Sport on Television – Review of the anti-siphoning scheme

[midfielder]

Media minister Stephen Conroy has finally released details of his long-awaited review of the sports anti-siphoning list of protected TV events.

At first look, free TV appears to be the biggest beneficiary of the review, with pay TV missing out.

The key element:

The main changes to the scheme are:

The introduction of two tiers of events on the anti-siphoning list – Tiers A and B

* Tier A will comprise nationally iconic events such as the Melbourne Cup, Bathurst 1000 and finals of major Australian tournaments like the NRL and AFL Premiership. Free-to-air broadcasters will be required to broadcast these events live and in-full, with limited exceptions.

* Tier B will comprise events such as the regular games of the AFL and NRL premierships seasons, and non-finals games of the Australian Open tennis. Free-to-air broadcasters will have the flexibility to televise these events on digital multi-channels, which will increase their capacity to show more sport on free-to-air television.

Details of the new laws ..

On 25 November 2010, the Government released ‘Sport on Television: A review of the anti-siphoning scheme in the contemporary digital environment’—the report of its review of the anti-siphoning scheme that was conducted in accordance with section 115A of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.

The report compiles and analyses all the issues and comments raised by members of the public and stakeholders in the course of the public submission process that was conducted in 2009.

Heaps of links

http://www.dbcde.gov.au/television/antisiphoning_and_antihoarding/sport_on_television_review_of_the_antisiphoning_scheme

From mUmBRELLA ... media page an analysis...

http://mumbrella.com.au/stephen-conroy-anti-siphoning-tv-sports-36740

Conroy finally announces changes to siphoning list – no obligation to show most sport live

TV broadcasters will still be able to show most sporting events on a delay of up to four hours, media minister Stephen Conroy’s review of the anti-siphoning legislation has concluded.

The review will also see the free to air broadcasters allowed to show protected events on their digital channels.

It will only be if no free to air broadcaster wants to show a listed event on its primary or secondary channel that pay TV will be able to step in.

Announcing the changes, Conroy said: “The Gillard Government wants Australian sports fans to see major sporting events for free as they have always done and these reforms will ensure that Australia’s anti-siphoning scheme remains the strongest in the world.”

There will now be two tiers of events protected under the anti-siphoning legislation – a small number of “nationally iconic events” and a larger number of “nationally important events”.

The first tier will have to be broadcast “live and in full” on the main channels, theoretically protecting viewers from debacles such as the Seven Network’s coverage of the Bathurst 1000 which it broadcast on an increasing delay in order to fit in more ads.

The second tier will be allowed to be shown on the new free to air digital channels on a delay of up to four hours.

However, the free to air broadcasters will no longer be allowed to buy rights to a sporting event and then not show it which currently often occurs. According to the government: “The current scheme does not prevent broadcasters from holding on to the rights to events they do not intend to televise, or intend to provide only limited coverage. The must-offer obligations will require that where a free-to-air broadcaster holds a right to an anti-siphoning listed event and will not meet the relevant coverage requirement, they must offer those rights on to other free-to-air broadcasters in advance of the commencement of the event. If no free-to-air broadcaster takes up those rights, the subscription broadcasting rights must be offered-on to pay television.”

Pay TV will also now be able to directly acquire the less important AFL and NRL matches.

The tier A events to be shown live and on the main channels are:
Horse Racing: Melbourne Cup
AFL: Grand Final
NRL: Grand Final
Rugby Union World Cup Final
Cricket: Each Test match involving Australia, played in Australia; Each Test match involving Australia and England played in the UK; Each one-day international match involving Australia, played in Australia; Each Twenty20 match involving Australia, played in Australia; ICC Cricket World Cup semi-finals, final and each match involving Australia; ICC Twenty20 World Cup final and each match involving Australia
Football: FIFA World Cup: quarter-finals, semi-finals, final and each match involving Australia
Tennis: Australian Open men’s singles final; Australian Open women’s singles final; A ‘World group’ Davis Cup final tie involving Australia
Motor Sports: Each race of the F1 Grand Prix held in Australia; Each race of the Moto GP held in Australia; V8 Supercars – Bathurst 1000

