Olympic fury over rules for TV sport
April 7, 2012 – THE International Olympic Committee has slammed Australia’s rules for keeping major sports events on free-to-air TV, saying they are choking off competition, and warning that tough new federal laws could inflict commercial damage on valuable TV rights that bankroll the Olympic movement.
Major football and cricket groups have also warned that the Gillard government’s reforms to strengthen the anti-siphoning regime could harm their ability to get a good price for the rights to broadcast their games, with the Football Federation Australia declaring its business viability would be under threat.
In a submission sent from the Swiss city of Lausanne last week, the IOC warns that the existing laws distort negotiations when it sells TV rights to the Olympics and are based on the “simplistic and wrong” assumption that Australian viewers would be deprived of free coverage of the Games without an anti-siphoning scheme.
To view the complete article, please visit http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/olympic-fury-over-rules-for-tv-sport/story-e6frg996-1226320796182
Related story http://www.bandt.com.au/news/media/anti-siphoning-laws-will-damage-tv-deals-says-ioc
For more information about the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Anti-siphoning) Bill 2012, please visit http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=s872