Regional broadcaster WIN TV has cut the 7 Network feed in some areas of NSW and South Australia after failing to come to an agreement with Seven West Media over the rebroadcast rights to their content.

For City Slickers you’ll have no idea what all this means, but in regional Australia the TV signal is controlled by entities like Prime, NBN or WIN and while some parts of that have been bought into the Metro networks, for the most part these networks are still re-transmitting the big channels, inserting their own ads and some local news content.

From time to time the rights deals here come up for renewals and often there is a bit of a stand off, but this is about as extreme as it gets.

Viewers in Griffith and across the Riverina in New South Wales tuning into “Channel 7” today are seeing a big red screen telling them “Channel 7 Programming NO LONGER AVAILABLE” in bold and no uncertain terms.

And there’s no point writing to WIN about this, your gripe most likely needs to be with the Seven Network who don’t seem to want their content in these areas.

That content of course could see AFL Fans missing out on their favourite games, or if it goes on too long, miss out on the Bathurst 1000.

Interestingly, that could place Seven in some sketch grounds legally, because under Federal Government Anti-Siphoning legislation the Bathurst 1000 and AFL Finals are required to be broadcast free to air – nationally – I wonder what course of action could be taken on that issue?

Bottom line though, there’s nothing wrong with your TV – you’re just the pawn in a business negotiation that’s had bluff called.

To view Seven network content, if you have a Smart TV download the 7Plus app, or use a smartphone, tablet or computer.

Some may argue that’s a free app and it complies with Anti-Siphoning, but in the spirit of those broadcast rules, people should be able to turn on a TV to watch TV and not need to download an app.

Thanks Matt for the photo too!