Australian incumbent telco Telstra, which signed a sponsorship deal with the National Rugby League (NRL) for AU$90 million (US$72 million) back in March, is suing Fox Sports for showing too much video footage of NRL matches on its websites and mobile phones. Fox Sports is jointly owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and James Packer’s Publishing & Broadcasting Limited, and those companies also hold a 25 percent stake each in cable operator Foxtel, with the remaining 50 percent held by Telstra. According to the SMH Telstra claims that no more than 45 seconds of footage from each match should be shown as part of an online or mobile news report and it should only be available 24 hours from the end of a match—as an example of the video offered by Fox Sports: “The Fox Sports website last night included a link to a video news report of the Monday night match between Canberra and Newcastle, which included almost two minutes of game highlights. Fox Sports also provides highlights to Hutchison’s 3 mobile phones.” A judgement on the case is expected in July.
Telstra has already had issues with the sponsorship after the NRL inadvertantly included mobile TV rights in its deal with the Nine Network and had to negotiate them back to offer to Telstra.
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