Amazon Prime Video has assembled an impressive team of broadcasters and former swim champs for its coverage of the Australian Swimming Trials. Hosting the six days of coverage from Adelaide starting June 12 is Matt White.
Sports fans who have watched Networks 10 or Seven over the past couple of decades will be familiar with White. The versatile TV host and commentator has worked across numerous of sports and current affairs and is now going hard on radio.
Most recently in TV White was head of sport at Network 10 until his departure in 2020. After a few months off he was signed by Craig Hutchison to host the morning show from 9am to midday at the new 1170 SEN Sydney.
After leaving 10, White wanted a break, but he told Mediaweek he gets restless if he’s not busy. He was working as a consultant when the offer of the role at SEN lobbed.
In addition to mornings four days a week Monday to Thursday (Matty Johns hosts Friday mornings), White is also commentating for SEN. So far he’s been doing cricket and rugby league. Soon he’ll be one of SEN’s Tokyo Olympics anchors.
White told Mediaweek: “To go back into media I wanted something that really challenged me and doing three hours a day in a studio by myself is just that. And it has been such great fun.
“I had never called Test Cricket before so when that chance came around last summer it was great. I love trying new things and that was really appealing.”
White and his colleagues at SEN Sydney have started to build an audience, but it will take time. “When you start a show with no audience the only way is up,” White noted.
White said he didn’t find it difficult to get back into day-to-day coverage of sport like he used to do when hosting 10’s Sports Tonight.
“What I have learnt on my show is the news background I have had in the media is the thing I really love. You have wonderful licence when you are on radio to do that.”
While White acknowledges his SEN show is broad-based covering many sports, it is NRL that is the major talking point for him and the audience. “At the core of everything we do, especially in the winter, is football. It’s what the audience wants to talk about and it’s what they want to listen to. And the Sydney audience doesn’t mind a bit of gossip.”
Some audiences know White best for his years covering Supercars at 10 and then Seven. “I do miss the sport, but I do stay in touch with it,” he said.
White’s biggest audience ever though on TV would probably be his four years in the host’s chair at Seven’s then flagship current affairs program Today Tonight.
Working for Amazon Prime Video
As the host of the Australian Swimming Trials on Amazon Prime Video this month, White knows his way around the sport. He has worked on the swimming coverage at Commonwealth and Olympics Games in the past during his years at 10 and Seven.
“In 1994 at the Commonwealth Games in Canada one of the first big things I hosted was swimming where Kieren Perkins was competing. I also covered Grant Hackett’s career and worked with Nicole Livingstone along the way. Swimming for me has always been at the core of my love for sport.
“This opportunity with Amazon Prime with these colleagues at this event is ticking all the boxes for me.”
Joining White as experts during the trials will be three-time Olympian Nicole Livingstone, three time Olympian and gold medallist Grant Hackett, and Paralympic gold medallist, Annabelle Williams. Veteran sports commentator Jon Harker will be calling the action from the booth whilst dual Olympian and Olympic gold medallist Giaan Rooney will be poolside.
See also: Amazon Prime Video unveils Australian Swimming Trials commentary team and racing schedule
White will be based in Adelaide during the swimming trials. “I will do my 1170 SEN radio show in the morning and then host the coverage of the swimming at night.”
White noted there are plenty of intriguing storylines at the trials this year. One of them whether Cody Simpson will make the team or not. “There are only a certain amount of team spots and one way you can qualify. It will be fascinating to watch as we cover that unfolding story.”
The commentary team for the Swimming Trials onstage at the Amazon Prime Video May showcase
Now that White is back on TV screens this month for Amazon Prime, is he available for other TV work after this? “Yes,” he told Mediaweek.
“I was very lucky and I had two really good stints for a combined 17 years at 10. I also had a great stint for a decade at Seven. I understand how it is being in a network role and I loved it. But everything is different now and I am ready to grab other opportunities when they come up. This is a direction that a lot of sports could go in. When you think about the size of Amazon and the kind of statement they want to make this could be a gamechanger.”
Main photo: Amazon Prime Video Swimming trial commentary team. Matt White (bottom right) with his colleagues (clockwise from left) Jon Harker, Grant Hackett, Swimming Australia president Kieren Perkins, Nicole Livingstone, Giaan Rooney and Annabelle Williams.