Race is on to stop News Corp running a sports rights monopoly

By Roy Masters
Updated August 24 2017 - 11:08pm, first published 10:59pm

Should Federal Parliament pass the media reforms that allow Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon to own Channel Ten, the cashed-up network can use its powers under existing anti-siphoning legislation, to acquire sports properties, leaving some on free-to-air TV and shutting others behind a paywall. For example, Ten/Fox could buy the rights to cricket tests, leaving the most popular two on Ten and forcing consumers to subscribe to Foxtel to watch the remaining Tests.