Lack of respect for Andorra 413

I certainly have:

================================================== The UK-Australian Gambling and News Media Corruption connection which appears to hold a bribery corruption stranglehold on UK soccer today.

The privatization of existing gambling institutions presented here indicates collusion between government officials to allow a man whose hands are dirty with organized crime gambling to control the public access to news and information critical to the operation of a democracy.

Rupert Murdoch, a Media Baron whose business is infected with Organized Crime Gambling money should not be allowed to hold a TV or Radio licence in the UK or the US.

John

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32nd ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM ON RACING AND GAMING THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2005 INTERNATIONAL SIMULCASTING ISSUES David Hawke, General Manager, Planning & Infrastructure; Racing Victoria, Ltd. In terms of historical overview of broadcasting in Australia, up until very recently, one company has held exclusive rights to broadcast thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing in Australia. That company, Sky Channel was established in 1987 by Kerry Packer and quickly sawed off any competitors. In 1995, Packer sold 50 percent stake in Sky Channel to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for 75 million. That ownership continued until 1998, when it was acquired by the newly privatized TAB, for 260 million. For those of you who are maybe not familiar with Australian wagering landscape, we started out, there are six states and two territories in Australia. In 2000, Sky Channel added radio station 2KY to its media division. Sky's performance, at the time of acquisition by TAB Ltd., Sky had an operating profit of about 15 million, revenue of 67 million. By 2004, revenue increased to more than 100 million with an operating profit of about 40 million. Sky's strategy, become the monopoly provider of race wagering pictures across Australia. And to achieve that, it adopted a very simple 'divide and conquer' approach. It negotiated with each race club separately, and staggered contract terms to make aggregation of rights by race clubs as difficult as possible. This ensured that it had the superior hand at any bargaining time, and if necessary it would use the provisions of the Trade Practices Act against collusive bargaining to prevent unlawful aggregation of rights by race clubs. The largest component of Sky's cost base was rights fees for the racing industry. And Sky made no secret its intention to achieve rights fees at lower costs. To establish a viable competing service, Sky Channel needed to secure the minimum Victorian and New South Wales thoroughbred racing, as well as premium Australian racing product. Staying in the contract period was designed to prevent this from happening. TVN was granted by Victorian Club rights to facilitate the aggregation of Victorian rights, in line with the Trade Practice Act. In May, 2002, TVN sold the discretion, expiring May of 2005. In 2004, the right to Sydney metropolitan racing fell through, and the AJC and STC granted these rights to TVN until May 2005. Most importantly, it allowed the expiration of the Victorian rights, and this was the defining point in the development of TVN. Following Tabcorp's acquisition of TAB Ltd. or Sky channel in 2004, Tabcorp and TVN signed an agreement to produce a thoroughbred only channel. However, in January 2005, Tabcorp withdraws support for the channel and TVN immediately announces the creation of its own racing channel carrying Victorian and Sydney racing. In rolling out this new channel, TVN secured agreements so that TVN service is now available in a growing number of locations in Australia, including at Unitab agencies in Queensland, South Australia, and Northern Territory. TVN and Tabcorp also agreed to provide and display the TVN service in Tabcorp agencies, and do so in Victoria, while negotiations of a thoroughbred-only channel continue. The emergence of TVN has raised a range of issues, which at this point remain unresolved. In a practical sense, the most difficult of these is the split coverage of Australian thoroughbred racing on the two channels. At this day, there is no attempt at cooperation between TVN and Sky on the scheduling and the unacceptable situation currently exists for patrons having to watch two screens. Another complication is the impact of pay TV exclusivity arrangements, which mean the Austar subscribers, Austar is the regional satellite delivery network, mainly country viewers are unable to access the TVN channel, overcoming this would require Sky channel to release Austar from its obligation not to take vision from any other provider. On a positive note, this dispute has resulted in a local and international product coming into the Australian market, New Zealand, Hong Kong and South African racing. Co-pooling by totalisators, the Australian wagering market is comprised of TAB's, on-course bookmakers, corporate bookmakers and more recently, betting exchanges. TAB's account for 83 percent of turnover in the race wagering market. On- course bookmaker's are 8.5 percent, corporate bookmakers are 6.5 percent, and betting exchanges are about two percent. We have seen rapid change in the structure of the Australian wagering market. The Victorian TAB was the first TAB to be privatized and this resulted in a major change to the way the Victorian racing industry was funded, and resulted in a major lifting of the revenues that we see for the Victorian racing industry. The Victorian racing industry entered into a joint venture with Tabcorp to have access not only to wagering revenue, but also to have profit in gaming activities conducted during the joint venture. This was the only state to enjoy this type of commercial arrangement, which is TAB, and this is reflected in its prize money levels and quality of its racing. Following the privatization of the Victorian TAB was the public restructuring of the New South Wales TAB, which is currently the TAB with the largest turnover, and the Queensland TAB. Further merges and acquisitions followed with Unitab acquiring the Northern Territory TAB, and later the South Australian TAB. It has also developed a strong gaming machine monitoring business in both Australia and New Zealand. The biggest shake-up occurred more recently with the acquisition by Tabcorp of TAB Ltd. Together with its existing casino and gaming operations, this makes Tabcorp the fourth largest gambling business in the world on an enterprise value ranking. Current pooling arrangements. There are three pools in operation in Australia, the Unitab pool of Queensland, South Australia and Northern Territory, the SuperTab pool of Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and a New South Wales pool. More than 12 months has now elapsed since Tabcorp's acquisition of TAB Ltd with the merging of the New South Wales pool but the SuperTab pool has still not been accomplished. Another outstanding issue is the strong opposition of the New South Wales government betting exchanges. This is relevant because one of the current members of the SuperTab, Tasmania has now moved to license betting exchange. With international co-pooling, it is highly likely that Australia will begin to mingle its pools with overseas operators in the near to immediate time. Tabcorp now has the capacity to commingle internationally, and that will likely happen very quickly. Issues such as takeout rates, tax rates and legislation will require our attention but none of them would seem to be insurmountable obstacles. Possibly the greatest impediment to Australia's participation in co-pooling is the difficulty of inexperience of merging pools within Australia. Sensibly, this is the first step, then we can make substantial progress. I think, looking ahead, co-pooling with Australia will most likely occur with those jurisdictions that we are currently exchanging product with. Tabcorp does now have the capability to commingle and they are looking very closely at the U.S. market. That's all I have for you, thank you very much. ========================================================

John