Conroy eases anti-siphoning limits for World Cup
The government has temporarily lifted anti-siphoning limits to enable SBS to air the 2010 FIFA World Cup on SBS ONE & TWO. It also confirms 3D matches.
- Published by David Knox
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The government has temporarily lifted anti-siphoning limits to enable SBS to screen all 2010 FIFA World Cup live and free-to-air.
Senator Conroy announced the news during an interview with David Basheer on SBS The World Game today.
As a premium sports event SBS had been blocked from screening matches on SBS TWO before they had aired on SBS ONE, but this has now been eased by the government.
SBS Managing Director Shaun Brown said, “We welcome the Minister’s announcement today and acknowledge his personal commitment to ensuring football is given the support it deserves in this country.
“The anti-siphoning list exists to ensure sporting events of national significance are given the best opportunity to be shown live on free-to-air television for the benefit of the Australian public.
“For a long time football was not given the recognition it deserved as a sport much loved by Australians. The long overdue qualification of the Socceroos for the 2006 World Cup awakened enormous public sentiment for football and that support has continued.
Games premiering on SBS TWO will also be repeated later on SBS ONE.
SBS will also be broadcasting the World Cup in high definition on SBS HD and confirms up to 15 matches, including Australia vs Germany on June 14, throughout will be available in 3D on Channel 40. 3D matches will be broadcast live and repeated on a loop until the next 3D match is made available. They will be available in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
While the lifting of the anti-siphoning limits will be good news for viewers, other broadcasters are likely to cry foul over the news, given they have been limited in their broadcasting flexibility for sports including AFL, NRL, Australian Open, Olympics and Commonwealth Games.
SBS will also provide coverage online and on SBS Radio from the first match on June 11.
The government is yet to announce any changes to its review of the anti-siphoning list.
Match to be shown live on SBS ONE / Delisted match to be shown on SBS TWO
22/06/10 midnight
Mexico – Uruguay / France – South Africa
23/06/10 4:30am
Greece – Argentina / Nigeria – Korea Republic
23/06/10 midnight
Slovenia – England / USA – Algeria
24/06/10 4:30am
Australia – Serbia / Germany – Ghana
25/06/10 4:30am
Cameroon – Netherlands / Denmark – Japan
24/06/10 midnight
Slovakia – Italy / New Zealand – Paraguay
25/06/10 midnight
Portugal – Brazil / Korea DPR – Cote d’Ivoire
26/06/10 4:30am
Chile – Spain / Switzerland – Honduras
David Knox blogs Eurovision at sbs.com.au
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- Tagged with AFL, Australian Open, Commonwealth Games, FIFA World Cup, NRL, Olympics, The World Game
27 Responses
@Paull: In the majority of the planet soccer is simply called “football”, but I agree that it can be confusing in Australia for the uninitiated (altho’ the other codes seem to be called AFL, rugby union or rugby league most of the time so not too much confusion).
The Socceroos were named as such because they wanted a name that would be marketable and readily recognisable, including by those that don’t normally follow soccer. Plus it works well with “roos”.
You’re right – there was a surge of interest in soccer among the Australian general population after we qualified for the 2006 World Cup, and another after we made it thru to the knockout stage. However, I assure you that the professional side has been going quite well for longer than that. In fact I can recall watching the 2000 NSL grand final at Subiaco Oval amongst a crowd of 43,000. Not too bad for a sport that had zero TV coverage.
Ah soccer supporters – the born again christians of sport. Always with the crusade!!
Fix the list Conroy and this all goes away – how hard is it??
Looking forward to a more comprehensive coverage from 11 June of the Football World Cup.
As for calling rugby (football) seriously LOL!
@Secret Squïrrel: actually ‘Soccer’ is a more correct description of the game as it is a shortening of the sport’s full name ‘association football’. In a nation that already has 3 recognised football codes, to refer to soccer as football is just plain confusing, particularly when our national team still goes by the name ‘soccerroos’.
I’ve ‘heard’ of a-league, in the sense I’ve heard the name mentioned on tv before, but was unware it refered to Aussie competition soccer, I assumed it must have been a refernce to the English Super league football competition.
I find it hard to believe that soccer has been a national sport for 3 decades, it’s certainl a popular competiton sport played amongst kids(I played it back in the day, but I really wish my parents had enrolled me in football instead (touch or afl) but on a professional level it only seems to have picked up In the years since the SoccerRoos qualified for the soccer world cup in 06.
Great! I always wanted to see soccer players emptying their noses onto the pitch in 3D. All I had to do was wait.
@Paull: “Soccer” (actual football) is most certainly a national sport in Australia and has been for over 30 years. Even as a non-supporter, you must surely have heard of the A-league by now?
The FIFA World Cup is the single biggest sporting event in the world and has a larger TV audience than anything else. Australia competing makes this an even bigger deal, and it deserves to be covered live as much as is practicable.
I suspect that Conroy’s announcement of this ahead of the review is partly because this is a one-off event and partly because it’s a bit of easy-win good news before an election that is prob only a few months away.
