TV sports rights review prompts campaigns

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One week after Free TV Australia launched a high-profile “Keep Sport Free” campaign, pay-TV body ASTRA has hit back with a campaign of its own.

ASTRA (the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association) has launched a new website “to encourage avid sports fans to take part in the Federal Government’s review of the anti-siphoning rules so that more sport can be shown on TV.”

The aim is to get the government to reduce the size of the list of sports events which are reserved for free-to-air TV. ASTRA argues that the free-to-air networks have too much control, often choosing not to show certain events in certain markets even though pay-TV broadcasters may like to.

Petra Buchanan, ASTRA’s CEO said: “It’s important to note that we are not asking for a single sporting event now shown on the old TV networks to be removed from the protected list. As it stands, the list lets the old networks control what sport you can watch, when you can watch it and even whether you can watch it at all. They show only a small fraction of sports live, despite huge demand from avid sports fans for more live sport.”

Free TV has been running ads for the last week on free-to-air television with the Keep Sport Free tagline. There is also an associated website which includes an online petition for viewers to sign.



Source:RapidTVNews