Game on for screening rights
Date
March 20, 2014
Jon Pierik
Sports writer with The Age
It remains one of pay television's greatest fights, slashing the number of events on the anti-siphoning list in order to secure more premium sports content.
Pay television's new boss Tony Shepherd has made his feelings quite clear since becoming chairman of the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association. In a series of recent interviews, Shepherd even called the current list, which ensures key sports events remain on free TV, as ''Stalinistic and ridiculous''.
Foxtel, he says, wants to negotiate directly with sporting bodies, rather than free-to-air networks, who have protected events on the list.
Shepherd wants the current list of about 1300 events stripped to several hundred. The list covers such events as the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, the Melbourne Cup, rugby league's State of Origin, the Australian Grand Prix and cricket's Test matches and netball internationals held on local soil.
However, it should be remembered Foxtel can acquire these rights if a free-to-air network has not done so 12 weeks before the start of the event, or if the rights are held by either the ABC or SBS.
A check of the fineprint shows the anti-siphoning scheme does not ''guarantee'' free-to-air broadcasters exclusive rights to the events on the list but, ridiculously in this high-tech age, does not ''compel'' these same networks to televise these events ''live, in full or at all'' should they secure the rights. Shepherd should have a good argument on that regard.
And the laws have somewhat softened.
Fox Sports, after all, has secured the rights for 2014 to 2016 to golf's US Masters for the first time in a deal with the Augusta National Golf Club. This prestigious tournament is on the anti-siphoning list, and Seven edged Ten for the free-to-air rights.
The list also stipulates ''each race'' of the V8 Supercar series, including the Bathurst 1000, should be shown on free to air. However, once the V8s' modest current deal with Seven expires this year, Ten and Fox Sports will begin a $241-million partnership, with Ten televising only six races.
There were also changes to the list in 2011, with the likes of golf's British Open and certain cricket matches removed but all FIFA World Cup qualifiers involving Australia added.
Foxtel's motive is to lift its penetration in the Australian market, which is stagnant at about 30 per cent. It's felt more premium sport would boost subscriptions. The manner in which Foxtel has aggressively advertised its Fox Footy channel in the past month has reinforced how important live sport is to the network.
But the case for more exclusive sport on pay television remains something of a chicken-and-egg dilemma. That only 30 per cent of Australian households have pay television means a significant number would miss out on certain events should they not be on free to air.
Auspoll research, however, says 47 per cent of Australians want the anti-siphoning list cut, while 22 per cent want it abolished.
Foxtel chief executive Richard Freudenstein has proposed a shorter list and also argued that ''anti-siphoning reduces the money available to sporting bodies and therefore the amount they can invest in both at the elite level and grass roots''.
But it's still a case of buyer beware for all sports. V8 Supercars may profit when Foxtel, contributing the bulk of the cash, televises all races live from next year but the deal could disadvantage a large group of its core supporters. Ten does have replay rights to other races but it's unclear when these will be shown.
Free TV chairman Harold Mitchell has also pointed out the anti-siphoning rules have not stopped the AFL, NRL and Cricket Australia from securing record rights contracts. The AFL and NRL deals have been done in partnership with Foxtel, which uses the match broadcasts and associated shows as pillars of its sports channels.
Just as there are tit-for-tat responses on the field, the same can be said in the world of sports television. With the rights to live sport carrying increasing weight for networks - look at how Nine benefited from the home Ashes series win - one report has suggested free-to-air channels are increasingly negotiating pay television rights in order to warehouse them from Foxtel, in response to Foxtel securing valuable content deals with the BBC and excellent US Channel HBO.
As is often the case in life, politics is involved, and the debate over the anti-siphoning list is no different. On that note, it's over to you, Malcolm Turnbull.
