweek asked him if his arrival was linked to the jump in ratings this year. “Pure coincidence,” Steve Crawley told us. The NRL average audience on Fox Sports is up 14% YOY.
His arrival from the Nine Network certainly hasn’t hurt the ratings though. “I am overwhelmed by the talent in the joint,” Crawley said of his new workplace. “Fox Sports has an army of young producers that are the best in the country and I didn’t know they existed. I was wondering there all the producers were going and I think I might have found out.
Although NRL will be a focus ahead of the launch of the new NRL channel, Crawley has quite a bit on his to-do list. The start of the new A-League season is not far away. “I thought the coverage of last year’s A-League Grand Final at the Adelaide Oval was one of the best things I have seen. I am really looking forward to the team on our coverage – Tara Rushton, Adam Peacock, Mark Bosnich, Robbie Slater, Michael Cockerill, Andy Harper and Simon Hill. We have a young caller Brenton Speed who is outstanding. He called the Olympics for Seven and he works on Fox Sports News and is on the way up. We have a really good production team and executive producer Murray Shaw runs a good outfit.
Crawley has some input when it comes to rights negotiations, but he notes that CEO Patrick Delany and head of programming Jarrod Frykberg do a pretty good job.