Free TV ramps up fight against IPTV
7, 9, 10, ABC and SBS are calling for tough new regulations on future internet TV services to prevent them grabbing anti-siphoning content.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
It was children’s literature character Henny Penny who declared, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling.”
Now, Free TV Australia, which represents Seven, Nine, Ten, is calling on the federal government to impose tough new regulations on future internet TV services to prevent them grabbing premium sport and other content.
In its submission on regulatory reform related to the National Broadband Network, Free TV has argued the anti-siphoning content rules for pay-TV should include IPTV, which will eventually be more viable under the NBN.
It also said it would be concerned if IPTV services “with significant market power were able to exclusively acquire the digital rights to premium content”.
The government has said it intends to wait “until the NBN is more advanced before launching a full-scale review of convergence-related issues”.
Seven also argued that Telstra should be forced to sell its 50 per cent stake in Foxtel, so there was a clear separation of its content and infrastructure arms. No coincidence that it was Seven that lost its C7 Pay TV fight to Foxtel and its owners…
The anti-siphoning rules, which give free-to-air TV the first pick of major sports broadcast rights, are due to be reviewed this year.
Source: The Australian
24 Responses
IPTV is as inevitable as broadband speeds increasing.
Remember what you thought possible on the internet when you were running a 56K dial up connection which actually ran at 25-33kbs because of the bad copper in your area.
Our good friend technology came along and changed the internet as we knew it.
The forces that drive traditional forms of media need to embrace technology and invest money in R&D now before it is to late. (A bit like the climate change issue….)
They could save money, increase viewers and increase viewer satisfaction.
Look at Goolge’s business model…. Their ideas are their product of value which stands them apart from a lot of their competitors.
I had or have TPG IPTV. I have an adsl 2 connection but when I try and watch it now it says my connection is not fast enough. Until speed increases and these things become reliable it’s not a massive threat. I have an apple tv and a WDTV which are great for watching downloaded content on the tv, but all the streaming stuff (hulu, bbc 4od) I need to use a computer for. That’s fine for me at home by myself but for the average users it’s going to take some time before internet streaming is a threat. If anyone wants to watch hulu or bbc I highly recommend witopia’s service. I click a button for the U.K click it again for the U.S.
Next the commercial channels will want to ban the internet as it’s “stealing” all their viewers… Poor babies…
What happened to free competition? If they want us to watch their channels maybe they should give us what we might want and not treat us so badly (eg. hacked/edited episodes, spammed with ads, out of order episodes, series dropped part way or shown at unpredictable times, shows months out of date, telecasts that don’t match published schedules,… I could go on and on)
Bogues it’s certainly viable. I stream at 720p (1280×720) and it’s quality is often as good or better than the local HD stations. It does chew through the quota though 400-500k/sec
I have access to 400 odd channels for similar prices that foxtel charges. Once you have seen/experienced US tv you really see how much you are getting torn a new one with Foxtel. Their is also none of this +2 channels.
Looks great in full screen and I can also stream to the 50″ Pioneer
I find it funny that tv stations have the balls to say what’s unfair when they treat their customers and viewers so poorly. As many have stated, they regularly don’t show certain events or leave them without screening. Like the mock Freeview ad showed, networks can start shows at whatever time they like, they fail to regularly update program info, they put many of top shows at awful times at night or the day. And so and so on. I understand the threat of Pay TV but at least they are giving the audience what they want. More than what Free TV gives half the time.
Is IPTV really a threat in the foreseeable future? The only ISP that I know that is offering broadcast quality quota free IPTV is TPG. They are only re-transmitting foreign language channels, and aren’t generating any unique content.
As for the anti-siphoning rules, the only change I want to see is that digital only channels are allowed. This may allow each state to see the ‘other’ codes game at a more decent hour, and also allow alternate content on the second channel for Olympic games (last year Seven HD had to show what Seven Digital were showing).
