Free TV hits back at Pay TV claims
Free TV Australia Chairman Harold Mitchell hits back after claims broadcast TV is costing us $6bn over five years.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
The war of words between Subscription TV and Free TV is gathering pace with Free TV Australia Chairman Harold Mitchell lashing out at recent claims from the Pay TV sector.
The remarks follow an ASTRA submission to the government, which estimates taxpayers are supporting FTA to the tune of $6bn over five years. Last week both sides were at odds after Foxtel’s CEO’s address to the American Chamber of Commerce calling for a dual rights scheme for sporting broadcasts.
“There is something deeply ironic about a monopoly that wants to charge ordinary Australians hundreds of dollars a month to watch their favourite sports complaining about the cost to taxpayers of a free service,” Mitchell said.
“Pay TV’s business is about one thing: making people pay for content they currently get for free.
“We have only seen the media reports, but this looks like a re-hash of the absurd and misleading claims pay TV made to the Convergence Review.”
In a statement Free TV Australia boasted it had invested $1.35 billion in Australian television content as ‘the only industry sector willing and able to deliver these valuable services to the Australian public for free.’
10 Responses
Free TV Project is a better idea but not the best solution for watching TV online. I have tried both but quality is different. I think we should keep these both option. I tried this: satellite-tv-on-pc(dot)com. This is great!
HD looks crap and could everyone get over the delayed start time issue. Yes it’s annoying, but if it annoys you that much, find something else to do.
I do find it a bit rich that a monopoly lobbies then government and public through skewed facts in order to increase their stranglehold…
Be careful Australia. Under Newscorp’s rule the NZ government agreed for Sky to have all All Blacks games exclusively which is the equivalent of both the AFL and NRL grand finals not being shown of free to air.
Most of the money has little to do with FTA commercial networks, it goes to public broadcasting, which I support, and the digital switch-over, which was necessary. I’m fine with that. And it’s not like Pay TV doesn’t get millions in government subsidies and offsets too…
And what annoys me most about free to air tv is all the advertorials which seem to be coming up mor and more across sports programs.
And the gambling adds they should be banned like smoking was all those years ago.
FTA is its own worst enemy, with late/staggered start times, destruction of daytime TV, excessive ads, now double what they used to be – 20 mins/hr, up from 11, multiple repeats, sorry “encores”, meaning no need to watch the original airing, Catch-up, i-View, etc., so again, no need to watch the original airing, unwatchable gimmicky news programs, constant schedule changes, etc., etc. Not to mention the endless funeral/life/car/house insurance, debt ads. I said not to mention them!
An commercial FTA is about making a lot of money by getting people to sit in front of ads.
Showing quality coverage of sport live is often a secondary consideration on FTA, whereas for a sports channel it is their main business and revenue driver.
Neither Pay TV for FTA should be mandating where sport is shown. It is a matter for the sports bodies which stage and own the events. Try heading down to the Adelaide Oval on Thursday and demanding your right to watch for free as a taxpayer. Or try to stream the game from your phone on the internet.
The anti-siphoning list is a kickback to FTA by politicians.
There could be an argument that FTA is really not Free these ads need to be paid for [especially if a high profile person] so the cost is added to the product and that AMMI ad is starting to get up my back
Time for a back rub.
Give me live, HD, add free coverage of sport that I have to pay a bit for any day of the week.
Give me HD, fast tracked, same time each week reliable programming any day of the week too that I have to pay a bit for.
You get what you pay for in life and you pay nothing and get rubbish on FTA.
With dozens of fast tracked shows only on Foxtel and many more older shows no longer on FTA or at stupid times of the night I’m happy to pay for them, that doesn’t include first run movies and sports.
Yes FTA has some good shows but they really need to work with Pay TV because with the Internet many people are not bothering to watch either any more.