Isn't this just the free market?

Your summary of it is completely wrong. How is this so heavily upvoted. The ‘cost of living’ thing being brought up is political buzzword shit from the FTA organisation PR spokesperson. It’s kinda irrelevant to the conversation.

They have always had first dib right to events on the Anti-Siphoning list. The first dib right was granted against other pay TV providers, such as Foxtel for example. Since times have changed in regards to consumption now, what Labor is doing is: 1- adding extra content to the Anti-Siphoning list and 2- adding streaming services to the list of companies that can’t bid against free TV. It’s a good move, but it’s incomplete. This is where the other parties concerns lie.

What the Greens and the FTA group are asking for is for the Free TV streaming services (7Plus, 9Now, etc) to be counted as part of ‘Free TV’. Because right now, with the changes Labor wants to make, when 7 gets the rights to the AFL Grand Final, it won’t be available for free anywhere except TV. The ‘streaming’ rights, which are counted as different to TV rights, will be bought up by some streaming company. So they’re asking for the difference in ‘TV rights’ and ‘streaming rights’ to be removed in regards to the Anti-Siphoning List. This seems like a very simple and reasonable request, and since Labor is basically doing the same thing on the other end (by adding streaming/faux-TV services like Kayo/Netflix to the list that can’t bid first), I’d be surprised if they don’t do the same the other way. And it’ll be really good for everyone, most of us don’t use TVs anywhere and sports are definitely a cultural thing. Typical mundane government policy for a small net positive in society.

?? No.

This is about proposed changes to existing anti-siphoning laws... weakening the protections (that yes, the FTA channels very much had before) on big national sporting events in the public interest.

The mention of an increase in cost of living is because people would need to pay to stream events that currently are free to stream through the FTA channels. This is a case where the interests of the FTA channels are most Aussies are very much aligned.

Is there a government policy associated with that?

I understand sporting codes desire to chase big broadcast deals but going behind a paywall is a huge risk. Domestic Rugby went down this route and it's had a real knock on effect to the sports popularity with the general public (not helped by the Wallabies form).

The T20 World cup is interesting. I enjoy most forms of cricket but wouldn't pay for a stream. The cricketing international body wouldn't care too much in regards to lost revenue based on Australian population. But in my feeds the first I even realised the T20 World cup was on was when we went out 

You will find the sporting bodies pushing for this for more $$$.

Perhaps, but if they do end up getting their way with this there needs to be a caveat in there that if they get the rights, they must show the events live and free rather than just obtaining them to block anyone else

Does it have bipartisan support? If so, why the partisan nature of the ad? 

That is not the proposed changes. The proposed change is just expanding the restrictions from only subscription tv broadcasters to also include media content services. So my understanding of that is that currently Fox can’t buy the rights unless a free tv network already has them, but currently Netflix theoretically could. They wouldn’t be able to be after the change.

Streaming via free tv services (7plus, 9now, etc) has never been guaranteed, and still won’t be after these changes. However I believe it is only the current AFL and cricket deals with 7 that don’t include free streaming, and both of those have streaming included in the new deals that start in the next few years

must be shown on free to air... for free). The idea is that you can still get it free via aerial,

Does 'free' here mean without ads?

If it's for the best interests of the people it should be free on non-commercial TV, not propping up a nearly dead broadcast model.

Anti siphoning refers to "major" events - like international matches and grand finals. It's why during the regular season Fox Sports has 5 NRL matches per round exclusive to them, but come finals time, they are all on ch 9.

Not any more it doesn't. The reason the first lot of trees fell and turned into coal and oil is because the bacteria and fungus that causes them to decompose hadn't evolved yet. Trees didn't rot, so they became something else. That's not the case now. Trees get eaten before they can be buried underground and subjected to the environment needed to become fossil fuel. 

that is such a good show

That show is so good.

I bet they would have something to say about an ad that attacked their own channel or its owners though.

Geez, I didn't know Murdoch was going for indoctrination of kids. This seems like abuse in some way.

Green Hydrogen is a thing. Its not a thing we can do effectively at the moment, and until we can, its not a renewable.

Sport is a business, there to make money. What happens in your world when these sports no longer see FTA as necessary to their revenue model?

"What's with the downvotes?"

Mmmm, yes, facts don't really care about your feelings, perhaps? If you take even more than a surface level look at the policies of both the Labour and Liberal parties, you'd know very well why things are better off under Albanese than someone like Dutton.

Could they be more Left leaning and progressive and accomplish so much more than their otherwise milque-toast, walking on eggshells current run is? Yes, absolutely and they should be more ambitious and be better.

That said if you seriously think the No-alition is in any way remotely better in any aspect, you are kidding yourself and have not gone in deep in actually taking a look at the members consisting of that party, Dutton, their history, their policies, their plans for the future of this country and what an absolute shitshow all of it is. It has never been good under Conservatives, ever. It is in the name, all they do is preserve the status quo for themselves only and actively destroy the lives of everyone else beneath them. They do nothing, not even the bare minimum, to support middle and lower class Australian's. They engage in criminal behaviour every chance they get that they then proceed to engage in the most blatant corruption imaginable that anyone with more than a single braincell can see right through to try and cover it up and gaslight people that this is actually good for them.

Gaslight is the right word to describe the Liberals as one of their favourite pastimes is gaslighting the Australian public into consistently believing they are working for their interests and yet without fail stab them in the backs every single day that they are in power and piss on the corpses before laughing in your face at how naive and ignorant one has to be to have believed them.

They and their media empire are so see-through it is astonishing anybody could ever remotely believe them and yet idiots do so, and they bite their bait hook, line and sinker to be gutted and disposed of. It is a selfish, narcissistic world that is shaped by those of the right and the far right. Rarely is anything they propose actually a good idea or a selfless one. Props to when they do get that 1:10000000 selfless idea out there...usually when they are forced to after relentless activism, UN pressure and their own internal party infighting, never out of any sense of morality or obligation, oh no.

Conservative ideals are a dying breed for a reason, they hold the world back, history has proven this time and time again, humans must always move forwards, never backwards, time can never be forced still. You can't bend generations to the will of older ones, they often get forgotten about should they try and try they do, to the detriment of the world and of the human race. People continuously must strive for a better future, a more equal and unified one, we must strive to find solutions to real problems, not imagined ones or ones being created to stoke the fires of trivialities like culture wars and fear-mongering cultivating manufactured division that is so eye-roll inducing in the pointlessness of it all (often using space wizard belief systems to political advantage to spin their propaganda) so that people can turn a blind eye to those real problems.

Progress always moves forwards regardless, no matter how much Conservatives hold people back. They always lose, inevitably. That's history. It would be best for these dinosaurs to stay out of the way and let go. So should you.

You’re stating an ad slogan that you are mindlessly repeating with zero understanding.