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Just a quick comment on Australia's anti-siphoning laws:

They currently allow free-to-air television broadcasters priority over pay TV operators to bid for key sporting events. With the upcoming "refreshment" of Australia's media policy, these laws are very vulnerable.

Foxtel, who are expected to turn a first-time profit this year -- and owned by Packer's PBL, Murdoch's News Limited and Telstra, are absolutely pining for these laws to be changed -- I assume so they can buy the NRL outright and force Australia's massive rugby league supporting population to subscribe to Foxtel. They'll probably further NFL-ise the game as well, and before we know it we'll be seeing Phil G(h)ould more than we can humanly consume and I will probably vomit or something.

It shouldn't be a game where he who has the most money wins. The domination of a company like Foxtel in an Australian market would further damage Australian TV and local content to the point where local soverignty (in sport, anyway) would go out the window and over to the US.

Pay-tv companies hold a much more liberal local content quota than free-to-air broadcasters, and with an enterprise like Foxtel influencing media policy and dominating the Australian market, local content will diminish to a voiceless speck.

The best "pay" television channels in Australia are the ABC and SBS. You and I pay for them, so we might as well watch them. Why should we pay tax for these broadcasters and then be expected to voluntarily pay more for lower quality television?

I know a guy who pays about $100 a month for Foxtel Digital. The doors of his house are falling off and he complains endlessly about not having any money, but oh no, he's just gotta have his pay tv. Complete sucker, I say.

Anyway, this wasn't as short or precise as I wanted it to be, but it's the future of Australian broadcasting gurgling down the toilet.

Don't give your money away!