Here is the list of what Rupert expects from Tony Abbott in return for his papers campaign ... it has been scary to see the bias he has been prepared to print. • A new look at anti-siphoning: changes proposed by then-communications minister Stephen Conroy in 2010 were never legislated, leaving the door wide open to an Abbott government to further amend the anti-siphoning scheme in Foxtel’s favour. Watch out for amendments to the anti-siphoning rules to reduce the capacity of major sports to deliver their own content without broadcasting. Under amendments proposed by Conroy, internet content providers would have become subject to the anti-siphoning rules. That would be enacted and possibly extended to rights holders themselves, who even via Malcolm Turnbull’s half-baked “copper magic” broadband network would be able to deliver HD coverage of matches directly to subscribers, with the likes of Foxtel reduced to renting out cameras and outside broadcasting vans. • More handouts for free-to-air networks and in particular Lachlan Murdoch’s beleaguered Ten Network. The Gillard government halved television licence fees in March; watch for further licence fee cuts, possibly with the nowtraditional justification of protecting local content. • A return of government recruitment advertising to newspapers. The Gillard government moved government recruitment advertising online, stripping The Australian and The Australian Financial Review in particular of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. Watch for that to be restored. • Curb the ABC I: expect an undoing of the Gillard government’s decision to permanently award Australia’s international television service to the ABC, with an amendment to the ABC Act removing the requirement that only the ABC operate such a service. Then, in time, another tender process would likely be commenced, one that Sky News will be in the box seat to win. • Curb the ABC II: as both News Corp and its main rival, Fairfax, are moving behind paywalls, the ABC remains a key competitor with its freely available online news and commentary. In his famous McTaggart Lecture in 2009, James Murdoch, before he ended up corporate roadkill in the phone-hacking scandal, attacked the BBC for “dumping free, state-sponsored news on the market”, which “makes it incredibly difficult for journalism to flourish on the internet. Yet it is essential for the future of independent journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it.” Expect a campaign from The Australian, which routinely attacks the ABC as biased, for the Abbott government to rip into the ABC budget in order to end its unfair online “news dumping” that lures eyeballs away from News Corp websites. • And then there’s the real prize for News Corp — 100% control of Foxtel, which can only be achieved by forcing out the other 50% shareholder, Telstra. Foxtel has gross revenues of $4 billion and gross profit of $1 billion, and while it has an estimated $2.1 billion in debt, control of the cash flows would boost the weak and dying print businesses of News Corp Australia. It would also allow Foxtel/News to emulate BSkyB in the UK and plunge deeply into offering more services, such as internet broadband, mobile telephone services and improve emerging platforms like its mobile apps. from crikey
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 03:36:46 +0000
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