News Corp to boycott Games in access row

News Corp Australia will boycott the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games next year over a rights dispute with the organisers.

GOLDOC chairman Peter Beattie. Photo: Adam Head.

News Corp Australia will boycott the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and the PyeongChang Winter Olympics next year over a rights dispute with the organisers that could have repercussions for years to come as publishers grapple with the 24-hour online news agenda.

The boycott of the Commonwealth Games could also escalate as news agency Australian Associated Press and Fairfax Media comtempalte joining News Corp in not having journalists officially accredited to cover the Games that take place from April 4 to 15.

News Corp has told the Commonwealth Games Federation based in London and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) chairman Peter Beattie it will not seek accreditation for journalists and photographers after the sides failed to reach a deal that relaxes stringent restrictions around the online use of pictures and video from events.

News Corp has also sent notification to the Australian Olympic Committee in relation to the Olympic Winter Games in South Korea from February 9 to 25.

News Corp will still cover the Commonwealth Games and Winter Olympics but will not have photographers or journalists ­inside the venues. ­Instead, written articles and videos will be produced from outside the stadiums. The company believes that if it agrees to the news access rules, it will be more restricted in the video content it can produce.

The move has brought to a head the tense dispute that has raged behind closed doors for a year between media outlets and the organisers following a protest against restrictions imposed by the Commonwealth Games Federation to protect the TV rights of the holder, Seven Network, such as holdbacks, take-downs and specified time limits on video used for news reporting. Kerry Stokes’ Seven is also the rights holder for the Winter Olympics.

The fight between multi-­platform digital news brands and news wires on one side, and the events’ organisers on the other, centres on the future of reporting in a digital world. The row has ­exposed the blurring of the lines between TV broadcasting and the online arms of traditional media organisations amid deep disagreement over who owns what right to which form of coverage at lucrative sporting events.

Australian high jumper and model Amy Pejkovic. Picture: Ian Currie

Publishers say the ­refusal of the organisers to vary the terms of the news access rules ­raises ­issues about preserving important principles that underpin a free press.

AAP chief executive Bruce ­Davidson said the news agency was still in talks with GOLDOC and had not yet reached a position on covering the event. “However, AAP agrees with the industry in general that the current accreditation conditions being sought by the Games organisers impose undue restrictions on press freedom and limits the ability of publishers to provide vital and independent news coverage for Australians,” Mr Davidson said.

Fairfax has refused to ­accept the restrictions and sign the terms.

Mr Beattie, the premier of Queensland from 1998 to 2007, has spent the past two months in difficult talks with individual media organisations to avert the potential of any of them deciding to boycott the Commonwealth Games. Media outlets are not ­allowed to act in concert and must negotiate separately.

Responding to News Corp’s ­decision, Mr Beattie said: “It’s ­entirely a matter for News Corp. We will continue to talk with them about accreditation arrangements. There’s nothing we can do about changing the (news access rules).

“They can only be varied ­between Seven and News, Fairfax and the AAP. Our hands are tied. We’re not party to the agreement. I can’t change it even if I wanted to. We have to enforce it. The rights agreement was reached before I became chairman.”

But News Corp executives say the negotiation does not take place between the news reporting media companies and the rights-holding broadcaster. ­Instead, outlets are required to accredit with GOLDOC.

The Commonwealth Games Federation is insisting on provisions around how publishers use video that they lift off-air and use online, holdbacks on publishing until after host broadcaster Seven has done so, and take-downs that require sites to remove digital content after 24 hours.

The three media outlets have railed against the news access rules, which also compel publishers to obey a 30-minute delay for broadcasting content collected at news conferences and limit digital news bulletins to a maximum of 60 seconds a day across no more than three bulletins a day.

Bulletins can be posted on just one location of the news site and must have a minimum of three hours between them. Among other restrictions, the publishers must sign up to the rules to broadcast only one-third, or 30 seconds, of an event, whichever is lesser, in any one news bulletin, as well as no telephone interviews or voice reports with or from persons within venues.

The Australian editor-in-chief Paul Whittaker said the rules were so restrictive that the masthead’s ability to cover news from the event would have been seriously impacted.

“Under these restrictions, our journalists would be able to tell our readers less than spectators at the events would be able to tell their friends,’’ he said.

The boycott is not unprecedented. In 2011 News Corp did not seek accreditation for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and Cricket World Cup in India. The move was extended to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England.

In 2014, News Corp sent journalists and still photographers to the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games despite being troubled by the nature and breadth of the news access rules, including heavy requirements around the use of audiovisual.

What has changed since 2014 is the massive shift in media consumption habits as publishers shift resources into video to enhance written news reporting to reflect modern audience trends.

Mr Beattie said he recognised that the media landscape had evolved dramatically.

“The problem for the future of these events is that unless you get a major sponsor and broadcast partner, the organisers can’t afford to put them on,” he said. “Seven has paid a lot of money for the Games and it’s only fair they want to protect the value of that deal.”

Executives at News Corp, which initially brought these matters to senior GOLDOC personnel including Mr Beattie in September 2016, said they did not seek accreditation to sporting events for video cameras and operators as they did not generate audiovisual content from inside venues.

Instead, they want the ability to use video content by scraping and lifting from the main telecast for the purpose of news reporting, a right afforded to media outlets under Australia’s Copyright Act.

News Corp has a separate commercial agreement in place with the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

New York-based Robert Thomson, global chief executive of The Australian’s publisher, News Corp, was among the speakers at a Commonwealth Games legacy symposium on the Gold Coast in October.

Mr Thomson hinted at a looming threat to press freedom at the Commonwealth Games.

“For … the Gold Coast Bulletin, and its new editor Ben English, this will be a profoundly important opportunity to tell stories and capture humanity in all its glory,” he said. “The same is true for our mastheads and websites around the world. We do hope our journalists will have as much access as possible so that they can capture the extraordinary moments and project the Gold Coast on the world stage.

“I do trust Commonwealth Games officialdom appreciates that the more people that can experience the Games in word, in image and in video, the more the reputation and profile of the Games will be enhanced.”

Mr Beattie said: “We value Seven and News Corp — one of our major sponsors who will be given appropriate respect.”

Seven signed an estimated $40 million deal with the Commonwealth Games Federation in 2014.