TV companies launch last-minute bid to block total gambling ad ban    By David Crowe, Paul Sakkal and Chris Barrett

 

Media companies will be given several years to scale back their reliance on advertising revenue from gambling firms in a federal move to soften the impact of a new cap on the promotion of sports betting, as the commercial broadcasters launch a last-minute push to stop a blanket ad ban.

The major broadcasters are warning of a cut to their $1.6 billion annual outlay on news, sport and local drama if the government imposes a tight cap on gambling advertising, raising the stakes in a cabinet decision as soon as next week.

With tempers flaring over the change, the government gave media industry chiefs until Wednesday to respond to the draft proposal and outline the likely loss of revenue, previously tipped to be about $240 million across television and radio if there were a total ban.

 

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher warned about the need to balance the gambling controls against the financial pressures on the media, after similar comments from Government Services Minister Bill Shorten and Employment Minister Murray Watt.

“I’m like any parent out there – I think we see too much gambling advertising,” Gallagher told the ABC on Tuesday afternoon. “So there has to be a response.”

Gallagher, added, however, that the media was suffering from pressure on advertising revenue.

“This government does have a very strong interest in making sure that we maintain a level of public interest journalism, free-to-air regional coverage across Australia,” she said.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tv-companies-launch-last-minute-bid-to-block-total-gambling-ad-ban-20240813-p5k242.html

 

 

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Does free-to-air TV really need gambling ads to survive?

 

BY Andrew Hughes

 

If anything is a sure bet right now, it’s corporate Australia’s willingness to use some variation of the “for society’s good” argument.

The most recent example of this is the claim being made, including by federal minister Bill Shorten, that an outright ban on gambling advertising would be disastrous for free-to-air TV.

To be clear, Labor still supports new restrictions on gambling advertisements, including hourly caps and bans during kids’ TV and during and around sports broadcasts. 

But it has rejected the idea of a total ban, prompting a backlashextending as far as some of its own backbench MPs. 

Speaking on ABC’s Q&A on Monday night, Shorten said Australia’s free-to-air TV broadcasters were in “diabolical trouble”, with many needing gambling ad revenue “in order just to stay afloat”. 

“I’m not convinced that complete prohibition works,” he said.

So would our commercial TV networks really fall over tomorrow without gambling ad revenue? Or is something else at play?

Read more: The government is under pressure to ban gambling ads. History shows half-measures don't work

Who is buying ads in Australia?

Let’s start by building a bigger picture of where advertising spend more broadly comes from in Australia. Global analytics firm Nielsen regularly compiles top 20 lists of both the categories and individual companies spending the most on ads here. 

In 2023 the top category, retail, accounted for A$2.56 billion in advertising spend. Gambling and gaming, in contrast, represented just $239 million, less than a tenth of this figure.

Harvey Norman topped the list of individual companies in 2023. The first we see of any gambling brand is Sportsbet, which came in at 16th.

For gambling companies, it’s fair to assume the lion’s share of this goes to TV. Research by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found 68% of gambling companies’ ad spend went to free-to-air TV markets. 

As for the remainder, 9% went to radio, 15% to social media and 8% to other online platforms. 

How much is actually getting spent?

But how do we estimate the gambling industry’s total annual advertising spend? There are certainly a lot of numbers getting thrown around. 

One source put it at $300.5 million for 2022. 

More recently, ACMA published detailed figures for the period between May 2022 and April 2023 which put it at just over $238 million, with $162 million of this going to free-to-air TV networks.

But the way advertising is classified – what defines an advertisement – can sometimes differ between agencies. Then there is the number of brands operating, which is constantly changing. 

In a market with so many competitors, any new entrant needs to spend big on advertising just to capture enough market share to be viable. 

This is why I argue that the actual figure for financial year 2023 may be slightly higher than ACMA’s widely quoted figure, accounting for the big ad spend of new entrants that may have fallen outside the time window assessed. 

Based on average company ad spend as a percentage of revenue and the size of the gambling industry, I estimate it could be higher, in the ballpark of $275 million. 

How much is that to the networks?

This exercise is all about putting these figures in context.

Channel Seven, for example, brought in $1.5 billion in revenue in 2023. Even if it had received the gambling industry’s entire ad spend at my higher estimate of $275 million, this would still only account for less than 20% of its annual turnover. 

