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Pay TV tipped to get more sport

Stephen Conroy has flagged plans to remove at least four AFL games a week from the Anti-Siphoning List.

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In the lead-up to an (overdue) announcement on the Anti-Siphoning List, The Age says Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has flagged plans to remove at least four AFL games a week from the list – paving the way for Foxtel to bid directly for those games.

Senator Conroy reportedly clashed with Free TV chairman and former Queensland premier Wayne Goss during talks with Free to Air network last week.

There was also “furious debate” over the broadcast terms for the Australian Open tennis.

At present all of the Australian Open is on the Anti-Siphoning List even though Seven doesn’t broadcast all the matches. Those individual games comprise some of the 1300+ events that Pay TV cites as going unaired.

Under present rules Pay TV can’t bid directly for the matches, but at the same time it has helped further its “Use it or Lose It” argument.

The newspaper reports that it was Senator Conroy’s revelation that he would not protect the best AFL or NRL games from pay television that most dismayed free-to-air networks Seven, Nine and TEN.

But they are expected to be allowed to air more events on digital channels.

FOX Sports currently has the right to exclusively televise half the AFL’s home-and-away games.

Source: The Age

22 Responses

  1. the only changes needed are that FTA be permitted to show sports on the anti-siphoning list on multi-channels without the need for it to have been shown on the main channel first or simultaneously. Also that FTA must show sport live with no more than an agreed amount of advertising during the games and that a certain percentage of sport must be made available in Native HD with True DD 5.1 audio, no upmixing stuff. Also that FTA can’t claim exclusivity so that those who can afford HD Pay TV can watch better quality pictures than FTA could provide.

  4. I dissconected Foxtel just last month because of the foxtel promo’s & ad’s. The AFL games on foxsports were good, no ad’s after a goal was kicked just during qtr / half & 3qtr time breaks.
    If Foxtel reduced their price for AFL during season 2011 i would consider getting it back on again.

  5. Oddly enough, under the current broadcast rights for the AFL, Seven and Ten own the rights to all eight weekly games, four of which are currently on-sold to Foxtel.

    Now, the next rights period begins in 2012, at which time there will be nine games a week, instead of the current eight games. If pay-tv is given rights to four games, that leaves the free-to-airs with five games, one more than they have now.

    I’m sure they are annoyed that they will have less opportunity to pick which five games they get, but they are still getting more games.

  6. @ Jeremy…correct me if I’m wrong, but One does not have Rugby Union, Rugby League, Cricket, all AFL games etc etc and never will. The only cricket nine will show live in perth is tests (one-dayers sometimes on weekends) , the rugby league grandfinal has been shown live twice in the last 12 years, SOO live never. Seven shows union live once every few years, Aus Open hardly ever live…

    Get my point, I’m assuming you live on the east coast….

    Why does everyone think free sport on TV is their right? You can’t just rock up to the ground and get in for free….

  7. I don’t care who shows sport, so long as it’s live around the country. The FTA’s have abused the anti-siphoning list for too long and now it’s time for real change. The removal of 4 AFL games each week from the list is music to my ears… I just hope that includes the Friday night game. Like many others here in Perth, the 3 plus hour delays on Friday nights are nothing short of insulting by 7.

  8. 4 games for foxsports is more than enough, i hope they do change the rules, so the fta networks an replay more games on the second digital channel next year

  9. @ quokka, One HD is live around the country, isn’t it? (correct me if I am wrong).

    Surely with a mix of live national stations, and local time-delayed stations, we could have live sport show on the live FTA stations instead of time-delayed ones.

  10. @ Jeremy…FTA don’t show sport in WA live (well, almost never). The public benefit is that people across Australia, especially WA might now get to view sport…or even view it live! excitement…

    As others have said…Live, Full and Uninterrupted…that should be the catch cry for the use-it-or-lose-it regulations.

  11. @Aaron Foxtel started doing the cross-promotes during the T20 Big Bash last year, and I have a feeling it will happen again this season. They don’t do it as much during the One-Day Cup because they know the TV audience isn’t as large.

    As for the Anti-Siphoning Laws, it won’t mean much over in WA – they’ll get the raw end of the stick when it comes to “live” events, because they’ll still be delayed by 2-3 hours… guaranteed. Unless they have a clause that states in WA/SA it can be played live on their non-primary channel, WA will miss out.

  12. @Mr Chandler

    Agreed, Fox Sports’ AFL coverage is Vastly superior to that dished up by the FTA networks. Always live, always in HD, and not interrupted by ads.

    While I agree there has to be provision made for ppl who can’t afford PayTV to be able to watch sport, doesn’t mean the rest of us should have to suffer. Maybe give the FTA’s the right to replay Fox Sports’ coverage on delay (not like that isn’t what they’re doing now…).

  13. the point of the list is so the public can see more sport for free, but when a fta buys buys a sport then doesn’t so it just show paytv cant it’s the public that ends up losing

  15. What is the public benefit of removing these shows from the anti-siphoning list?

    Surely, the first step is allowing FTA to shows their sport exclusively on any of their channels. Particularly for Ten who could then show AFL on One, and leave regular programming on Ten.

    Even for those with Pay TV, I’m not sure there is public benefit in having big matches showing only on Cable. The beauty of Australian TV is that most of the good programming is available to all, for free.

  16. 2 fta networks covering the afl has bee absolutely terrible the last 10 years. 3 fta networks would disastrous. foxsports have been great and we need them more than anything to cover the afl

  17. Again, those 1300+ AO matches that go unaired, they also account for all the matches that are on non-televised courts. That takes up most of the matches there. Such a silly overstatment by the Pay Tv lobbies.

  20. Conroy should outlaw Channel 9 from broadcasting any form of cricket – their coverage of the Australia vs Sri Lanka matches has been bloody awful, and an embarrassment considering its broadcast internationally too.

    Random ads played while overs are still in progress, the outdated green graphics (and big chunker score in the top corner), commentators who do nothing but talk about cricket back in their day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), lack of replays, and more time spent plugging other TV shows & memorabilia than anything else — then they cut away for the News and other programs while the match is in progress, even on GEM when they “simulcasting” the match … none of this crap when its shown on Foxtel!

    Now that networks have multiple channels to broadcast on, it should be a requirement that major sports are shown Live, Full & Uninterupted… there is no excuse for not doing so anymore. End rant 🙂

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