World Championships Diary, Gwangju, July 12, 2019: Opening & Behind The TV Blackout

The Opening Ceremony is underway at the World Championships in Aquatics in Gwangju, Korea, this evening. Each day through the event, Swimming World will bring you a round-up of news items in brief beyond our main coverage.

The Australian broadcast blackout of the World Championships looks set to hold if FINA, the international federation, does not budge on the price it is reported to be asking for rights to coverage Down Under. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that as being “in excess of half a million dollars”.

The paper reports that “Australian swimming officials remain hopeful a last-gasp arrangement can be met but as it stands, there will be a broadcast blackout on local screens for the event in Gwangju, which represents the most-important meet of 2019 and is a key date ahead of next year’s Tokyo Games.”

The Seven Network has invested millions in swimming and has the rights to the sport in Australia until 2025, including the 2015 and 2017 World titles but not the 2019 and future editions. Meanwhile, Konstantin Grigorishin tells The Daily Telegraph‘ Saturday edition in Australia that the International Swimming League will host pro-team tour events in Australia in the future after the inaugural season of the series is done between October and December this year.

Grigorishin tells reporter Julian Linden: “If we had an Australian club, they would have to make 20 trips a year and that’s too many. You always have to think of the swimmers first. So they should compete for the other clubs but I promise you we will organise a couple of matches in Australia each year and maybe the final and semi-finals as well.”

Open water