👉 Background: Live sports telecasts like AFL Grand Final, FIFA Women’s World Cup, NRL Grand Final, are considered events of national importance and cultural significance. That's why anti-siphoning laws are in place to protect these type of events from being behind a paywall (ahem Foxtel).

👉 What happened: But late last week, a new law passed that would allow streaming platforms to outbid local services for the digital rights to major sporting events.

👉 What else: So while the grand final may be on Channel 7 for free-to-air, the digital rights could be on Kayo...or Netflix. And this loophole will effectively lock out viewers who don’t watch television over an aerial connection - which is a growing number.

What's the key learning?

💡Tech advancements often outpace the legislation that is designed to govern them.

💡The anti-siphoning laws hadn’t been changed since 1992 - that means they haven't been updated to include digital streaming rights. As a result, sporting events can have their digital rights purchased by streaming services.

💡But, many households don’t have aerial connections anymore. In fact, digital streaming makes up 20% of all free-to-air viewing. So it's pretty clear that aerials are going the same way as landline phones…down the gurgler.