Free to Air Sport !

When PAY-TV first came to Australia there was concern that the cashed up network would scoop up the television rights to all the sporting codes - and "free to air "watching of the footy or the races would become a thing of the past.  The Federal government stepped in and insulated sport with a complicated arrangement known as the "anti siphoning "list and this has worked well for many years.   Now it is under threat as Foxtel flexes it's muscles and seeks more PAY-TV content.

Foxtel - jointly owned by Telstra and Newscorp - does have a legitimate gripe about the way this anti-siphoning law works.   The free to air television networks are protected and have exclusive access to many sports, but that exclusivity does not demand that it be actually put to air. In many cases they are simply stockpiled in the station library - and never again see the light of day.

It is a curious mix at present, resulting in a split showing arrangement between free to air and PAY-TV for AFL, NFL and Soccer, and this looks set to continue.  Viewers will still have access to the weekly competition of home and away games, but the eyes of PAY-TV are looking at the big world events - tennis, golf, Commonwealth Games, the Olympics - and more.   It is possible that all these may disappear from free to air showing and merge into the PAY-TV world.

Viewers would probably still see the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies on free to air, but not the individual events, and the cameras covering races such as the Americas cup would be exclusively delivering this fare to the subscription network.  We would certainly still have free to air access to what are termed iconic Australian events - such as the Melbourne cup and both the AFL and NFL grand finals, but the "money filter " would come into play on lesser events.   Such is the way television works in many overseas countries.

Negotiations are under way to create a "new deal "and it is hoped that adequate protection will be maintained for those who choose not to subscribe to PAY-TV.   In particular, we need to ensure that any new sport struggling to gain a foothold is not strangled at birth by rules that preclude it from getting air time.   Australian baseball comes to mind.   This is a growing sport, but if it is restricted to PAY-TV it is unlikely to attract a mass audience, possible with free to air coverage.

Perhaps we should remember the Australian experience with Soccer.   Half a century ago this was an almost forgotten sport in this country.  It was played by a few university clubs, but there was no national coverage and the sporting highlight in the south was AFL and NFL in New South Wales and Queensland.  What interest in Soccer existed was directed at the European and world competition.

When the government installed SBS to run alongside the ABC with national coverage, SBS quickly became the home of Soccer.   The ABC and free to air TV certainly include Soccer in their sporting coverage, but not to the almost fanatical extent that it is shown on SBS - and as a consequence this sport is now starting to challenge both the oval ball games in it's national following.    It would be a shame if the new TV coverage arrangement took Soccer away from SBS and relegated it to PAY-TV.

It is essential that the principle of "show it - or lose it "applies to whatever form of TV rights emerges from the present negotiations.   If free to air has the right to cover a sport, but shows just the odd glimpse occasionally, then PAY-TV should have the right to gain access without any form of compensation - and exactly the same rights should exist when the reverse applies.

Wherever a monopoly exists - discrimination follows.  Monopolies are a license to rig the system to exclude others from gain and the objectives of television are to provide the widest  coverage to the national viewing audience.   The whole point of PAY-TV is to accurately pick what their subscribers want to see and present it in a longer and better form than is available on free to air.  Nothing on PAY-TV should be totally excluded from even a reasonable coverage on free to air.

The crux of making that work would be the appointment of an impartial tribunal to decide matters on their merit on a case by case basis.     We live in an ever changing world and gaining viewers in either forms of television should be a matter decided by excellence - not by arbitrarily dividing the market for monetary gain !