Just for a moment, put aside any thought that this post is severely flawed and that there are probably many more better ideas out there. Given the chance, if I had the power to enact a single law, it would be that major sporting events, especially those involving national teams, should be available on free to air television and radio.
For those not in Australia, there’s a little bit of background to this. Australia is a sporting mad country, there’s no sense denying it. For the population size Australia has, our national teams and sports men and women do extremely well, however, a lot of the sporting events are not able to be seen my the majority of Australians due to the fact that a PayTV company own the rights to the majority of them. Events such as Football (soccer – both local and other countries) or cricket not being played in Australia. It’s only just recently, that the Football Federation of Australia has managed to buck this trend and brokered a deal with Foxtel and SBS, allowing SBS (free to air) to broadcast A-League matches next season. Up until then, it’s been purely exclusive to Foxtel. Since then, other free to air channels have started securing rights to other sporting events, which is fantastic to see, but the majority are still in the clutches of Foxtel.
The problem with this is that it costs a freaking fortune. It’s about AU$70 per month, which for most Australians is just too expensive. If you have to pay to see a sporting match or event, you should be at the event itself, not sitting on your couch.
Cyntech 