Murdoch and Packer set for monopoly

by Janice Hamilton

Australia's biggest pay-TV operators, Rupert Murdoch's Foxtel and Kerry 
Packer's Optus, have agreed to resell content and share satellite space in 
a move aimed at boosting profits and cutting programming costs. The deal 
confirms, if confirmation was still needed, that there are no fundamental 
differences between the two moguls who have moved another step closer to 
monopolising Australia's media.

The pay TV move is part of a bigger picture with the Federal Government 
preparing to ditch cross-media ownership rules that will set the 
Murdoch/Packer carnivores among the pigeons.

In the deal, which is currently being investigated by the Australian 
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Foxtel will take over the 
supply of Optus sporting and movie programming channels and force free-to-
air networks to pay for access to digital television.

Foxtel, is half-owned by Telstra Corp, with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and 
Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting among the other shareholders. It 
will also supply Optus with cabling over the Foxtel platforms.

The deal would also see Foxtel having sole subscription rights to the 
National Rugby League (NRL), rugby union and AFL with Foxtel already having 
the rights to the National Soccer League on pay TV. Kerry Packer's Nine 
Network would have the sole rights to free-to-air production without the 
Seven, Ten and ABC networks getting a look in.

Foxtel chief executive Kim Williams said he couldn't imagine that the ACCC 
would have a problem approving the merger and promised that there would be 
no collusion to raise prices to consumers.

Crying poor, he said it has to be recognised that pay TV is a business that 
has not yet managed to pay its way. "We are confident that our proposals 
stack up against all modern approaches in public policy to competition", he 
said. "I feel very confident in guaranteeing that the last outcome from 
this will be collusion between the two major competitive retailers."

Williams said he does not see why there should be any regulatory problems. 
"We have an environment that is not sustainable and at some stage people 
have to recognise that this is a business and it is a business that has not 
been sufficiently successful in attracting Australians to the services", he 
said.

The fact of the matter is, pay TV is a classic example of the parasitic 
nature of capitalism. If there is a way to appropriate anything and squeeze 
more profits out of it, then it will be found.

Free-to-air television was an intolerable concept to the business world, 
even for the billionaire owners of commercial stations. All those masses of 
consumers out there, and all they had to do was buy a set and connect it up 
and bingo, television programs.

Pay-for-view, first begun in the US in the early 1960s, was the "solution" 
to this vexing problem. There had to be an incentive to buy the product so 
popular programs were slowly hived off to pay TV, then entire sports were 
swallowed whole. Hundreds of channels were set up, mostly broadcasting 
endless amounts of commercial drivel.

What Williams is really saying is that pay TV isn't making enough money in 
Australia and we need to become more Americanised and send as many of the 
free-to-air networks bankrupt as quickly as possible.

A prime example is the publicly owned ABC following in the footsteps of the 
Seven Network by buying into Foxtel's subscriber service.

Though the deals will be subjected to ACCC approval, with the review of 
foreign ownership laws, and of the Trade Practices Act, it is obvious that 
power brokers in the Federal Government are willing to go to any lengths 
help out their media chums Packer and Murdoch.