Sky News’ attempt to run Australia Network stymied

SYDNEY — The Aussie government has stepped in to block a bid by Rupert Murdoch to run Down Under’s overseas television service, according to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

The $223 million ($240 million) tender for the service, known as Australia Network, has only two bidders, pubcaster the ABC, which currently operates the network, and Sky News Australia, which is part-owned by Murdoch, Channel Seven and the Nine Network.

Sky News Australia pressured the government to put the service out to tender last year and the process closed in February; a winner was to be announced in May.

But the Herald reports that while the public sector panel favored the Murdoch bid, the Labor government has torpedoed Sky News Australia’s “win,” a fact the government disputes.

On June 25, it was announced the tender process would be extended because of “changed international circumstances,” and the government has now requested more information from both parties.

The final approval has also moved from the Dept. of Foreign Affairs to the Minister for Communications, Stephen Conroy, the minister who also has responsibility for the government-funded ABC.

A spokesman for the minister told Variety that the changes were made to help evaluate “the tenderers’ ability to support Australia’s national interests.”

He added that part of this national interest clause would be factoring in the effects of the Arab Spring as well as “key emerging markets,” normally government-speak for China.

Regarding the fact that Conroy controls the tender process and oversees the ABC, the spokesman said, “While the Administrative Arrangements Order gives the Senator Conroy responsibility for broadcasting policy, that does not give him a conflict of interest in being the approver for the tender, nor does the fact that he is the minister with responsibility for the ABC give him a personal conflict.”

But the tender process remains determinedly opaque a fact that will not sit well with Sky if the ABC were to win.

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