In the middle of a pandemic as people are out of work and the country has just slipped into recession the LNP announces that they’re giving more cash to Foxtel, another $10 million of taxpayers’ money to Rupert Murdoch (yes, this is the foreigner who has a big business here and doesn’t pay any tax). This comes on top of the previous $30m handout to Rupert (https://www.thedodgybrothers.com/30m-payment-to-foxtel/) and right after another cut to the ABC’s funding (https://www.thedodgybrothers.com/more-abc-cuts/).
Where did we get this money to give to Rupert? Well, according to the New Daily, it “has been revealed as being funded under a federal coronavirus response package”.
Now, in fairness, Foxtel needs this money more than we do because in the same week we found out about the handout we also found out that Foxtel subscriptions dropped by almost 200,000 (some good news, huh?). Paid subscriptions to Foxtel Now also dropped about 10,000. And to add to Rupert’s woes, News Corp announced a loss of $1bn to the SEC (in the US) “primarily driven by the company’s decision to slash the valuation of Foxtel, which has been struggling to compete against streaming services like Netflix in Australia.”
Update Jan 2021 – The ABC pays Foxtel to broadcast women’s soccer!!! Yes, you read that right, we’re paying them twice. “The ABC paid News Corp’s Foxtel up to $35,000 for each Matildas match aired by the taxpayer-funded broadcaster last financial year,”. See the full report in the SMH.
Further reading:
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/07/22/10-million-for-fox-sports/
https://theaimn.com/shadow-ministers-slam-priorities-in-fox-sports-handout/
Covid funds – https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/08/06/10-million-foxtel-handout-came-from-covid-recovery-funds/
Foxtel subscriptions: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/25/foxtels-residential-subscriptions-plunged-by-nearly-200000-in-2019
Things are bad for Murdoch: https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2020/08/08/foxtel-value-falling/
(Image from https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2020/08/08/foxtel-value-falling/)
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