Greens to veto sport moving to pay TV

10 Nov 2010, 1:47 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Samantha Stosur at the Australian Open, which is one of the sporting events that may move to pay TV (Getty Images)

Samantha Stosur at the Australian Open, which is one of the sporting events that may move to pay TV (Getty Images)

Greens leader Bob Brown has warned his party will seek to veto any move to divert major sporting events from free-to-air to pay TV.

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Greens leader Bob Brown has warned his party will seek to veto any move to divert major sporting events from free-to-air to pay TV.

Senator Brown said there was talk that major sporting events such as the Australian Open tennis, major AFL games, some international cricket matches and some Olympic events could go to pay TV.

He said that meant 70 per cent of Australian viewers, who did not have pay TV, would miss out.

"If that's the case, the government is going to have a formidable opponent in the Greens," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

"The prospect of heading into the post-Christmas period without an Australian tennis open available on free TV is just not acceptable."

Senator Brown said these were new days in the parliament.

"And if the opposition and the Greens get together to defend the public interest through legislation, that will be the new rules," he said.

"I will introduce legislation to the parliament to defend the public interest in terms of seeing great sporting events, if the government tries to pull the rug from under those events and hand them across to pay TV."

What's called the anti-siphoning scheme was introduced in 1994 to ensure that events of national importance and cultural significance, such as home Test cricket matches, remained freely available to the Australian public.

The current anti-siphoning list of sporting events expires on December 31, with the government now considering what should take its place.

A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said only that the government would respond to the review into the scheme shortly.

Senator Brown indicated support for some proposed changes, including a requirement for free-to-air TV to actually broadcast rather than hoard events.

The pay TV industry has called for a use-it-or-lose-it policy, requiring free-to-air TV to broadcast events in a timely manner, or lose them.

"Maybe we need to tighten it up and make sure that the trend to putting events across to pay TV is reversed and that there is a stronger obligation on the free-to-air channels to show the events that are listed on the anti-siphoning list," Senator Brown said.

The current regime bars free-to-air stations from broadcasting sporting events on their new digital multi-channels. Senator Conroy has foreshadowed changes.

Senator Brown agreed.

"We need to look at that and make that an option, particularly as we move to seeing the country go 100 per cent digital in a few years," he said.

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