Fox Sports CEO Patrick Delany "warned if anti-siphoning rules are not included in media reform legislation now before the Senate, the sports broadcasting industry could be permanently damaged," according to Simon Canning of MUMBRELLA. Delany "used the occasion to voice his concerns at the damage anti-siphoning laws -- and in particular Seven’s purchase of Olympic Games digital rights, putting them behind a pay-wall -- to warn about the implications of continuing to postpone changes to the laws." Delany: "The recent Olympics, where every event is on the list but Seven doesn’t have to show it live, free, or at all, but for very little cost can pick up a pay-TV platform and basically offer it now means that the market is now being contorted by this and it’s going to lead to bad outcomes for our country. There is not a better example of why they need to look at this." Delany "was continuing a theme that was repeated throughout the day at the conference" -- that anti-siphoning, an issue the industry "has been fighting for 20 years, remained one of its most significant issues." He said, "Dividing things out by technology when the technologies now can deliver the same outcomes is silly and they need to re-look at the laws and if they do want to have a public interest outcome, frame laws that have one rather than ones that contort the market" (MUMBRELLA, 9/7).
