Negotiations between the Australian Broadcasting Commission and Telstra to put ABC content on the carrier's Web properties was killed today after last-minute haggling over price and quantity of material.
The deal would have been the most significant content agreement yet for Telstra, worth AU$67.5 million over five years. As originally proposed, Telstra would gain non-exclusive rights to access and distribute all ABC content on a various Telstra services, including its broadband cable network.
Telstra has laid blame for the deal's failure firmly at the feet of the national broadcaster, saying the ABC sought significant changes to the deal, which had been in discussion for eight months, just three days before the paperwork was due to be signed.
"Neither party could continue negotiating due to the changed wanted by the ABC. There was a significant change to the amount on content we would have access to. The amount of content the ABC ended up offering wasn't of value to Telstra," Telstra Public Affairs spokesman Stuart Gray told ZDNet Australia.
However, the ABC's formal statement hinted that it was the price tag that underpinned the deal's demise. "The obligations that would have been imposed on the ABC by Telstra, the cost of servicing the deal and the fact that it did not sufficiently recognise the value of the ABC's breadth of content were, in the end, the critical issues for the ABC," ABC managing director Jonathon Shier said.
The ABC declined to make further comment on the matter.
