Anti-siphoning law

Anti-siphoning laws and regulations are designed to prevent pay television broadcasters from buying monopoly rights to televise important and culturally significant events before free-to-air television has a chance to bid on them. The theory is that if such a monopoly was allowed, then those unable or unwilling to obtain access to the pay television service would be unable to view the important and culturally significant events. Generally the laws allow pay-TV to bid for such monopoly rights only if free-to-air television has declined to bid on them. Anti-siphoning in the United States was introduced by the FCC in 1975 and was soon overturned as unconstitutional, although the National Football League has enforced an anti-siphoning policy since the first pay-TV games in 1987. Australia's anti-siphoning laws were introduced in 1992 and remain in force to date. They also affect free-to-air digital-only services, and required that certain programmes be simulcast on analogue channels.

In the early days of cable television the Federal Communications Commission refused to regulate it. In 1958 the FCC ruled that cable TV was not a common carrier and thus is not subject to FCC jurisdiction. In 1960 the FCC lobbied against placing cable TV under its jurisdiction, arguing that the administrative burden is inadequate to low perceived threats of unchecked cable development. In 1965 the FCC changed its stance and imposed must-carry rules, requiring cable providers to carry local free-to-air channels, and banned importation of distant channels that duplicated content available on local free-to-air channels.

In the end of the 1960s the public and the government raised concerns that cable operators can outbid free-to-air channels and "siphon" popular content, first of all sports, off the free air. Specific events like the Super Bowl were deemed particularly vulnerable due to greater inelasticity of demand.

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