Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Postscript to the TV Now skirmish

In the aftermath of the Telstra v Optus dispute over TV Now, which offered, amongst other things, on demand recordings and viewing of AFL and NRL games on a user's mobile devices, Telstra has announced that it will be making an app available to subscribers (ie not just Telstra customers) that provides live broadcast of AFL games. For Bram's earlier analysis of the case see here and here. The High Court refused leave to appeal in September 2012 and the TV Now service was discontinued by Optus. Of course, the matter became the focus for debate over the intended scope of s111, and thus the issue remains relevant in the context of the ALRC reference on Copyright and the Digital Economy.