Seven boss wants streaming loophole closed as US giants vie for AFL rights

Seven West Media boss James Warburton has urged the Albanese government to swiftly close a loophole in federal ‘anti-siphoning’ laws to prevent subscription-based streaming services from capturing rights to popular sporting competitions such as the AFL.

The comments, made just hours after new Communications Minister Michelle Rowland was sworn into the ministry, come as longtime AFL broadcaster Seven jostles with US streaming giants Amazon and Paramount in the league’s next rights deal.

Labor made a pre-election pledge to change anti-siphoning laws to restrict global streaming services from bidding for major sporting events such as the AFL and Australian Open before free-to-air broadcasters have the chance to do so. Warburton said in a speech at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in Sydney that closing the loophole needed to be an important priority for the new government.

“Free means keeping sport on free TV by ensuring Australians have access to events like the Olympics or their local AFL derby without having to pay,” Warburton said. “This is achieved through the anti-siphoning list, which ensures the most popular sporting events are on free-to-air television and not on subscription television. But there is a loophole in the anti-siphoning list. Currently, there is nothing preventing sporting codes selling directly to streaming companies, with the entire sport disappearing behind a paywall.

“Closing this loophole should be an important priority for the new government, and we are pleased that the Prime Minister and [Communications] Minister Rowland have both committed to keeping sport free and a review of anti-siphoning as a policy of this new Government.”

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Australia’s anti-siphoning laws were introduced in 1992 as Rupert Murdoch launched Foxtel as a way to ensure the public could watch major sporting and cultural events for free. The legislation stops Rupert Murdoch’s pay TV company Foxtel from bidding for broadcast right until a free-to-air network has bought them, but it does not apply to online streaming services.

The row over the broadcasting rules escalated last month when two of the world’s biggest streaming services – Amazon Prime and Paramount – expressed an interest in being part of an AFL broadcasting deal from 2024 onwards. Seven is the incumbent free-to-air broadcaster for the AFL, but could lose these rights to an international streaming service because the laws don’t apply to these new platforms.

Free TV Australia, the lobby group for commercial broadcasters Seven West Media, Network Ten and Nine (which shares a parent company with this masthead) have long advocated for the laws to include global services, to allow the public free access to major events. Foxtel – which is currently prevented from competing against free-to-air networks for these rights – opposes the laws and wants them overhauled so it can bid more effectively for sport. It believes they are only designed to protect free-to-air television rather than all local companies.