Australia’s seven leading sports bodies have joined pay-television broadcasters in urging the country’s Federal Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to reform the so-called ‘anti-siphoning’ list of events reserved for free-to-air television.
The AFL Aussie rules league, the NRL rugby league body, rugby union’s ARU, football’s FFA, Tennis Australia and Netball Australia signed the letter to Turnbull, along with Foxtel chief executive Richard Freudenstein, Fox Sports chief Patrick Delaney and Astra chairman Tony Shepherd.
According to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, the letter did not call for the anti-siphoning list to be scrapped, but urged the government to relax the list of events for which pay-television broadcasters are allowed to bid.
It has been reported that the core list of protected sports events would remain in place, but the sports would decide how coverage is split between pay-television and free-to-air broadcasters. Subscription media companies would also be able to bid for events such as the Olympic Games – excluding the opening and closing ceremonies – as well as English football’s FA Cup final and some tennis and golf events.
A Foxtel spokesman told the Mumbrella news website: “Our position is well known which is that we think anti-siphoning is anti competitive by its very nature and way too expensive. But we have never argued that the list should be eradicated, we don’t think that is realistic. But we do think there is a case for reform.” He added that Foxtel is “hopeful of getting a sympathetic hearing” from the government given its “desire to be deregulationist and to reduce impediments on business.”
Astra chief executive Andrew Maiden added: “At the moment, the anti-siphoning mechanism is constructed as though the public-policy rationale is to give free-to-air networks protected access to sporting rights. But in fact the public-policy rationale of the anti-siphoning regime is only to ensure the viewing public have access to certain sports at no cost. We would like to put more power in the hands of the sports bodies themselves so they can decide to sell subscription rights directly to subscription providers, or free-to-air rights directly to free providers. Our proposed reforms strike an appropriate balance between protecting the public interest, while enabling sports bodies to maximise their revenue through a more open and competitive rights bidding process.”
An AFL spokesman said that the league was only seeking “reasonable amendments” to the anti-siphoning list. “We have been engaged in ongoing discussions with the federal government for a number of months, in particular on a collective position from the sports’ governing bodies in relation to what we propose as reasonable amendments to the anti-siphoning list, which also ensures continued access for fans to their favourite sporting events,” he said.