This makes sense since the digital switchoff starts next year, and the Australian government are spending millions telling us we should get ready.
Timmy, if quota-free IPTV becomes dependent on which ISP you’re with, it will not become mainstream. Especially these days, where with ADSL, once you’re with an ISP, changing is a very, very expensive procedure involving in many cases complete loss of internet for weeks. You can thank Telstra for that one.
Basically it’d end up being the new Foxtel – a world of haves and have-nots (and can’t-haves).
like many others have said the anti-siphoning laws should say that fta must show events they have rights to live or else they lose the rights which will then be offered to paytv, clearly the current system allowing nine to show the nrl 3 hours delayed!!! does not benefit the viewers.
So basically FreeTV is trying to fight off the inevitable future… Yeah…… good luck with that.
For heavens sakes, commercial TV stations, pull your sox up! If you fear the future of TV is IP, then for heavens sake embrace it early on, start your own online stations now. Offer alternative content, heck even your News and sports replays, via IP now… Start to experiment whilst you have a chance to get in on the ground floor, otherwise it may be too late to try and bring in your existing, dated models into IPTV…
in theory the anti shiponing laws sound as if they benifit the viewers(insuring major sport events are available on fta) but when the networks abuse this, such as nine with the nrl in melbourne its the viewers that suffer, which is the complete opposite of the anti shiponing laws purpose
They are kidding they cant even get their second sd channels happening they are like communists controlling all not showing us stuff they have the rights too
when are seven going to get serious and announce a second sd channel never i suspect
they dont want much do they? Hypocrites
Anti siphoning laws are a joke and so out dated.
If FTA cannot or do not show events listed on the anti siphoning list “live” and said event in it’s entirety then that event show be removed from the list.
FTA wants to control the uncontrollable -us.
I watch internationally TV via IPTV (DirectTV) good luck blocking that 🙂
Anti Siphoning laws should be changed I agree. The only thing that is required is that if someone from FTA bids they will be required to show it live or lose it. So many FTA channels have access to so many sports and they are tied up because of antisiphoning laws.
FTA will still be around for many years in some format but as we have see with news shows much of their content it gong online.
I agree they need to reduce ad break lengths back to 2-3 min, stop the endless pop-up ads and have shows start and end on time.
Why don’t the networks actually get involved with the internet rather than fighting it? It is the future, and of course all oru media will come through it in 10 years or so – moreso than broadcasting over the electormagnetic spectrum and will be able to offer us alot more…
@Neon – PIPE’s new international cable will launch in September, which should reduce the (wholesale, at least) price of international bandwidth.
ISPs like iinet and Bigpond will make IPTV quota-free otherwise no-one could possibly afford to watch it.
Isn’t Henny Penny an alternative name for Chicken Little too?
IPTV viable? In Australia? With restrictive, expensive broadband access that shows no sign of relaxing any time in the foreseeable future?
Tell ’em they’re dreamin’.
I would be more supportive of FTA if they treated their viewers with at least some respect, instead of increasing the average ad length in prime time to 4 minutes, then when the show finally comes back, they pack it with distracting onscreen pop up ads (as if 4 minutes wasn’t enough). Then, when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, you get channels like 9, that never run their shows on time (excluding the news which is always on time) and are an average of 10 minutes late. The sooner FTA is gone, the better.
Why should we take FreeTV seriously when the FTA Networks arent even taking FREEVIEW seriously..
Will be interesting to see what happens to anti-siphoning. iinet and Bigpond both plan to launch IPTV services this year, while TPG has had a limited range of channels for quite some time.
BTW, Free TV Australia only represents the commercial channels, not ABC/SBS.
David, you will find that Chicken Little said “The sky is falling”
It was my fav story as a child.
“Quick, better sue BitTorrent! Now we can continue treating our audiences like c**p.”
I hate the anti-siphoning rules, look at how many shows and sporting fixtures they have sucked in only to treat them badly. FTA has had it’s day and the sooner they realize this the better we will all be!