If that money all went to TV ads, Channel Seven’s stated 38.5% share of television advertising revenue would put its revenue from the estimated sports betting advertising at about $106 million in this example, around 7% of its total annual revenue. 

Losing most of that would hurt, but wouldn’t mortally threaten the business.

A total ban would most likely be phased in over a number of years, not enacted overnight. 

Australia’s free-to-air networks would adapt, restrategise, and find and develop new markets to replace that revenue. Their management teams are far too smart to just shrug their shoulders and take a revenue hit on the corporate chin. 

Networks have had plenty of time to adapt

Just a refresher. LinkedIn is now more than 20 years old. Facebook is 20. YouTube is 19. X (formerly known as Twitter) is 18. TikTok is seven. 

If free-to-air TV’s business model is so glacial it can’t function in the digital age, it probably doesn’t deserve to be operating in the big leagues.

Digital is here and has been for a while now. The media industry has borne the brunt of this change, but has also had the most time to adapt to the disruptors, who are now more established oligopolies and duopolies than “cool start-ups” out of Silicon Valley. 

The argument that we need to protect sports gambling ads to protect the big media brands – has little to no basis. It’s a worn out argument we’ve seen time and time again – big tobacco, I’m looking at you. 

Protecting the interests of corporate Australia at the cost of society itself is a gamble none of us should be prepared to take.

 

https://theconversation.com/does-free-to-air-tv-really-need-gambling-ads-to-survive-236686

 

 

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The Government is ducking and weaving when it comes to banning gambling ads, being pressured not just by the gambling industry but by the perennial whingers from mainstream media. Marketing expert Andrew Hughes offers a dose of reality.

If anything is a sure bet right now, it’s corporate Australia’s willingness to use some variation of the “for society’s good” argument. The most recent example of this is the claim being made, including by federal minister Bill Shorten, that an outright ban on gambling advertising would be disastrous for free-to-air TV.

To be clear, Labor still supports new restrictions on gambling advertisements, including hourly caps and bans during kids’ TV and during and around sports broadcasts. But it has rejected the idea of a total ban, prompting a backlash extending as far as some of its own backbench MPs.

Speaking on ABC’s Q&A on Monday night, Shorten said Australia’s free-to-air TV broadcasters were in “diabolical trouble”, with many needing gambling ad revenue “in order just to stay afloat”.

“I’m not convinced that complete prohibition works,” he said.

So would our commercial TV networks really fall over tomorrow without gambling ad revenue? Or is something else at play?

 

READ MORE: https://michaelwest.com.au/mr-shorten-does-free-to-air-tv-really-need-gambling-ads-to-survive/

 

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Australian kids see betting as 'part of sport' - can banning ads help?

 

Hannah Ritchie

 

Like so many in Australia, Sam grew up in a community where having a punt was synonymous with sport.

“‘Our friends, our family would ask ‘Oh who are you betting on this week?’ That was the normal conversation that occurred,” his sister Amy - who is not using her real name - says.

Looking back, she blames that normalisation of gambling - the way it crept into their home and baked itself into social interactions – for her brother’s addiction, and for the suffering he endured before taking his life.

“It just destroyed him physically and emotionally,” she explains. “We tried everything. We were a close family, but we obviously didn’t know how bad it was - it crushed him.”

Amy is one of dozens who came forward to testify in a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into the impacts of gambling in Australia - which wagers more per capita than any other country. 

The probe found that there were “few safeguards” to protect those battling addiction and recommended 31 reforms to avoid “grooming” a new generation of children to gamble, starting with a three-year phased ban on advertising. 

Now, pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese - both externally and from within his party - to act, with polling suggesting a majority of people support the move.

But the government has signalled it may instead opt for a cap to limit advertising. It has cited the role gambling ad revenue plays in propping up the nation’s ailing free-to-air broadcasters, as well as warnings from wagering companies that a ban could drive consumers offshore. 

Doing so would result in huge tax losses on Australian betting platforms which currently fund “vital services”, the peak body representing the industry says.

The debate has spurred accusations that corporate interests are standing in the way of common-sense reform.

It has also spotlighted the deep-rooted links between sport, gambling, and entertainment in Australia.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2yg3k82y0o

 

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