Sky stranglehold stupefying

As stupefying as Sky Television’s stranglehold on the Olympics broadcast rights is, it is the ambivalence from the New Zealand Olympics Council towards the wrangle that is most troubling.

Sky’s bullish broadcast rules, which include restrictions that breach New Zealand copyright law, have led to Fairfax, the owner of Stuff, and NZME, publishers of the New Zealand Herald, to withdraw their news teams from Rio. The ‘news access rules’ were devised by Sky and the NZOC and placed delays on the publishing of fair use footage, contravening our copyright laws. An earlier version also prohibited other media from criticising Sky commentators.

It likely seems self-serving and slanted to cry foul at the treatment of one’s employer by a competitor, but from the perspective of a sports lover this power game is just as vexing. Just as our golden Olympic memories are a collage of live footage, breaking announcements on the radio, 6pm news reels and iconic front pages, our new ones should be fuelled by the best coverage available on the platforms that garner the greater audience, and not be filtered by commercial ambitions.

Our sporting nation expect the reporting of these events to be immediate and uncompromised, not in 45 minutes time.

Sky TV can hardly be blamed for wanting the best deal that suits them and offers the greatest potential return on its investment. But it appears its wish list of restrictions has got through unfettered by the NZOC.

Fairfax group executive editor Sinead Boucher criticised the NZOC for taking no part in the media negotiations, despite being a joint party to the news access rules. The NZOC has done itself and Kiwi sports fans a disservice in their refusal to intervene and enforce both our country’s copyright laws and its own Olympic charter – which calls for coverage to be accessible to as wide an audience as possible – in the design of the media rules.

Fairfax reaches 80 per cent of the population. Sky forecast it would have 830,000 subscribers as at June 30. For Sky to unduly restrict news coverage of events on the platforms that garner the greatest audience, and for the NZOC to effectively pick up its ball and scurry home, undermines the spirit of the Games and dulls the view of it for every New Zealander.

Our sporting nation expect the reporting of these events to be immediate and uncompromised.