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The journalist investigating the shift to televised school sports is being called “catastrophic” for the future of New Zealand sport in the community.
But NZME’s Dylan Cleaver says it’s not too late to stop him.
Today, The detail watch the uproar over the move and the complicated mix of players clashing over who owns the school sport.
READ MORE:
* Overtime: Rob Waddell’s Sports Collective divides opinion on televised school sport
* Rob Waddell criticized for controversial school sports broadcast deal
* Taranaki sports come together to keep children’s sport emphasis on having fun
David Unwin / Things
Caught in the crash are the heads of schools, sports organizations, including the government agency Sport NZ, School Sport NZ, sports heroes and the broadcaster itself.
Sky TV launched Sky Sport Next in November of last year, a YouTube channel that shows minority sports. It was an exclusive broadcast agreement between the announcer and former Olympic rower Rob Waddell, owner of the New Zealand Sports Collective.
Waddell enrolled about 50 National Sports Organizations (NSOs), granting him commercial and marketing rights.
Many are minority sports, ranging from rock climbing to underwater hockey, struggling to gain media traction.
“In fact, it’s a very good concept to get some of these sports that are barely covered, that they now have the opportunity to screen their own events,” says Cleaver.
The problem that has caused an uproar is that NSOs have signed school events, he says, and principals were not consulted.
Caught in the crash are the heads of schools, sports organizations, including the government agency Sport NZ, School Sport NZ, sports heroes and the broadcaster itself.
Cleaver says Sky TV is surprised by the reaction.
“To some extent, they think they are doing a public service, giving them a platform and some money so that they can film their own events and have a platform to run it.
“But it’s whether NSOs had the right to include school sport as part of that. The schools themselves, particularly those in Auckland, would say no.”
Cleaver says the agreement means that wealthy schools, with facilities and resources, will get better and better: “They will invest more and more resources in sport because it is a very effective marketing tool for them.
And unfortunately, it is already happening, other schools will not become so impoverished, they will simply give up. They just won’t claim to run a solid sports program. “
Today Cleaver explains the main players behind the agreement to The details Sharon Brettkelly, why Auckland school principals were “stunned” and why school sport is on the “slippery slope of pure elitism.”