The tier B events – guaranteed to be shown in full within four hours and on free to air channels including the secondary channels:
The Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics
Commonwealth Games

AFL: Four matches per round of the AFL premiership season*; Each match of the AFL finals series

NRL: Three matches per round of the NRL premiership season*; Each match of the NRL finals series

Rugby League: Each match of the State of Origin series; Each Test match involving the Australian team, played in Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom (including the Rugby League World Cup)

Rugby Union: World Cup: quarter-finals, semi-finals and each match involving Australia; Each Test match involving Australia, played in Australia, NZ, SA or as part of the ‘spring tour’

Tennis: Each match of the Australian Open; Wimbledon: Each men’s and women’s singles quarter-final, semi-final and final; US Open: Each men’s and women’s singles quarter-final, semi-final and final; Each ‘World group’ tie involving Australia played as part of the Davis Cup

Golf: Each round of the Australian Open; Each round of the Australian Masters; Each round of the United States Masters
Netball: Each Test match involving the senior Australian team, played in Australia or New Zealand; Netball World Championships: Semi-finals and Finals matches involving the senior Australian team

Football: All matches of the FIFA World Cup (excluding those on Tier A); FIFA World Cup qualifiers: each match involving Australia (the Socceroos); English FA Cup Final

Motorsports: V8 Supercars Championship Series

A further change to the rules means that if no free to air broadcaster has picked up the rights half a year out from an event, pay TV can then bid for it.
The changes have been welcomed by Ten, which launched its digital sports channel One in the expectation that it would get more flexibility.

CEO, Grant Blackley, in response to the Government’s announcement on televised sport anti-siphoning rules: “Given the complexity of the task, there was always going to be some give and take. On balance, we believe the Government has demonstrated a commitment to ensuring broad access to televised sport for all Australians. We welcome the commitment to keeping the best AFL games on free-to-air and will work with the Government to make that happen. Having listed sports on digital multi-channels will certainly lead to greater choice for viewers on ONE, so that’s a highly positive result for sports fans.”

And Steve Bracks, chairman of pay TV body said eh broadly welcomed the reforms, but he added that he was disappointed that events previously on the list not shown by the free to air broadcasters had not been removed.

Meanwhile, the government will also look to protect the free to air networks from the rise of IPTV. It said: “The Government is alert to the potential for new media to challenge the effective operation of the anti-siphoning scheme. Platforms such as Internet Protocol Television provide the potential for sporting content to migrate exclusively from free-to-air television, and no longer be available freely to the general public. While sports coverage on new media platforms appear to be predominantly supplementary to that of traditional television at this time, it is possible that in the future subscription-based new media services may indeed pose a threat to free access to sport for Australian audiences.

“The Government will pursue a reform agenda to overhaul and modernise the anti-siphoning scheme. These reforms will promote the public interest in free-to-air television coverage of major sporting events while balancing the competing interests of broadcasters and sports rights holders. The implementation of these measures will require legislative amendment to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and the making of a new anti-siphoning list.”

 

[adz]

hmmm not sure what to think about the "live and full" thing, and their comment about Bathurst. People fired up a bit when they realised by the end of the race the coverage was out by about 20 minutes (??), because they were basically pausing the action to fit in ads. As far as I can tell, they are gonna put in ads anyway, so it's either delay the coverage a bit so you don't miss anything, or just run the ads and have to run replays and explain what you missed during the ad break. How many times in the past have they come back from an ad break and gone "here's all the action you missed while we were showing you ads for fried chicken"? (hint: lots).

Anyway. I don't think the A-League even cracks a mention in all that..??

 

[dibo]

not a jot.

why the FA cup final is still on the list is beyond me, if the HAL final isn't...

 

[serious14]

"Guaranteed to be shown in full within four hours".

Well that's comforting.....

