I have recently seen an ad on television, with some Australian Sports icons talking about the government wanting to make people pay to watch sport.

www.keepsportfree.com.au

no way im paying to watch cricket/afl etc.

Petition: http://www.keepsportfree.com.au/Content_Common/pg-What-can-I-do.seo

List of what is at risk: http://www.keepsportfree.com.au/Content_Common/pg-whats-at-risk-sms.seo

HOW TOTALLY RIDICULOUS!

Cmon lets stick it up em'

Spread the word :P

I _think_ I agree that Australian sports should be kept on free to air TV, but surely there needs to be a better reason than "it's always been free"....

I don't see basketball/the NBL on that list?

Clearly they don't feel all codes/sports are equal and worth keeping on F2A.

I dont see the need for it to be free. Damn commie bastards
I would defiantly watch it less sport if it wasn't. I don't have Pay TV nor would sport being there make me pay for it.

Big games, like SoO, I often watch at a pub anyway. I'm sure they would still have it.

I wonder why sport celebrities would care that much, loss of advertising cash to be thrown at them?

lower profile etc

I'd be happy to pay so I didn't have to put up with the likes of the free to air commentators who have nfi. ie. bruce macavaney, ken suttcliffe, the entire tennis commentary team, eddie mcguire, the list goes on.

I think it should be free.

What I don't like is Free to Air stations being able to buy exclusive rights to an event and not allowing Pay TV channels to buy rights to show it on Pay TV at all, unless it is delayed. There should be two separate bids/contracts imo, one for FTA and one for Pay TV.

reso, obviously people would prefer if it was free, but is there any justification for it staying free??

I'd much prefer paying for games that I'm interested in if it means we can finally take advantage of digital TV capabilities... Free to air in Australia is about 15 years behind everywhere else. I think we still have laws saying that each station can only show a show on one of it's channels, which means when there is an event like a world cup or olympics, we don't have multi-channel viewing like the REST OF THE WORLD.

Well Welfare TV has already lost many Broncos matches.
What if you are a Titans fan or Cowboys ?
You wont see the Broncos on Monday Night football without Foxtel.
If its not an important game you wont see them on Sunday either.
If you are a Real fan you want to see all your teams games.

Foxtel can do multi camera multi sound for footy/cricket etc...
Free to air cant. Why must we settle for a 2nd class product ?
Daylight Savings meant the Broncos game was played at 6:30pm local time and delayed for QLD to watch at 7:30pm recently. Channel thinks ACA and that WifeBeater comedy is more important than the First Rugby League game of the year.

Lets look at Cricket, How many times is the Cricket interrupted by News or ACA ?
Its only been this year that games have been shown live into host cities. Where was free to air during the Aussie tour of New Zealand ? if these events are so culturally important why arent all Australian games shown live ?
Free to Air only care when its Rating.
Foxtel will show it live anytime.

Live Sport is the biggest drawcard for Foxtel.
FreeToAir cant and wont do it.
So you need to ask yourself a Question ....do I want First Class TV coverage for my Sport or do I want to leave it up to Commercial TV to decide if My Sport is going to be "worth the ratings ?" and watch First Class Sport via a second rate coverage ?

i dont mind paying for better coverage

its the main reason i get foxtel!

reso, obviously people would prefer if it was free, but is there any justification for it staying free??

No real justifications from me I'm afraid. I just feel it should be free. I think a fair way to do it is having the two separate bids.

My main example of it being unfair at the moment would be Foxsports buying the rights to all A League matches, meaning it's never shown on FTA. Opposite side of that is 7 owning all the rights to Friday night AFL games (not a huge issue as they're usually shown on main event live... some how) and 10 owning the rights to all the Saturday games (which aren't always shown on Foxsports until later in the evening).

PS. I f***ing hate how Channel 7 spend all that money for the Friday night games and then will delay showing it up here until 11.30 that night. It's not even an edited version with the 15 minute half time break removed so the game can run til 2.30-3.

Channel 9 do the same thing with League down in Victoria. I would probably slit my wrists if I lived down in that s***hole.

IMO Foxtel should be legally allowed to show anything live if the rights holders delay it beyond a reasonable time.

Side note: Anyone reckon that channel 7 have no idea about sports? I'll be fairly worried if they get the next NRL rights. I'd hate to be an AFL fan and put up with those wankers.

I'd sign that petition, if it was not complete and utter bullsht propoganda.

I have Foxtel and of course FTA, yet I seem to watch alot of f***ing seriously important sporting events (in my view) on delay because FTA are showing some rubbish like Better Homes and Gardens and refuse to release the rights to Fox.

f***ing wankers

Why should only people who can afford to pay for paytv be able to watch sport?

Pretty sure Channel 7 (And 9) can multicast now as well, so they have no good reason not to show a game live on the alternate channel. They seem to be too busy showing old non HD movies on the HD channel though while showing some later release on the SD alt channel.

A better question, is why the f*** in 2010 can't I pay a couple of bucks to stream any game live over the intertubes.

