By Max Mason and Dominic White
Foxtel is preparing a list of sports for the federal government that it believes should be taken off the anti-siphoning list because they are not of national and cultural significance.
It is understood that Foxtel will bring the list of sports to Communications Minister Mitch Fifield in the coming weeks as the government prepares for changes to media regulation.
Platform neutral
The pay television provider will not be pushing for events such as National Rugby League, Australian Football League and the Melbourne Cup to be taken off the list. Rather, it will argue that outliers on the list, such as the FA Cup final, could be removed without much fuss.
It is believed the pay TV provider will also highlight that the anti-siphoning list only impacts Foxtel and that the scope of the legislation needs extending beyond traditional broadcast to become platform neutral.
Senator Fifield is receptive to re-examining the anti-siphoning regime, and free-to-air network Nine Entertainment Co is open to some minor events being removed.
Broad support
There is broad support for the removal of the reach rule preventing TV networks from broadcasting to more than 75 per cent of the population. However, the scrapping of the two out of three rule preventing media companies from owning a newspaper, radio network and television station in one market is not as widely supported.
Labor recommended the abolition of the reach rule while in power but some Opposition MPs are concerned that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation could be able to buy up more assets and strengthen its grip of local media should the two-out-of-three rule go.
If this trend of streaming live sport is replicated in Australia, particularly via paid subscription models, the anti-siphoning regime may need revisiting, but we are not there yet.
Rod Sims, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman
The removal of media ownership rules would spark a flurry of M&A in the sector.
The regional broadcasters are supported by Nine and Fairfax Media, publisher of The Australian Financial Review and BusinessDay.