Seven Network stars use TikTok trend to push changes to anti-siphoning
Seven Network is calling on the Federal Government to amend its proposed changes to anti-siphoning in Australia to protect access to free sport content, with a new campaign playing on a TikTok trend via its in-house creative agency, Red Engine.
The campaign features some of Seven’s biggest broadcast stars – Bruce McAveney, Ricking Ponting, Justin Langer, Abbey Holmes, Mel McLaughlin and Emma Freedman, among others.
Capitalising on the ‘I’m Aussie, of course…’ TikTok trend, the campaign sees the stars give a number of reasons as to why they want sport content to stay on free TV.
“Seven supports most parts of the Communications Legislation Amendment (Prominence and Anti-Siphoning) Bill 2023, but there is a major omission from the Bill,” explained James Warburton, CEO and MD at Seven West Media.
“It only guarantees free sport content for Australians that have an aerial. It does not guarantee people will get free sport if they choose to stream it over the internet or don’t have an aerial. No aerial means no guarantee that Australians will have access to free sport in the future.
“As the bill is drafted now, there is nothing stopping Amazon, Kayo, Prime and Netflix from buying all the digital rights to Australians’ favourite sports and making them pay if they want to stream sport over the internet,” he continued.
“The Albanese Government needs to amend the bill to include the free digital stream alongside the free broadcast stream so that all Australians can access free sport, regardless of whether they have a TV aerial or not.”
Free TV CEO Bridget Fair said, “As it stands, people who watch free sport through the internet have no guarantees paid streaming services won’t buy up the rights and lock broadcasts behind paywalls. We’re already seeing this with Amazon buying rights to ICC cricket tournaments including the next Cricket World Cup.”
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Lauren McNamara was the associate editor at Mumbrella. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS. She left Mumbrella in August 2025.
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