Wait - I read that site - what is actually at risk of going to pay-tv? All the site goes on about is how there is currently an anti-siphoning, and pay-tv are trying to change that. It doesn't suggest which sports are at risk etc. And nowhere that I can see, does it say that the aus government are actually considering getting rid of the whole list.

A better question, is why the f*** in 2010 can't I pay a couple of bucks to stream any game live over the intertubes.

You can but the quality suxors.

Why should only people who can afford to pay for paytv be able to watch sport?

Because it allows the sports to negotiate a better TV deal, thus allowing more money for clubs, junior development, expansion etc.

Also you know FoxSports will show it LIVE, and not some Better Homes and Gardens repeat (channel 7 QLD/NSW instead of AFL). One time in Melb Channel 9 were showing Big Mummas House 2 instead of an NRL game lol. /Wrists

I'd love to watch the australian tennis open live :|

Why should only people who can afford to pay for paytv be able to watch sport?

You can watch sport for free, go down to any local (Public) sporting field and there are usually games of all kinds on every weekend.
Why shouldn't you be expected to pay a little to watch professional sports?

Why should only people who can afford to pay for name brand milk be able to drink name brand milk!?

I hate sport but here's my 2 cents anyway.

Without easily accessible exposure to competitive sport on tv, must kids will quickly lose interest and move onto a billion other forms of entertainment and activities on offer for them. These kids will grow up and...

A) not continue to play the sport at school, high school and then eventually competitively, potentinally taking possible professional players out of the sport.

B) more importantly, not follow the sport at all when they grow up.

So while they might gain a few extra dollars charging for the sport now, it'll hurt their exsposure and audience in the future.

As I said, I hate sport, but I used to follow Rugby league and play it recreationally as a kid and I was big into basketball in high school, I lost interest in rugby with all the superleague BS back in the day and it was a chore to follow the NBA at the time and is probably even worse now, so I gave up.

The execs need to be doing all they can to widen their diminishing sports fans cause frankly people will find better s*** to do than barrack for a couple of polynesians wrestling on the field and stick fingers up each others arses.

this is dumb... why should the govt be involved at all? let it go to the highest bidder. if the sports leagues find they're not getting enough ppl watching they can just choose to sell it to free to air. it'll balance itself out.

another example of a law where they doesn't need to be a law.

Why should only people who can afford to pay for paytv be able to watch sport?

Because they are the ones supporting the game.
You are just watching it for free ya bum !

Some of the League games last year on Friday Night footy were appalling.
Its not like free to air is showing the game YOU want to see or even the best games. If you have an iQ you can choose to watch your team play whenever you want.
You arent just getting One sport when you get Foxtel.
If you only like one sport then its prolly not for you.

State of Origin will always be free to air. What Foxtel wants is to be able to give the punter Live sport when they want it. They dont mind competing against the Other live broadcast of State of Origin for instance.
Channel 9 however would be terrified of this happening. One of other point, Channel 9 is able to demand the NRL play its games at certain times so it can maximize ratings. Foxtel doesnt care when the game is played they will show it live or in some cases give the punter the chance to choose which of two games he watches. (very cool idea)

Those 20/20 and one day games against the Kiwis were prolly the best cricket all summer and thx to Foxtel I got to see it. If Id been a long suffering Free To Air fan of Cricket then I missed out.

I was in Melbourne a few years back, Game 3 of origin started on Channel 9 at 11pm. Now I hate Rugby League, but that is just dumb and Fox should have been allowed to broadcast it live.

that is why I hate this bulls*** campaign

It'd be good to pay for sport on Foxtel instead of paying for a constant stream of f***ing ads like I do now.

Spidz: I agree whole heartedly. Unfortunately when you get south of the NSW border, AFL is god and king, thus NRL doesn't get much airtime - even if the Storm are kicking major ass. It's one of the few things I'm not looking forward to with my move to Tassie :(

I'd love to watch the australian tennis open live :|

Hehe, we went this year ;-) Last year too. Just change states is the solution to that one.

lol @ soccer being at risk. Soccer is already gone. Ok, the FA Cup final is on FTA and I watch it every year - but that's just one tiny game. At least we still have Champion's League on SBS. Bordeaux game this morning was tops.

That site is totally lame IMO. I wouldn't touch their petition with a 10-foot pole. Spook, you disappoint me by not making a sarcastic comment about the usefulness of their petition.

Spidz: I agree whole heartedly. Unfortunately when you get south of the NSW border, AFL is god and king, thus NRL doesn't get much airtime - even if the Storm are kicking major ass. It's one of the few things I'm not looking forward to with my move to Tassie :(

Tell me about it, I live up here and I'm an AFL follower. The frustrating bit is that the coverage is pretty good these days with Foxtel being allowed to broadcast live on Friday nights, but come finals time all the f***ing games are delayed.

Great system, show the entire season live, but when it gets to the business end - show all the games on delay except the grand final (because its in the afternoon!)

so f***ing lame. there have been some absolute epic finals in the last few years, and I've listened to them on radio...

