Harvey Silver helped create two of the most influential programs in Australian sports television.
Now, more than three decades after launching the Sunday Footy Show and helping pave the way for the Thursday night Footy Show, the veteran producer believes much of modern football television has drifted away from what made the genre successful in the first place.
Silver said today's AFL media landscape is increasingly dominated by opinion-driven programs focused on controversy, debate and “setting the agenda” rather than simply celebrating the game itself.
"This is as much not what people want to watch, but what they're being told to watch," Silver told Zero Hanger.
"There's not a greater example of that than a show that's called The Agenda Setters.
"‘We are telling you what's important. That's what an agenda setter is.
"Don't worry about what you want to watch, we're going to tell you what you want to watch."
For Silver, that style of coverage has changed the rhythm of football television.
Rather than simply reviewing the weekend, celebrating the best players and showing the moments people want to see again, much of the modern landscape is built around identifying the issue of the week and forcing the game to orbit around it.
He pointed to the recent coverage of Scott Pendlebury's 433rd record-breaking game as an example of how quickly a football topic can become the centre of the weekly media cycle.
What may have once been a just talking point around one of the game's great players and record-breaking milestones can now be turned into a rolling debate across multiple programs, platforms and news grabs.
The comments come as the Sunday Footy Show is currently in its 34th season on air, making it the longest-running football television program in Australian broadcasting history.
Silver was there at the beginning.
Originally a sports reporter in Channel 9's Melbourne newsroom, he was tasked with producing a 20-minute AFL segment in 1992 for viewers in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth while Sydney audiences watched rugby league.
That experiment evolved into the Sunday Footy Show, built around Max Walker, Lou Richards, Ted Whitten, Sam Newman, Simon O'Donnell and Dermott Brereton.
For Silver, the show's success came from a simple philosophy.
“It was fun first,” he said.
“They always talked about the great players and highlighted the great pieces of play.
“It wasn't about bringing people down, the controversy and the politics of footy.
“I think it's still one of the last bastions of that.”
Silver believes that point is important when comparing the Sunday Footy Show to other football programs, including The Front Bar.
While he acknowledges The Front Bar has become a hugely successful part of the football entertainment landscape, he sees it as something different to a traditional football show.
“Outside of something like The Front Bar, which really isn't a footy show, you wouldn't even know who's playing in any given week watching The Front Bar,” he said.
“So it's not a footy show.
“But outside of that, the Sunday Footy Show really is a standout in just reminding people that these are some of the great athletes in the game and in the world, really.
“Let's boost them up and let's be positive about what is the greatest spectator sport in the world.”
Silver believes the current media landscape and economics have also played a significant role in changing the shape of footy television.
Returning to produce the final season of The Footy Show in 2018, he was struck by how different the industry had become and it was a far cry from the Channel 9 glory days at Bendigo Street with Kerry Packer signing the cheques.
“The first thing that became really obvious to me was that it was all around, ‘How much is this going to cost?'” he said.
“I did the first six years of The Footy Show. I don't think I was ever asked for a budget.
“It was, ‘Is that a good idea? Go off and do it.'”
In one sense, there has never been more football television.
Between Seven, Fox Footy and Nine, the AFL week is now filled with preview shows, review shows, panel shows, news shows, analysis shows and agenda-setting shows.
But for Silver, quantity has not necessarily created variety.
The modern landscape may have more programs than ever, but many are built from the same ingredients: a desk, a panel, a headline, a controversy and a clipped-up opinion ready to travel across social media.
The result, Silver argues, is a television landscape filled with increasingly similar programs.
“A lot of those shows now look the same,” he said.
“They're very cookie-cutter.
“Three or four or five people sitting on a panel.”
That does not mean Silver is pessimistic about the future.
He believes younger audiences are already moving away from traditional hot-take television and toward content that better reflects who footballers really are.
One example is Channel 9's Players, which Silver sees as a return to an older philosophy.
“It feels to me like it's getting back to the focus on the players off the field and what they're really like,” he said.
“Taking them away from just being robots.”
Silver also sees value in modern football media personalities who understand that television remains entertainment as much as analysis.
While Kane Cornes has become one of the game's most prominent opinion-makers, Silver believes programs like the Sunday Footy Show helped showcase a lighter side of his personality.
And while some compare social media star Daniel Gorringe to a modern Sam Newman, Silver sees another Sunday Footy Show legend in him.
“I reckon Dan Gorringe is more the reincarnation of Lou Richards,” he said.
For a producer who helped shape football television's modern era, the lesson remains simple.
The best footy shows have always been built around people, not outrage.
And that, Silver believes, is why the Sunday Footy Show is still standing more than three decades later.
