LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Australians have a curious national birthright: the legal right to watch a huge amount of sport on television.

Since the 1990s, so-called "anti-siphoning" laws have restricted pay television access to everything from the Melbourne Cup to footy to the Olympics, to ensure that our most loved sporting events are available on free-to-air TV.

With media reform on the agenda, the pay TV giant Foxtel, half-owned by Rupert Murdoch, is again lobbying to cut back the laws. That means we could end up having to pay to view some iconic events.

Sports fans aren't happy, as you might imagine.

Conor Duffy reports.

(Sings) # Australians all let us rejoice #

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: For the last five weeks, cricket fans have all over the world have converged on Australia for the 11th cricket World Cup.

Last Friday the Adelaide Oval was packed out for Australia's quarter-final against Pakistan.

CRICKET FAN 1: Oh, big, big.

CRICKET FAN 2: We live and breathe sport.

CRICKET FAN 3: We're Pakistanis, so for us it's like a religious day for us.

CONOR DUFFY: Any international game Australia plays on home soil is considered so sacrosanct that it's on what's called the "anti-siphoning" list: a law that ensures Australians can watch it for free on TV.

Now there's a push to strip sports fans of this long-standing legal right.

CRICKET FAN 4: Devastated. Absolutely devastated.

CRICKET FAN 5: We probably won't be watching it then. (laughs)

CRICKET FAN 4: Yep. Yeah, we won't sport after that if it goes to pay TV.

CRICKET FAN 5: Yeah.

CRICKET FAN 1: It's un-Australian. You just can't imagine that. That's just rubbish.

(footage of Bangladesh fans drumming outside MCG. Cricket fan passes by camera)

CRICKET FAN 6: Come on the Indians! Yeah!

CONOR DUFFY: In Melbourne last week, another 50,000 die-hard fans transformed the MCG into a subcontinental party for India's game against Bangladesh.

CRICKET FAN 7: It's crazy, mate. I took the day off work today just for this. Can't wait for it. We're going to win for sure.

CRICKET COMMENTATOR (Fox Sports): Oh, he's got a lot on it.

CONOR DUFFY: Because Australia's not playing, this game isn't on the anti-siphoning list, meaning fans can't watch it on free TV.

CRICKET COMMENTATOR (Fox Sports): Brilliant 100, Rohit Sharma. This is something that he will be very, very proud of.

CRICKET FAN 7: It's a multicultural country, you know, so everyone should have the right to watch their match free-to-air.

CRICKET FAN 8: India-Pakistan in Adelaide was a sell-out crowd: 50,000 people. If that was on TV, you know, I could have watched it as well.

CONOR DUFFY: Now powerful interests are lobbying to make Australians pay to watch some of their favourite sporting events.

AUST. RULES FOOTBALL COMMENTATOR (Ch. 9): Well, the moment has arrived.

CONOR DUFFY: Australia's anti-siphoning list is one of the longest in the world and it's designed to ensure Australians can watch iconic events like the Melbourne Cup, Olympics, Australian Open, AFL and League finals.

Pay TV operator Foxtel, which is half-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, is lobbying hard to take over some major events.

ANDREW MAIDEN, SUBSCRIPTION TV LOBBY: The US Masters golf, for instance, is one of the sports that's listed in Australia. It's not listed even in its home market but it doesn't have any national significance or iconic importance in Australia - and yet it's listed. So the first thing we would like to do is to have a shorter list.

CONOR DUFFY: Wimbledon is also on the list. It means Foxtel has to buy access to events like the tennis final from free-to-air.

TENNIS COMMENTATOR (Ch. 7): Crazy tennis. Just crazy.

CONOR DUFFY: It's hard to sell a product people can watch for free.

ANDREW MAIDEN: We're talking about protections: a kind of scam that's been dismantled in industry after industry across Australia for 30 years by parties of both political colours, because political leaders recognise that the public interest is not served by economic protectionism.

CONOR DUFFY: The Foxtel push has the support of the footy codes, who would like to see amendments to the list.

ANDREW MAIDEN: Subscription TV is the natural home for people that want to focus very heavily on sports that they're absolutely devoted to. And our proposal to make the list shorter has the support of every single sporting code in the nation.

RUGBY LEAGUE COMMENTATOR (Ch. 9): There's been plenty of this all night and it's erupting on the field again now.

CONOR DUFFY: The free-to-air stations are fighting to hold their ground and are desperate to keep their advantage.

RUGBY LEAGUE COMMENTATOR (Ch. 9): New South Wales have won it!

JULIE FLYNN, FREE TV: Right now Australians are very sensitive to cost of living pressures and I don't think that families are going to want to have to pay for sport that they're currently seeing for free.

And in fact, in all the time I've been doing this job, no one's ever said, put their hand up and said, "Please make me pay to watch sport on television."

CONOR DUFFY: So far the Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is resisting the pay TV pressure to change the law on Australia's most popular sports.

MALCOLM TURNBULL, COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER: In particular, they want to be able to determine which games of football - that's to say Aussie Rules and League - go on free-to-air as opposed to pay TV.

It's important to understand that what they're seeking would not be popular. It would be most unpopular. And in any event, it would need to be approved by the Senate.

RUGBY LEAGUE COMMENTATOR (Ch. 9): Burgess - and taken by Graham.

CONOR DUFFY: This battle will be as bruising as any on the paddock. There's billions of dollars at stake.

JULIE FLYNN: Rupert Murdoch in the '90s said that sporting rights were the battering ram for pay TV and his organisations have operated both here and overseas on that basis ever since.

CONOR DUFFY (to Steve Allen): How much do Foxtel want this?

STEVE ALLEN, MEDIA ANALYST: Oh, dramatically. I mean, the more live sports they can get - the more live exclusive sports they can get by outbidding the free-to-air people - the more they can build their subscription base.

You know, they've been sitting at 27 to 30 per cent in home penetration for some years now. It really hasn't been growing at all.

CONOR DUFFY: The other players in this game are sports fans. Upset them and the Government risks an electoral backlash.

STEVE ALLEN: They now know that if you suddenly tell the public at large, "Oh, you know those sports you used to get for nothing? You're going to have to subscribe to Foxtel or one of these other services," they will be voted out. Surer than anything, they will be voted out.

AUST. RULES FOOTBALL COMMENTATOR (Fox Sports): Eleven days' time the main season begins, round one.

CONOR DUFFY: As the footy season gets under way, the Government will be hit with arguments. Eventually it will be forced to pick a side.

JULIE FLYNN: What we're talking about here is exclusivity. We're talks about forcing Australians to pay for something that they currently get for free.

ANDREW MAIDEN: Millions of Australians are already willing to pay for some sport on TV when they recognise that it gives them more choice, better-quality coverage, deeper analysis.

AUST. FOOTBALL COMMENTATOR (Ch. 7): The best team of the modern era, of the last 50 years, produces its masterpiece.

CONOR DUFFY: Is there any upside for sports fans?

STEVE ALLEN: We can't think of any, which is why we've got this unique situation in Australia at the moment. You get it for nothing: if the rights go to Foxtel, you don't get it for nothing.

LEIGH SALES: Conor Duffy with that report.