What is it with Australian free-to-air television networks?

They pay millions of dollars to get big-time sport on their channels and then when we finally have something worth watching, they decide not to show it.

Or, alternatively, wait an hour to show it.

Saturday evening’s coverage of the Third Test between Australia and India in Perth was another example of Channel Nine and WIN’s intransigence when it comes to their viewers in Queensland.

As the most interesting Test of the summer was coming to a close, with the world record-chasing Australian team two wickets from its first loss in 17 matches, Queensland cricket lovers lost the pictures from the WACA.

A half-hour news program, which could have been slotted in during the tea break just under an hour earlier, came on our screens at 6pm as Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark were trying to rescue a dire situation for the Aussies.

Can you imagine the uproar if 10 minutes of news was slotted into the second half of a deciding State of Origin rugby league match? This was just about as bad.

Queensland cricket fans were left to dash to their radios, or computers, for updates on what was happening as the Indians pushed on for a quite incredible victory given what had happened during and after the Sydney Test.

What we missed out on was Johnson and Clark slaying the Indian attack in a brave fight back – the type of exciting cricket that was missing from this summer until the last two weeks.

Luckily for Nine and WIN, the Test didn’t end while the news was on and we managed to see more of the Johnson-Clark partnership until the tourists claimed a much-deserved victory.

When the one-day series starts you can count on Queensland audiences missing the opening overs of the night session – the part of the game when, with the field restrictions enforced, the ball often gets smashed around to set the tone for a likely win, or wickets fall and a loss becomes the favoured outcome.

Of course, tennis fans are not immune from this summer television scheduling madness either.

Each Australian Open night session during the week is on a one-hour delay in Queensland.

It’s one of the few places in the TV tennis-watching world where you can’t see the action live.

Blame Seven for some of the bleary eyes of Open fortnight.

If the Brisbane station canned Today Tonight, as well as some second-rate American offering called That 70s Show, for a fortnight, viewers could see the tennis live from 6.30pm.

Our Seven Sunshine Coast friends could ditch the repeats of Deal or No Deal and put their Local News on at 5.30pm.

Making it through the men’s match later in the night would become an easier task.

I don’t understand why they won’t, or can’t, do it.