 

[curious]

Fans can't be fans if they can't see the game

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/fans-cant-be-fans-if-they-cant-see-the-game-20101126-18ap3.html

Greg Baum
November 27, 2010

IN THE week that the federal government at last announced revisions to anti-siphoning legislation, Melbourne Victory drew the smallest home crowd in its short history. From this coincidence, a moral about the role of pay TV in the sporting landscape can be inferred.

From the beginning of the A-League five years ago, Victory was a massive box office success, sometimes drawing crowds nudging 50,000. This warmed the hearts of soccer authorities, but by itself did not pay the bills.
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They were covered by an exclusive broadcast deal with Fox Sports worth about eight times what any free-to-air network would pay. Without it, there would be no A-League, no Melbourne Victory, nor now Melbourne Heart. Since peaking in its second season, A-League crowds have dwindled, and so have Victory's. This season, they are at record lows per game, club and league. It is not enough to say that because there are now 11 teams instead of eight, the audience is undiminished, but more widely distributed.

Expansion is pointless unless it creates growth.

Arguably, the problem is connection. It was improbable that the new critical mass of fans five years ago would come to all Victory's home games, and impossible that they would go to the away games, too. Between times, if they lived in the two-thirds of Australian homes that do not have pay TV subscriptions, they had no contact with their team. Their enthusiasm was not nourished.

This is not fanciful. I know fans who were devoted to Victory in those first two seasons but have not even scant interest now. But some of them are ardent fans of the National Basketball Association, because it is readily available on high-definition, free-to-air television. Soccer diehards will protest that they were only ever fair-weather friends anyway. But soccer has to turn fair-weather friends into diehards if it is to succeed ultimately in the ultra-competitive Australian football market.

Obliquely, and strange as it may seem, the AFL is risking the same disenfranchisement by arguing to have four games a week delisted from the anti-siphoning schedule. The fact that the biggest games will be preserved for free-to-air television is the league's selling point, but it is also its weakness. It means as a corollary that games involving low-ranking or lesser-drawing clubs will be hidden away behind the pay wall. As if North Melbourne fans do not already have enough reasons to feel that the world is against them.

The AFL's work in this context is duplicitous. It has campaigned long and successfully to make football followers feel that they are cheating on their clubs if they do not pay up for membership.

Now it is saying they must expect to pay to watch their teams on television as well. Chief executive Andrew Demetriou says the AFL understands its fans' needs better than anyone else, but that is a rhetorical flourish.

And do not forget that if Cricket Australia had its druthers, Twenty20 internationals in this country would also be the province of pay TV. Fortunately, its submission was rejected. But CA ought to take note of the A-League experience: new game, new fans, wildly popular just now, but far from establishing its place in the scheme of things yet. CA should be taking it to the fans, not away from them.

Apologists say that this is ''the market'' at work, as if that not only explains all, but brooks no interference. But the market is supposed to create choice, not narrow it. And isn't it remarkable how the market finds ways to force us to pay for services that previously were free: tolls on the Tullamarine freeway, a fee to take a taxi from the airport, suddenly an annual charge on a credit card offered by a bank that pitched it had no annual fee, and increasingly, televised sport.

Underscoring this testy debate is a principle that some sporting authorities wilfully misunderstand. To many in this country, sport is not just another commodity, to be taken or left, as on a supermarket shelf. It is a way of life, an underpinning, a birthright. It is ours to cherish, not others' to charge us for at their whim.

The proof is in the pudding. Pay networks have tried by seduction and coercion to build their subscriptions, and still the take-up rate is lower than for comparable countries. Apart from anything else, the cost of pay TV is not insubstantial, more than a couple of interest rate rises. Australians cannot boycott mortgage payments, but they can boycott rapacious broadcasters. And Canberra looks to be onside.

The A-League experience teaches that it is one thing for a fan to switch off because he has lost interest, or his team is losing, or he has found something better on another channel. It is another if he has had no chance to turn on in the first instance.