Here is a paradox. A week after the government announced details of its bill to introduce greater restrictions on sports betting advertisements, it looks like Foxtel and Nine Entertainment are about to make history, signing a reportedly combined circa $5.3-plus billion deal to broadcast the NRL.
It begs the question: Does this anti-gaming advertising legislative package have much effect on the economics of the media companies that feed off gambling advertising?
For broadcast networks, marquee sports have become their programming lifeblood and gambling advertising is a meaningful contributor to that revenue – although the networks generally don’t call out how much.
Of course, media and gaming companies have lobbied hard to retain the status quo in relation to where and how much advertising inventory they can place, and its proximity to the game. In the government’s latest proposed changes, the media and gaming companies haven’t achieved that outcome, but they got close.
That $5.3 billion represents a big payday for the NRL – a lot to rake in at a time when free-to-air television companies are struggling and Foxtel has been in structural slo-mo decline for more than a decade under the Murdoch regime and more recently under its subsequent owner.
For Foxtel and for free-to-air TV networks, the escalating amounts they needed to pay for access to tier one sports such as the NRL and the AFL amounted to an existential challenge.
If the free-to-air broadcasters were in otherwise rude health, then crimping advertising revenue from gambling companies would be a no-brainer for the government and certainly not controversial.
Paying those big sums to sporting codes such as the NRL and the AFL (of which Foxtel will pay the lion’s share), is a serious outlay for these companies.
But it suggests that both Foxtel’s new owners, DAZN and Nine (which owns this masthead) believe that the proposed gambling advertising restrictions that they will be subject to over the duration of the seven-year deal with the NRL don’t alter the economics sufficiently to be dealbreaker.
Labor is proposing to restrict gambling ads to three per hour between 6am and 8pm on television, with a complete ban during live sport shown between those hours.
Meanwhile, advertising on radio would be banned during school drop-off and pick-up times.
For just about every other interested party, Albanese’s reforms have fallen short. Those that equate gambling harm to smoking harm can’t see any reason why a total advertising ban wouldn’t be the way to go.
The Greens, independents and the wider Labor Party rank-and-file and even the Coalition are pushing back on Albanese’s perceived soft touch on gambling reform – a stance that reflects the broader community’s views.
Some suggest it reflects the prime minister’s religious adherence to the cult of NRL, which looks flimsy. Sure, he is a fan of the Rabbitohs, but that doesn’t explain it.
More likely, it reflects a willingness to support the large free-to-air broadcasting companies that unfortunately have become too reliant on sport and gaming advertisements.
Having a strong media industry as a plank of a functioning democracy is one plausible reason, and this has been supported by previous policy decisions.
Albanese’s push for the large platforms to have their revenue tickets clipped to reflect the extent to which they content-leach from Australian media is evidence of this broader support for media plurality.
And then there is his disinclination to have any Australian major media players offside, which is considered a serious factor in the decision to contain changes so they are impact-lite on revenue.
The bottom line is that experts suspect that Albanese will need to give a little ground and tighten the screws a bit on gambling advertising – just to keep the peace.
But that won’t be enough to alter Australia’s biggest sports broadcasting deal being announced over the next 48 hours.
If the chat is correct, there are a couple of last-minute issues to iron out, but it remains on track.
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