Mythbusters fills SBS soccer hole

Australian public broadcaster SBS today signed for 45 episodes of Mythbusters from Beyond International to help fill the looming hole resulting from its failure to again secure English Premier League (EPL) football.

“I had been thinking I wanted some science programming but didn’t want it to be boring,” said network programmer Matt Campbell, who got the idea of buying Mythbusters while having a drink with a friend who happens to work on it. “It is funky and fast and it asks intriguing questions such as ‘is someone with a tongue stud more likely to be struck by lighting’ and ‘why can’t I use my mobile phone at the petrol station’.”

Campbell will revoice the series, which is made in the US by Beyond Productions for Discovery, and schedule it from early January in a 19.30 slot. This is when viewers will be expecting the soccer, as it is called in Australia. He is still smarting from Fox Sports – and therefore pay television – getting exclusivity.

“When the previous agreement with Fox Sports expired last year, EPL tried to unbundle future deals by creating two separate coverage packages for Australian viewers, one smaller more suitable for free-to-air and one with lots more matches in it, which clearly would suit pay TV,” SBS head of television Shaun Brown said earlier this week in a media statement. “SBS put in a bid for the smaller package but it didn’t go anywhere. We were told Fox Sports insisted on buying all or nothing.

“With its very limited resources SBS could not afford the 23% increase in rights fees Fox Sport then sought. The best we could offer was what we paid last year but for slightly less content.”

Fox Sports is owned by the Premier Media Group, a 50:50 joint venture between pay TV platform Foxtel and major media company Publishing & Broadcasting Limited.