Some of Australia’s biggest sports superstars and personalities have united for an important message regarding the Federal Government’s proposed changes to anti-siphoning scheme.
Under the current anti-siphoning scheme, the Government has legislated that certain iconic sports, such as the AFL grand final, the Australian summer of cricket and the Matildas must be offered to TV broadcasters first so they don’t end up behind a paywall.
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But the scheme only guarantees free sport via broadcast TV with an aerial and not via streaming services such as 7plus.
The Australian Parliament is currently considering a new Bill, which only guarantees free sports for Australians that have an aerial. So, if you have no aerial and rely on streaming, there is no guarantee that you will have access to free sport in the future.
Seven Network stars have come together for the “We are Aussies, of course I want free sport” campaign in a bid to highlight the glaring issue.
Iconic broadcaster Bruce McAvaney said: “Australians shouldn’t be denied access to free sport just because they don’t have an aerial.”
“If you want to stream sport over the internet, the anti-siphoning scheme should ensure internet delivered sport is also free,” he added.
Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer, Matthew Richardson, Abbey Holmes, Mel McLaughlin, Matt Evans, Jason Richardson, Juliet Godwin, Emma Freedman and Mark Beretta all featured in the campaign.
Seven West Media Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer James Warburton said; “Seven supports most parts of the Communications Legislation Amendment (Prominence and Anti-Siphoning) Bill 2023, but there is a major omission from the Bill.”
“As the Bill is drafted now, there is nothing stopping Amazon, Kayo, Prime and Netflix from buying all the digital rights to Australians’ favourite sports and making them pay if they want to stream sport over the internet.”
