Anti-syphoning laws

[Baron Vo Mandor]

We need to see the laws relaxed, not abolished.

For instance, if Channel 9 refuse to show league in Victoria live then Foxtel should be allowed to show it.

This, the ole use it or loose it rule.

Aside from that zero changes need to be made.

 

[Doug2234]

I think pay may be in a bit of trouble as the digital channels improve sport programing why pay Murdock if you can get it off FTA,I know I would reduce my package if League was on 9Go here in Perth

I dont understand how Pay would be in trouble? there is no way that a FTA network will be able to show a full round of NRL. It stuggles to only show 1 live game now, let alone 8 games!!

At present Ch9 coverage is a f**king joke!! They only show 1 game live a week, you see as much ads as footy, show the games at stupid hours in some states and they get first dibs on who plays on what night/arvo... Who runs the game NRL or Ch9?? Sometimes i forget..

Although imo Fox Sports coverage sh*ts on FTA (ad free, decent commentators, option to choose which game on Sat night rather then what Ch9 tells you to watch) i dont want the game off FTA all together.

But then again - we may get more people at games if its all on Fox. Some people wont pay for Fox and the only way to get there footy fix is to attend a game..

 

[kbw]

The premier club rugby is on free to air, the ABC on a saturday.

With RL it needs to stay free to air, but I would love it to be on a different channel, Ch9 league coverage is very poor.

 

[seanoff]

Fox and the sports NRL, AFL etc want to be able to buy / sell their product directly to the pay TV sector.

as i understand it atm, 9 own all the rights to the NRL and they on sell those rights to Fox. The NRL cannot directly negotiate with Fox. same for the AFL, Cricket etc unless the FTA channels waive those rights entirely.

under the current arrangements the protected sports cannot deal with Fox / ESPN unless they are specifically waived.

What both major footy codes and cricket want to do is package their games and offer them to everybody.

So, Friday night will probably be offered as a stand alone product. the Sat and Sunday games also offered as different products depending on the mix. The TV stations may also bid for a specific mix and ask for a price.

ESPN will be a player in this sort of market.


The FTA channels are also hamstrung because they are not allowed to show sport on their secondary channels. (which is epically stupid) they are allowed multiple channels now but not allowed to use them. Also analogue TV is going the way of the dinosaur starting 30/6/2010, so everybody will be compelled to be able to see them anyway.

All the FTA stations would be more amenable to bidding if they could show sport on secondary channels.

input a use it or lose clause, and have the sport (esp the NRL) negotiate a decent contract forcing the sport to be shown and all will be OK.

everyone gets some sort of bone if not everything they want.

 

[VictoryFC]

The whole idea of anti-siphoning is laughable. Should be dependent on two things:

- Who wants to pay the most money?
- What does the governing body (of whatever sport) want to do?

 

[Canard]

The UK is a different kettle of fish. The UK doesn’t have 3 commercial networks like Australia does. The BBC dominates over the other channels, but they don’t have the bargaining power of Sky TV.
Australia’s FTA TV is a mixture of the UK’s public broadcasting and the USA’s commercial networks. In a America, the commercial networks are well served with major league sport

UK has 3 commercial stations, ITV, Channel 4 and FIVE.

 

[brendo]

Rugby League will never be off free to air. Not even Gallop would be stupid enough to do that. Your comparisons to Soccer and Union don't work. They aren't of free to air because free to air doesn't want them. They don't rate well enough and buying the rights could bite into going after the ratings winners like League, AFL etc.

Basically the advantage is we get antoher bidder. So for example if we split the game into Fri night, saturday night etc packages Fox can come in and directly bid against Seven for one of those packages.

woudnt 0ne hd consider a match of the round type thing

 

[Red Bear]

Foxtel aren't asking for the laws surrounding Free to Air sports to be abolished, rather they're asking for a relaxation of the laws towards TV channels HOARDING games they have no intention of showing.

For example the UK Super League here in Australia.

Channel 9 currently hold the rights to not broadcast these games.

Foxtel would like access to show sports that Channel 9 or other Free to Air stations decline to show.

Currently they are not able to access these events as the free to air broadcaster, in this case Channel 9, has the exclusive right to not show them.

I for one would welcome the relaxation of the rules in regards to this form of hoarding. I have little or no interest in re-runs of dramas I didnt want to see when they were aired midweek and when they're shown at the expense of things I actually want to see it infuriates me. A dedicated sports provider is far less likely to replace Super League with "Pretending to be on a Boat" or whatever the f**k these shows are called.

Commercial stations are in a difficult position of trying to please most of the people most of the time. Dedicated broadcasters do a much better job of looking after their niches and should be allowed to do so freely if the Commerical stations arent interested.

Looks like i misread the whole situation, because it's a good dea for the games to be live in non-rl markets whilst Nine just sits on the rights.

 

[bobmar28]

I dont understand how Pay would be in trouble? there is no way that a FTA network will be able to show a full round of NRL. It stuggles to only show 1 live game now, let alone 8 games!!

At present Ch9 coverage is a f**king joke!! They only show 1 game live a week, you see as much ads as footy, show the games at stupid hours in some states and they get first dibs on who plays on what night/arvo... Who runs the game NRL or Ch9?? Sometimes i forget..

Although imo Fox Sports coverage sh*ts on FTA (ad free, decent commentators, option to choose which game on Sat night rather then what Ch9 tells you to watch) i dont want the game off FTA all together.

But then again - we may get more people at games if its all on Fox. Some people wont pay for Fox and the only way to get there footy fix is to attend a game..

Then again they might be at home watching AFL/rugby for free. NRL has to be on FTA to help keep expanding. 75% of people don't have Foxtel. They won't all be rushing off to watch the game, especially if their team is playing away.

 

[Green Machine]

UK has 3 commercial stations, ITV, Channel 4 and FIVE.

There are nothing like the TV networks in the US and Australia

 

[Canard]

There are nothing like the TV networks in the US and Australia

?? How so? I lived in the UK for 4 years and watched them regulary, other then local programming I saw no vast differences.

ITV shows Champions League Football (soccer) and FA Cup games, in fact the BBC now has virtually no live soccer except English home internationals.

 

[Green Machine]

?? How so? I lived in the UK for 4 years and watched them regulary, other then local programming I saw no vast differences.

I lived in the UK in the mid 90's and even though ITV has got stronger, it hasn't changed much.
What about Channels 4 & 5? This is an interesting graph I found on terrestrial TV viewing numbers in 2010:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_the_United_Kingdom#Independent_Television_.28ITV.29

BBC One 20.7
ITV [nb 14]17.6
BBC Two 6.8
Channel 4/S4C 7.1
Five 4.3
ITV2 1.8
ITV3 2.0
CBeebies 1.3
BBC Three 1.4

Channel 4 has an audience of 7.1% and 5 has an audience 4.3%. The BBC with its £142.50 TV Licence fee has a higher audience than ITV.

ITV shows Champions League Football (soccer) and FA Cup games, in fact the BBC now has virtually no live soccer except English home internationals.

OK, so you mentioned ITV. What about 4 & 5? The Beeb has Challenge Cup Rugby League, one "Live" Rugby League Test, Wimbledon, Formula 1 and 6 Nations Union to name a few,

Channel 7 has the Australian Tennis Open, AFL, Wallaby Tests, and Super Cars
Channel 9 has the NRL/Rep Footy, International Cricket and Wimbledon
Channel 10 has AFL, swimming and Wallaby Tests
ABC has virtually nothing now. Commercial Channels have the rest. Very different to the UK,