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Turnbull may end Foxtel’s ‘free ride’ with Free to Air

Govt may consider change that results in retransmission fees being paid by Foxtel to FTA networks.

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2014-03-10_0106Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is considering legislative change which may require Foxtel to pay retransmission fees to Free to Air broadcasters.

Section 212 of the Broadcasting Services Act exempts Foxtel from requiring permission to retransmit Free to Air signals.

But ABC and SBS spend a combined $6 million with satellite provider Optus to enable their content to be retransmitted, along with Nine, TEN and Seven bills. The Lewis Report recently recommended, “The ABC and SBS could achieve a significant saving if they no longer bought satellite capacity to provide their services on Foxtel.”

ABC Managing Director Mark Scott recently said, “Of course we would welcome not having to pay that money but there are costs involved.”

Seven CEO Tim Worner has said, “….I believe the most profitable media company in the country has been built -at least to some extent- on the shoulders of really good quality Free to Air TV.”

Legislation could be put to Parliament as early as the end of March, which could result in Foxtel requiring permission and, potentially, a fee payable to FTA broadcasters.

But Foxtel CEO Richard Freudenstein hinted that such costs could be passed on to subscribers.

“Why should our customers pay for something the rest of Australia gets for free? What we are doing by retransmitting the Free to Air networks is allowing them to continue to get advertising revenue from our customers. That’s their business model,” he said.

Source: Fairfax

9 Responses

  1. Do I pick up on this thread here? I work like Dayman. I had a rare wish to record somthing from 9GEM but I find that Foxtel only transmits one FTA digital channel from each commercial provider—7MATE, 9GO and 10PEACH. Could you clarify please David? Fortunately the fee idea presumably did not get up.

    1. This is an old post! Cable viewers get more than one multichannel but there has long been a Mexican stand-off about who should pay satellite fees for all the extra multichannels for satellite subscribers. I don’t quite recall where it finished but I think it depends which city you live in.

  2. wouldn’t a bigger priority be to have the main network channels as the HD channel we are on the verge of 2015 or will we have to wait til next decade

  3. @sipheren, you are quite wrong.

    Having FTA on foxtel is a necessary addition. You have one device, one controller for everything.

    It would suck terribly if you had to constantly be switching between devices.

    Also most people with Foxtel IQ just use that as their sole PVR. So them, like me, record a lot of stuff from FTA on that.

    That is how a lot of people now watch TV. I would have to get a seperate PVR if they stopped FTA and honestly, I actually think I’d end up watching less foxtel.

  4. Why on earth would I pay for Foxtel to then watch the FTA channels?

    The only thing I used to watch on FTA was the V8’s but that will be on Fox now so I say tell the FTA networks to stick their channels up there bums.

    The comment that Foxtel was built on quality FTA broadcasting is a joke, Foxtel exists because FTA TV in Aus is rubbish and people wanted something else.

  5. Fine by me as long as it includes adding my city Adelaide and also Perth to the Satellite retransmission including High Definition channels for the convenience that it delivers of not having to flick between devices all of the time.

  7. That is sensible. If as Foxtel claim they offer value to FTA networks then they don’t need the legislation forcing FTA to allow them carry their channels for free on cable.

    It won’t affect satellite because of the extra costs. It is cheaper for the ABC and SBS to pay to use Foxtel’s service than fund their own.

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