Greens could stop anti-siphoning changes
* Rachel Pannett
* From: Dow Jones Newswires
* November 10, 2010 2:12PM
THE Greens are considering blocking new rules that dictate the carve-up of televised sports rights estimated to be valued at more than $2 billion.
It comes amid speculation key sporting matches such as the Australia Open Tennis, Australian Football League games and even Olympic events may be removed from the list of sporting events that must be screened first on free-to-air television before they can be siphoned off by pay-TV operators.
"Australians shouldn't have to pay to watch great sporting events on television,'' Greens leader Bob Brown said. "The Greens won't support a new list that excludes these events.''
The federal Labor government is set to issue a new ``anti-siphoning'' list in the next sitting fortnight starting November 15. Lawmakers have 15 days to either approve or disallow the new list.
The changes will be crucial to Fox Sports, which is jointly owned by the Packer and Murdoch media dynasties, and Foxtel; 50 per cent owned by Telstra, 25 per cent owned by the James Packer controlled Consolidated Media Holdings and 25 per cent by News Corp.
News owns Dow Jones & Co, publisher of Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
Multi-year contracts for popular sports carry price tags worth hundreds of millions of dollars, with a four-year AFL contract estimated to be worth around A$780 million, while cricket coverage is valued around A$440 million, according to a media analyst. Rights to the Australia Open Tennis are worth around A$100 million.
Australia's minority Labor government narrowly controls the House of Representatives only with the support of independent and minor party Members of Parliament, including one Greens MP, after a knife-edge August national election.
In the Senate, it needs the support of either the main opposition Liberal-National coalition, or all seven independent and minor party Senators, including five Greens, to pass any new laws.
The Greens are concerned any deal that favors pay-TV operators also could drive up the price of pay-TV, putting key sporting events beyond the reach of everyday Australians.
"We will be urging the Coalition to oppose any new anti-siphoning list that isn't in the public interest,'' Brown said Wednesday.
The new anti-siphoning rules, which will kick in after the old system expires on December 31, come as Australia also is in the process of switching to a digital broadcasting system from analog, with the country's free-to-air broadcasters launching new digital channels, increasing competition for pay-TV.
James Packer recently acquired almost 18 per cent of free-to-air broadcaster Ten, and Lachlan Murdoch, son of News Corp media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is in talks to acquire half his stake, a person familiar with the matter has said. The move could raise regulatory concerns about competition and conflicts of interest given Fox Sports and Foxtel compete with Ten's new sports channel One.
"Pay-television companies are already making healthy profits in Australia and do not need the ability to gut free-to-air operations of their marquee sports telecasts,'' Scott Ludlam, the Greens' communications spokesman, said Wednesday.