This entire campaign is bulls*** and not even foxtel is trying to restrict FTA from showing free content!

FTA can't show AFL games. They f***ing suck at it and only get in the way of Foxtel being the perfect service.

I think the current rules for foxtel are they are allowed to play 4 of 8 matches every round live regardless of what FTA is doing. They are also allowed to show live games in regions where the game is either not showed or broadcast with more than a 2 hour delay.

^^^ This isn't bad but for the sake of FTA getting less value from foxtel subscribers switching over seems like a completely ridiculous arrangement. If FTA thinks the content is worth less under this arrangement then f***ing pay less. Don't make me suffer every f***ing weekend.

Even our local lions games here are televised from 7:30pm when kick off is @ 7:10. They then subject us to one ad every goal or multiple ads given the opportunity AND make the game wait for the commercial to finish before resuming (see flashing lights (not sure if true but think that is what the lights are for)). Some umpires actually get sick of it and just bounce the ball.

In a normal game of AFL the scores are around 80 - 90 points per game each side with on average 11 goals kicked per side. So the total amount of single ads played during a game is 22 + 2 X 5 minute quarters with 1min30 of coverage in the middle + 20 minute half time with 7 minutes of coverage in the middle. Some games can have over 40 goals kicked.

Ads at quarter time or halftime do not bug me but cutting away a fraction of a second after someone has kicked a goal or completely missing a string of play because im listening to a f***ing sheep tell me how he wants to save me is a f***ing joke.

Point is if I don't want to put up with this bulls*** or like something enough that I would pay extra money to watch I want that option.

f***ing s*** drives me nuts

Because it allows the sports to negotiate a better TV deal, thus allowing more money for clubs, junior development, expansion etc.

Also you know FoxSports will show it LIVE, and not some Better Homes and Gardens repeat (channel 7 QLD/NSW instead of AFL). One time in Melb Channel 9 were showing Big Mummas House 2 instead of an NRL game lol. /Wrists

this.

by legislating that sport must be shown on FTA the government would be crippling each sport's (NRL, AFL, ARU, etc) ability to generate as much money from TV rights as possible. this will obviously affect the size, scope and quality of the sport.

if the government wants to do something in this regard they should do what the US does, legislate that cable companies have to provide a basic service at a set price - so in this case they could say Foxtel has to provide basic sport coverage (say NRL + AFL as they are the most popular) at $15/m or something like that.

but frankly I doubt the big NRL and AFL games are going anywhere from FTA in the states where they are most popular. and I happily pay for Foxtel so I can watch whatever sport I want, not just whichever NRL game channel 9 decides will rate the highest.

also, Ross made a decent post for once! WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING AROUND HERE!??!!@#!$

yer, reckon;
i hate it when i have to agree with ross, makes me feel like a spaz

all i know is my soccer rego this yr was 480 bux

that aint free n*****s.

we're talking about just watching sport petey, but f*** me that is expensive;

my indoor sports love to charge for anything they can and even they only steal $200 a season from ya;

The AFL/NRL will always be on FTA but at least if the Foxtel threat is fully available they could get a better deal. When you look at the end of year ratings sport takes up most of the top slots and it is cheaper to produce compared with Underbelly or whatever.

Foxtel can do multi camera multi sound for footy/cricket etc...
Free to air cant. Why must we settle for a 2nd class product ?

who says you have to settle for a second class product?
you aren't paying for it so you can't whinge about it, if you don't like it - don't watch it

the less sport on tv the better.

you aren't paying for it so you can't whinge about it, if you don't like it - don't watch it

wow are you missing the entire point of this thread completely or what?

Don't care either way whether we pay for sport or get it free. Neither of the camps are innocent in this. All I want to be able to do is what sport live, I can live with ads to an extent. What Ross was saying about the AFL coverage is just the tip of the iceberg. Channel 7 has the rights to Friday night AFL coverage but what time do we get to see the game in Brisbane, 11pm. Now thats a joke, instead they expect us to watch some crappy UK murder mystery movie (they have 3 channels ffs just put it on one of them).

I've all but given up on watching sport on TV, most of my sport watching is now done via one of the many streams on the net (and yes they usually have the ads still in). I'm sure where we'll get to point that the TV networks (both pay and free) will be suing these sites to try and shut them down instead of embracing the medium and actually keeping customers. I'd pay for a foxtel type service that offered me to watch the shows I wanted to watch live.....even with the ads (ie tv shows from the US as they show in the US or aussie sport). AFAIK there is no limit to the number of streams they could run over the web so why not drop the expensive air waves spectrum costs and move forward.

wow are you missing the entire point of this thread completely or what?

as usual a typical f***wit reply from reso, can you not clearly see where I've quoted the sentences from faceman?

lol wut?????????????????????????????????????????????????

$15 a week for the Basic + sport is pocket money stuff.

The government is saying he has to settle for second best, because they won't allow Foxtel to show the sports exclusively or at all. He would also GLADLY pay for it!

What the f*** man, seriously?

Its just TV Networks deciding what sport you can watch and when you can watch it.