Editing C7 Sport (section)

== Seven's involvement ==
In 1997 Sports Vision ran into financial difficulty; Sports Australia struggled to get viewers due to the limited reach of the Optus cable, and aggressive marketing of the Fox Sports service by Foxtel. The company eventually collapsed, but the Seven Network bought the channels and relaunched them on 1 March 1999 under the C7 Sport brand.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper =  [[The Age]]  | title =  Optus Lines Up For Goal| first = Ashley | last = Browne | department = Green Guide | page = 12  | location = Melbourne | date = 11 March 1999 | access-date = 3 May 2010 | url = http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?docID=news990311_0166_9490}}</ref> Sports Australia became "C7 Gold", or "C7 Twelve", after its channel assignment on Optus. Sports Australia 2 became "C7 Blue", or "C7 Thirteen". Sports AFL's programming was carried on the other two channels.

Shortly afterwards, Seven signed a deal with Austar that saw C7<!-- Gold--> become available to most of regional Australia from April.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper =  [[The Age]]  | title =  New Cable Deal A Boost For AFL| first = Caroline | last = Wilson | department= Sport | page = 22  | location = Melbourne | date = 13 February 1999 | access-date = 3 May 2010 | url = http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?docID=news990213_0229_8287}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | newspaper =  [[Newcastle Herald]]  | title =  Tunedin| first = James | last = Joyce | department= Friday Guide | page = 6  | date = 26 March 1999 | access-date = 3 May 2010 | url = http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?docID=news990327_0075_2711}}</ref> Austar had many more subscribers than Optus at the time. Before the deal, C7 had only been available in the small Optus cabled areas in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. C7 was never available to the majority of people in the capital cities (except Hobart and Darwin).