Fetch TV, which is majority, owned by Telstra, has developed their own TV OS according to CEO Scott Lorson who appeared before a Federal Government Senate Inquiry TODAY, into streaming and free to air TV concerns, he said “It could be ready by the end of the year”.

Scott Lorson CEO Fetch TV
This week Foxtel Groups revealed their Hubbl offering, which was widely discussed by Senators after Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany claimed that Hubbl available via a $99 puck, and a TV running the Hubble OS and was able to stream free to air content and content from overseas apps side by side.
Free to air TV Companies who appeared to be concerned about future revenues are pitching for new legislation that would see their apps prioritised ahead of apps from other organisations such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video or Disney.
The hearing heard that Foxtel has developed a tag in Hubble that instantly brings up all free to air TV channels, while aggregating free to air content from the likes of the ABC, SBS, Ten Seven and Nine side by side with overseas content.
He said that a search for the Australian show Bluey which apparently is available on Disney would appear alongside the ABC free to air series giving users of their systems the option of a free or paid version.
Delany told the Senate hearing that consumers should be in control of what they want to watch, and warned of the dangers of legislating in an effort to priortise to certain apps especially free to air apps ahead of the queue on devices.
“If you’re going to put all of the free content first, what happens if I search an overseas news story,” he said singling out CNN as an expample.
“Am I going to get everything from SBS, everything from the ABC, everything from Nine, Seven, Ten before CNN and everything else?”
Delany claimed consumers should not get a “distorted outcome” when searching for content.
Delany said regardless of whether a consumer is watching free or paid content, preference should not be given to free-to-air services when scrolling for something to watch.heir TV devices,” he said.
“What we want to do is deliver the best experience for the customer and that’s been our business model for over three decades.”
Free TV Australia chairperson Greg Hywood said there are “some fundamental technology issues relating to prominence (that) are misunderstood”.
“Access to free TV matters, free, trusted news underpins our democracy, free sport is a social connector and encourages our kids to be active and free entertainment reflects what it is to be an Australian,” he said.
“Local free TV services are getting harder to follow, multinational TV manufacturers preference subscription services that are paid to put on the home screen.”
At one stage Senator Karen Grogan Chair of the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, claimed that she had never “heard of Fetch TV” and asked for an explanation of Lorson, as to how it worked as she probed how local BVOD apps from free to air TV stations will work, alongside overseas apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney.
Scott Lorson who supports the free to air position of prioritising free to air apps in streaming devices, then provided a PowerPoint presentation for Senators.
His biggest issue appeared to be “compliance costs”.
This follows extensive questioning of a Sony overseas employee, appearing alongside the CEOs of Seven Ten and Nine who tried to explain the complexities of streaming, cloud-based services and above all how long it would take if the Federal Government brings in new legislation for changes to be made.
Widely discussed were the OS of Samsung, Hisense, Sony and LG.
The CEOs of the Seven, Nine and Ten networks via the Free TV lobbying group called for the prominence and anti-siphoning bill to be strengthened.
The prominence framework concerns new laws that require manufacturers to provide free of charge: access to all TV channels provided by Australia’s free local networks; installation of all local TV apps in the first positions on home screens; and free local TV content first in search results and recommendations.
Seven Network CEO James Warburton admitted that the future is streaming and that consumer will watch free to air content in the future via apps on streaming platforms such as Hubbl.
He claimed 20% of the demand for free to air content was via BVOD streaming with that to rise to 50% in the near future.
He said that the future is “no aerial TV’s”.
All of the free to air TVs in particular the ABC and SBS were questioned about their data capture and the sale or availability to advertisers of that data.
The CEO of SBS claimed that a log in and the need for data capture was “essential” so that SBS could deliver the right information such as identifying where a consumer was up to when returning to watch a show they had previously been watching.
What was clear from all the free to air TV CEO’s and their advisers was that the future is streaming and that the argument about prioritising free to air was all about revenues and a change on the way Australians view content today.