Scrap TV Sport Deal, Govt Urged

Telstra has called for the Gillard Government’s proposed TV anti-siphoning scheme to be scrapped, claiming the proposed new federal laws will saddle consumers with extra costs as it seeks to include new media in its scheme and keep major sporting events on free-to-air TV.The Government’s anti-siphoning list named major sporting events that must be available for all Australians to see free of charge and cannot be “siphoned off” to pay-TV.

“Anti-siphoning rules should not be extended to new media because there is no evidence that deleterious siphoning to new media has occurred or will occur in the foreseeable future,” Telstra has told a Senate committee inquiring into Comms and Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy’s anti-siphoning bill.