Murdoch Jr Slams Australian Anti-Siphoning Regulations

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

04 March 2003

Speaking on Friday, deputy chief operating officer of News Corp and heir to his father's global media empire, Lachlan Murdoch described Australia's 'anti-siphoning' laws as among the most stringent in the world.

At a news conference in Sydney, the News Corp executive bemoaned the over-regulation of the country's pay-TV industry, and warned that the anti-siphoning laws - which mean that major sporting events are always made available first to free-to-air broadcasters - are stifling Foxtel (of which Murdoch Jr is a director) and its other pay-TV rivals.

'There's no justification for it. The government treats it (pay-TV) as a fully mature industry that needs regulation at every step,' he argued, citing the US and European non-exclusive systems as the ideal model for Australia.

According to a CNN report on the issue:

'Foxtel and its main pay-TV competitors, SingTel Optus and Austar, have invested about AU$8 billion ($4.8 billion) in the industry since 1995, but are yet to show any return because of high programming costs and the dominance of free-to-air broadcasting.'

The news service went on to reveal that even with a majority share of the Australian pay-TV market, Foxtel still loses around AU$100 million per year, whilst Optus' losses in this area are an estimated AU$50 million greater.

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