Personally, I have nothing against AFL/NRL matches also being shown live on whatever channel. However, I’m sure that the AFL and NRL are concerned about not affecting attendances because people choose to stay home and watch the game on TV instead.
JB said: “Either you go to the game, or you watch on tv.”
No JB, not everyone has a choice to go to a tournament overseas. That’s the “tele” in “television”. And not everyone wants to visit South Africa in person, either.
@paull: While ten would very likely show AFL on One HD live into Sydney and Brisbane, I highly doubt that Nine would do the same with the NRL into AFL states. Go is the same content nationwide, and it would be unlikely that they breakout of this to show NRL games (whereas One is a state based 24/7 sports channel). Evidence of this is that the Thursday night footy show and Footy Confidential are not shown on Go!
Will this 3D channel be available on Foxtel?
If anyone here has actually watched the video of the announcement (like I did), player.sbs.com.au/theworldgame#/twg_08/ExpertView/WorldCupExtras/playlist/World-Cup-broadcast-announcement – Conroy said that SBS made a Request for the rules to be relaxed for the World Cup.
So I’m assuming that if other networks made an effort to make a request about their sports (AFL, NRL, V8 Supercars), it would be looked at but they didn’t so it’s it’s a win for SBS who made the effort to actually make a request & a win for soccer fans who now get to see all the World Cup games live on SBS One & Two.
Conroy also said in the interview that the announcement would be in the next few weeks & pointed out that soccer fans would be interesting in the announcement. I’m not sure if you can read anything into that, but it might hint that Socceross and maybe some A-League matches might become apart of the list?
Paull, association football might not be a “national sport” like the ones you’re talking about (by the way 3 of the 4 sports weren’t even invented in Australia) but association football is the world game and it’s bigger than cricket or AFL
It’s certainly unfair that soccer gets preferential treatment over other sports. Particularly seeing as soccer is not even a national sport, unlike cricket and football (all 3 codes).
Hopefully this will be the amunition needed to convince senator conroy to allow Ten to broadcast football to the Sydney market on it’s second channel, and nine to broadcast football on it’s secondary channel to Melbourne and other non-nrl states.
that will be good for the latter part of the group stage, when they will have 4 matches going. 2 at the same time. the last few world cups we have had to wait until the end of the live matches to see a replay of a match that was in progress at the same time as a match that was being telecast
With secondary channels now on digital there shoudl be no excuses why sport can’t be shown live in all markets.
And just what is the point of this showing sport in 3D. It’s stupid. Either you go to the game, or you watch on tv. Why watch on tv and look like a douche. 3D movies = great, 3D tv = ok, 3D sport on tv = stupid.
it’s great news but what has changed between January and now that they couldn’t do this for the Aus open and winter olympics?
it’ll be interesting to see what 7&9 have to say about this, they won’t be happy.
there is way too much sport on tv as it is
So why didn’t the same happen “for the benefit of the viewing audience” for the winter olympics.?
Answer, Foxtel would have had even less subscribers… That’s the problem with allowing a FTA and Pay “alliance”…
What will happen with the rugby world cup next year.? Will 9 show all games live on Go, while maintaining their main channel “must see” shows, or will the foxtel deal prevent that.?
I read this as “We should have given an outcome by now and we haven’t so we’re bending the rules before an election.”
It would be nice if Channel 7 could do this for the V8s as well. Instead we get maybe half a race before the football takes over.
dturbo: Kate Ellis, the federal sports minister, was on Offsiders (the ABC’s dreadful sports discussion program) this morning and was asked about the delay on the anti-siphoning review. She didn’t give much detail but from what she said it appears that they’re still in discussions with ‘stakeholders’ about it, so it doesn’t sound like its release is imminent. Might have misinterpreted what she said though.
Here we go… Listen to the wailing of the wonky ball brigade.
this anouncement looks like abit of a ‘good news’ story to add a bit of cred to australia’s bid for 2018/2022 world cup bids.
David, any indication on when we can expect an announcement regarding the anti-siphoning review? It’s been months since I read that it was ‘not too far away’ in being announced. Then the fireworks will really begin with TV rights.
Great news for soccer fans.
“The anti-siphoning list exists to ensure sporting events of national significance are given the best opportunity to be shown live on free-to-air television for the benefit of the Australian public.”
While I welcome the decision by Mr Conroy re: The World Cup, If the above statement was true to it’s meaning, NRL and AFL games would allowed to be shown on secondary digital channels live across the country….(eg live AFL on Friday nights in Perth/Sydney/Brisbane on 7TWO, live NRL Friday nights on GO! in Perth/Melb/Adel)
Unfortunately NRL fans in WA/SA/VIC/Tas and AFL fans in NSW/Qld miss out on “…live on free-to-air television for the benefit of the Australian public” week after week, thanks to ‘government knows best’ stupidity.
It’s a good move IMO and sure to set the way for much needed changes to the anti-siphoning limits.