Foxtel boss: Government’s protection of Free TV networks is killing innovation
Foxtel boss Kim Williams has called on the government to stop favouring Australia’s free to air players and shake up the regulatory framework.
Addressing the National Press Club in Canberra, he called on the Government to allow another free to air TV network if the market supports it, and to loosen the sports anti-siphoning rules. At present there are many events that are reserved for the free to air networks yet never shown.
He said:
“Much of our media regulation has as its fundamental underpinning a pre-digital, analogue view of the world. Clearly the terrestrial television networks in Australia both government owned and privately owned – are uniquely protected and insulated businesses.
I reckon there’s slightly more chance of something happening this time round.
Before, governments were shit scared of Kerry Packer. Now Murdoch – with all his papers – is the one for them to be frightened of.
Bring it on, I say.
It’s way past the time when the Government should once and for all fix this fiasco of the huge amounts of sport which people want to watch but can’t when the event is happening. The free to air channels which have 1000’s of hours of sport which is either not shown at all or shown on delay of up to many hours after the event happens. How many more years is it going to take before this is fixed. The solution is fundamentally simple. List all the sports then offer free to air the rights to whatever they want ON THE CONDITION it is played LIVE. Anything not live on free to air can be taken by the subscription channels also on the condition it is shown live. The free to air channels will have no excuse as if they have the option to buy up everything as long as they play it LIVE. Then they would have a huge jump on subscription TV. But no. They want to grab it all and then just feed the sporting public a little bit now and again whenever they feel like it while they confine a lot to the scrap heap never to be seen. This clearly demonstrates that they have no interest in the vast majority of sport they hold on to. Living in Western Australia this joke is far worse. For instance if we want to watch Channel 7’s friday night football it commences at about 8.55pm which is more than 3 hours after the match has finished. As a result most viewers can’t stay up until the end and then the Channel 7 moans about the drop off of ratings during the telecast. Well of course. The telecast doesn’t finish until 11.30pm. Any show at that hour of the night has relatively low ratings. There are plentiful similar examples. After all it is the viewer (the consumer) that the channels should be targeting. Above all other forms of shows that are broadcast, sport has the biggest impact. So why aren’t sports lovers served better? So a message to the Government. FIX IT! IT’S EASY.