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You can now purchase on line Harold's recently released autobiography "Living Large - the world of Harold Mitchell - from sawmiller's son to multi million dollar man"

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Fuelling The TV Wars

Anti-siphoning is in the news. It is causing many to have sleepless nights, except lawyers of course, who always sleep well when big business and government burn the midnight oil trying to work out how to make and break new laws.  

For those who fought to save the planet by leading the charge against lead-free fuel and who think anti-siphoning means that the hyperventilating legislators in the national capital want to control how you fill up your car, you can relax.

Remember the old days of running out of petrol? If you didn’t have a rubber hose in your boot you weren’t travelling. The old one-gallon can was as necessary as a spare tyre.

Out of petrol? No problem - out with the spare can, the rubber hose and just siphon away.

Sucking the petrol through a hose without swallowing was an art form - usually passed on in the manner of father-to-son. It was dangerous too, given the heavy smoking population at the time.

However the anti syphoning issue today is about television, power and money - a mix just as heady as leaded fuel and perhaps more explosive.

Minister Conroy is wandering around Canberra with a box of matches ready to set alight a new review into the vexed issue of the “use it or loose it” provisions for sports on the anti syphoning list. The Senator is our hero, of course, as he introduced the big bang of broadband to the home after nearly a dozen years of the Coalition doing nothing.

Charlie, who apart from helping us with his outstanding economic research advice which continues to be ahead of the Reserve Bank - is right up there with this anti-siphoning stuff. For the casual reader to this column, let me explain.

Anti-siphoning is the term that is used to allow over 1300 sports events to be offered first to the free TV networks.  PayTV picks up the crumbs and many events end up simply never being telecast. It covers everything from the Olympic and Commonwealth Games to the major footy codes and the Melbourne Cup.

The Foxtel people hate it. They would much rather we have to pay to watch most of our sport, especially the big ones like the football finals coming up. It would mean big bucks for them.

But I can’t see anyone in Canberra letting it happen. What pollie would want to be responsible for making “working families” pay for their most passionate leisure time pursuit which they have been able to watch all their lives for nothing?

But along comes a twist with the advent of the new TV sets that receive digital broadcasts.  The free-to-air channels want to have their digital offerings protected so that they can have more sport, more advertisers and more happy viewers watching without paying a cent.  

The argument has also been raised about online access.

I like to please everyone in this column, but it’s hard to see the Government doing anything other than protecting the free-to-air networks and looking good with our nation of sports mad voters - oops sorry - viewers, even though the anti-siphoning legislation is actually anti-competitive, and doesn't allow free and fair bidding for all parties for sports events.  This leaves our other hero, Kim Williams at Foxtel sucking up benzol, not air, and cursing anti-siphoning.