Commonwealth Games policy will “evolve”

///Commonwealth Games policy will “evolve”

Commonwealth Games policy will “evolve”

The chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation  (CGF) has admitted controversial ‘News Access Rules’ must be reconsidered.

David Grevemberg told the NMC last month that there would be a ‘clean sheet’ for arrangements for the 2022 Games and that there was no contractual roll-over for the 2018 games rights holders (BBC in UK, Seven in Australia and Auckland-based TVNZ).

His latest comments came in an interview with The Australian, owned by News Corp Australia, which is refusing accreditation for the Gold Coast Games. Fairfax Media has taken a similar stance because of the way TV contacts signed four years ago are said to force the organisers to impose restrictions (called News Access Rules) on certain news-gathering and use of news video highlights.

News Corp called the restrictions “out-of-step with modern digital news reporting” and Fairfax insisted that “Australians deserve unrestricted coverage” of the Games.

In letters from the NMC Board to the CGF in April and September, the NMC stated previously that “time is right for a new CGF approach for News Media and to discuss and agree on ‘ideal terms’ for the future News Media needs to be incorporated into future broadcast/ media rights negotiations”.

Grevemberg conceded to The Australian that the process will “continue to evolve … particularly after receiving some critical feedback.”

“What we need to do is look at the media market and see what evolution is possible and how consumers are using platforms differently,” he said.

This is encouraging for the NMC, as news video, whether created by video news-gatherers or in the form of news clips are part of the new consumption of information by the public.

2017-12-12T12:07:53+00:00

About the Author:

Nathan Stewart takes responsibility for the NMC's internal and external communication including the website, newsletters and other Member information. Contact him on nathan@newsmediacoalition.org