Australia’s free-to-air networks are uniting to keep sport from behind a paywall.
Seven, Nine and Ten have launched an advertising campaign entitled Free Sport is on the Line, to encourage the federal government to amend proposed changes to its anti-siphoning Bill.
The issue for the commercial free-to-air TV industry is the bill only addresses access to free sport for Australians who watch through an aerial, which represents 61 per cent of people. It does not capture people who access TV content through connected TV apps and mobile devices.
Seven West Media managing director and chief executive officer, Jeff Howard, said: “We welcome the government’s plan to keep sports for free on broadcast TV, but it needs to do more: it must recognise the way people watch sport is changing and extend the amendments to the anti-siphoning regime to include free streaming.
And Network 10 president and head of streaming and regional lead, Paramount ANZ, Beverley McGarvey, said: “When Australians go to free-to-air TV, they increasingly don’t even think of an aerial as the gateway, they simply access our channels and content whenever they want, wherever they are and on whatever device they choose.
Seems like a loophole that should be closed.
What do you think? With technology changing all the time, should access to free sports broadcasts be limited to certain ways it’s received?
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