Streaming sports prices an affront to the Aussie battler
There’s a lot of discussion about the price of sports streaming in Australia this week with two key drivers:
Dominant sports streamer Kayo Sports (said like “K-O” ie a knockout) offers leading sports including AFL, NRL, Cricket, F1, Supercars, and the NBA. It just hiked up prices to AUS $45.99 a month for its premium plan. That’s an increase of $5. The standard plan actually reduces by a whopping $0.01 to an ad-friendly $29.99 (down from $30).
The Winter Olympics is being broadcast on the free-to-air Channel Nine, with digital streaming available for the full range of Olympic events on its subscription service Stan. That requires a $20 per month subscription on top of a regular Stan subscription (starting price $12 per month, but for premium 4k it takes users up to $22 per month before adding on the $20 upcharge for the sports package).
Paying for sports access hits at the heart of Australian consumers a bit more than it does internationally because pay television has been less of a need in Australia for sports fans.
The “anti-siphoning” legislation was introduced as part of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 as a way of protecting Australian access to sports with the introduction of subscription cable/satelite television services in the early to mid 90s.
As, globally, we’re all moving towards digitally distributed television, those laws began making less sense, which led to a revision of the laws in 2024. The general spirit of the laws are that free-to-air TV broadcasters get first bite at sporting events deemed culturally important (ie they are popular enough sports with Australian sports people playing in them), with subscription services getting a second bite.
Early this week Liberal Senator Jane Hume (and for those international ABW readers, please keep in mind that our Liberal party are actually the conservative party… yeah, it’s weird) addressed representatives from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (‘The ACMA”) at Senate Estimates with concerns that her family couldn’t watch Australian Cross-Country Ski athlete Maddie Hooker compete live on Nine. Instead, she was being advised by on-air presenters to watch the event on Stan Sport.
It isn’t clear to me whether there was another event on at the time featuring an Australian athlete, but as Hume was advised by The ACMA, there’s actually no requirement for Nine to air sporting rights they have the rights to. The anti-siphoning laws simply protect the ability to air them.
Nine could actually make the decision to buy the Olympics rights and put it all behind the Stan paywall while airing Love Island repeats if it so chose. Of course, that would likely lead to CEO Matt Stanton being publicly beaten in the streets of Sydney while police and others look the other way with a jaunty whistle upon their lips.
Where Nine are facing a bit more scrutiny over decisions like this than in previous Olympics broadcasts is that the business is not sharing Olympics rights with a pay company like Foxtel. Because it also has its own subscription service involved, on-air it is advising viewers to use Stan, whereas it would not have done that for a subscription competitor.
Getting back to the Kayo price increase. I get that sports rights are crazy expensive, but in considering the price rise, the increase is not happening for all customers - just those after better video quality and the ability to stream across multiple devices. We can logically look at the price rise and say that the increase isn’t happening because of the cost of sports rights (otherwise the standard price would be going up too).
This begs the question: Does it really cost Kayo (owned by DAZN) 15 bucks a month more to stream in 4K and add an extra streaming device? That doesn’t pass the pub test.
(And speaking of pub tests… do you realise HOW MUCH it costs pubs to stream Kayo for customers???)
Mostly unrelated:
While I was looking for a picture of Matt Stanton, Google advised this:
That is, of course, former Nine CEO Mike Sneesby who left the business and the country with his tail between his stumpy legs back in 2024.
News Desk
Paramount has sweetened its bid for Warner Bros Discovery ahead of the shareholder vote next month. It is offering extra cash for each quarter the deal fails to close after this year and agreeing to cover the breakup fee the HBO owner would owe Netflix if it walked away. It is being termed a “tickling fee,” which is priced very differently to the tickling services I procure. Read: Reuters
Netflix chief global affairs officer Clete Willems says a Paramount acquisition of WBD would lead to $6 billion in job cuts. Read: THR
Rhys Darby (Flight of The Conchords, Yes Man), will star in a pilot for CBS / Warner Bros – it’s a multicam sitcom to be titled Regency and is about the heir to a cheese empire in 19th century England. It is from former Big Bang Theory EP Tara Hernandez, who also created the offbeat sci-fi thriller Mrs Davis. Read: Deadline
Chicken Shop Date’s Amelia Dimoldenberg will star in a romcom for Amazon MGM Studios about a celebrity interviewer. Read: Variety
Jesse Hassenger explores the idea that rightwingers can’t make good art. I’m not sure I entirely buy into it as an idea. But, certainly, it is weighted. Read: The Guardian
Production is underway in Australia on a sequel to Apple TV film Greyhound. Tom Hanks again stars, with Stephen Graham, Rob Morgan, and Elisabeth Shue all returning. Read: Deadline
A new report from Parks Associates shows 30 per cent of US consumers reported cutting household expenses as the top reason for canceling a streaming service – overtaking content availability as the dominant driver. Read: World Screen
It surprises me that anyone in the US is still paying for cable television for anything beyond sports and news (so many ghost channels…), but YouTube TV has just announced new skinny bundles. Read: Deadline
Video streaming solutions provider Bitmovin has appointed Ian Baglow co-CEO alongside existing CEO and Co-Founder Stefan Lederer.
Netflix is filming Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Broadway this week before the original cast leave the stage show on March 29. Read: THR
They said what?
Who wrote this headline? It gives me a headache.
Post of the day
Stargate star Michael Shanks:
Trailer Park
One Piece is back on Netflix for season 2 March 10.
Dear Killer Nannies debuts on Hulu at a date TBA. John Leguizamo stars as Pablo Escobar.
"Dear Killer Nannies" is a gripping coming-of-age series told through Juampi's perspective as a child, the son of Colombia's most notorious drug lord, Pablo Escobar Gaviria.
Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants debuts on National Geographic March 7 and on Disney+/Hulu March 8.
The film follows National Geographic Explorer Steve Boyes on an epic journey as he sets out with some of the last remaining master trackers in the world in pursuit of an animal long believed to be a myth.
The 32nd annual Actor Awards stream on Netflix March 1.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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Ah, remember the days when Streaming services were considered a cheaper option than cable. Also, I am so happy that I’m an atypical Australian with no love for sports.
If Kayo could stop emailing me 'bonus offers' even though I've unsubscribed that'll be great....also Stargate reference, yay 😍