Write move for News

No compromise on commitment to deliver best Games coverage

GOLD Coast Bulletin staff will cover next year’s Commonwealth Games from outside the official venues if a broadcast rights dispute is not resolved.

News Corp Australia, which owns the Bulletin, has told the Commonwealth Games Federation it will not seek accreditation for journalists and photographers for the Games, which runs from April 4-15.

While the Bulletin remains committed to covering the Games as comprehensively as ever, the parties failed to reach a deal to relax restrictions around the use of audio and video from events online.

“The contract that was laid out for News Corp would only serve to deny our readers the comprehensive coverage they’ve become accustomed to as we’ve evolved into a 24/7 multi-platform newspaper,” Gold Coast Bulletin editor Ben English said.

“The Gold Coast Bulletin is no longer simply a print product – we tell stories the way readers want to consume them, producing thousands of videos a year and delivering our stories as

they happen. We will cover the Games as comprehensively as ever without the straight jacket the Games authority sought to apply.”

The restrictions compel publishers to obey a 30- minute delay for broadcasting content collected at news conferences and limit digital news bulletins to a maximum of 60 seconds a day across no more than three bulletins a day.

Fairfax Media and news wire Australian Associated Press have also raised concerns about the restrictions, which have been imposed to protect the TV rights of the Seven Network.

News has also advised the Australian Olympic Committee it will not be covering February’s Winter Olympics in South Korea, which will also be broadcast on Seven.

GOLDOC chief executive Mark Peters said the organisation was bound by the contract the Commonwealth Games Federation entered into with the Seven Network in 2014.

Griffith University media expert Professor Stephen Stockwell said News Corp’s stance was about more than just next year’s Games. “The media environment has changed and it’s not surprising News Corp has decided to draw a line in the sand.”

GOLDOC chairman Peter Beattie said there was nothing the organisation could do to change the news access rules.