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Stosur final highlights anti-siphoning change

Sam Stosur's bid in the French Open Women's Final has highlighted Senator Conroy's plans to adjust the anti-siphoning list.

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Sam Stosur’s bid in the French Open Women’s Final has highlighted Senator Conroy’s plans to adjust the anti-siphoning list.

Conroy is said to be looking at some events such as the French and US Opens being removed from the list. Senior government officials are said to be worried over the prospect of removing the event only to see Stosur return to a final that would play exclusively on Pay TV.

That could jeopardise the government’s line about keeping major sports on Free to Air.

On the weekend the match pulled a healthy 1.1m viewers -a strong figure for a late night on a Saturday. Stosur was ultimately defeated by Italy’s Francesca Schiavone.

Nine currently owns the rights to the French Open but on-sells them to FOX Sports, with the ability to take back popular matches such as the Stosur final and semi-final. Otherwise it airs highlights.

The Australian reports the government is expected to offer Pay TV concessions by cutting some golf and tennis events played overseas as well as introducing a “B-list” for some football games.

The government still has not indicated when it will announce the results of its anti-siphoning review. With an election looming it is tipped to be good news for Free to Air networks, including the possibility of allowing more games on digital channels.

Presumably we’ll get the results of the review before the election is called…

Source: The Australian

14 Responses

  1. You can’t have it both ways – the media including the FTA’s sports shows can’t complain about the NRL salary cap on one hand, but restrict the rights and their price via the anti-siphoning list on the other.

    Sky getting football in the Uk was the best thing to happen to the sport – the premiership with Sky’s money went from a very average league to the best in the world within 5 years.

    It’s just the sort of lateral long term thinking that the dying NRL needs over here.

  2. It was a great example on the weekend that the FTA stations,don’t need anymore assistance when it comes to sport.The current situation works fine,but maybe you could say Foxtel always seems to get the rough end of the stick anyway.With some of the current rules they must obey.The digital channels i could never see them going down the line of showing lots of sport etc as it will cost way to much money that FTA dosn’t have.It’s a great example of what we are dished up now it will never improve no matter what they say.Vote for the liberals lol

  3. I’d say the French Open works perfectly. Fox did a fantastic job with the entire tournament, and when there was enough interest for FTA then Nine showed it as well. This only works because Nine and Foxtel get along.

    What really need to happen is that all these events should be allowed to be sold to Fox Sports (so that Fox can show them in their entirety), but they should have to be sold to FTA as well – that way FTA can do whatever they want with coverage (based on popularity), while Fox can ensure we get the best coverage

    What sucks is Wimbledon, since Nine restricts the games that Fox can show, we have to put up with delayed coverage from Nine (in Adelaide) for some of the games.

  6. Nine manages to show every NRL match in HD and het 7 is still stuck in the days of sd with their sport coverage. The only HD sport I remember on 7 was the Aussie open, pretty pathetic effort 7!

    ONEhd really needs the rights to more Aussie sport/ sports competitions with Aussies in them. They should have had the French open mens and womens so that it would have gotten more decent coverage.

  7. we got austar because of the sport coverage. if you look at how much sport is actually funded and sponsored by fox many sports would not even exist let alone be on – if it were not for them!! I get sick of Sandy and Nicole on my tv pushing the free tv line. If you are going to show it – fine – but if not – well then dont complain. Did ONE come about because of Fox??

  8. it needs to be changed. because station like 7 will just ruin sport for everyone. they are doing that right now and imagin if the didn’t change it

  10. ch9 is colluding with fox to not show it on FTA unless we get something like an aussie in the final.

    No men’s final on ch9 is discusting!! lucky I have fox but unless for those who dont!!

  11. No James, You’d be left with nothing to watch. If sport didn’t rate well (very well), the networks wouldn’t be broadcasting it (just as Nine doesn’t seem to care about the French Open).

    But actually, you’d get your way, because the current legislation isn’t stopping the networks from broadcasting on the digital channels, it just makes them broadcast on the main channel at the same time (as Ten has to do with 10 and One).

    I think the Anti-Siphoning list should have a “Use it or lose it” clause. FTA should have first priority on the rights, but if they don’t treat it properly (show it live, show it in HD, show it properly), then the rights default to Foxtel, and least then we know the sport will be treated with respect.

  12. They really need to allow channels to broadcast sport exclusively on their other digital channels if they like.

    I thought they already had a b-list for over seas football, One frequently likes to air the NFL exclusively on OneHd, however it seems they aren’t allowed to air the Super Bowl on One without having it live on Ten aswell.

  13. Won’t that then clog the Digital channels with more sport? Isn’t that why peope flock to freeview in the first place, because there’s too much damn sport on tv to begin with?

    Unless each network allocates an extra channel solely for sport, we’ll just be left with nothing to watch on tv again.

  14. I totally agree, more sport needs to be allowed on the digital channels live, like ONE Is allowed to show the F1 live and then a little later on TEN. Otherwise sell the rights to FoxSports and others so they can be seen, even if its only on PayTV.

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