Seven will Live simulcast next week’s Melbourne Cup via its PLUS7 Live mobile app and website and create content for Facebook ahead of the big race.

The move will again ensure Australians can watch the event wherever they are, on a device of choice.

Earlier this month it was announced the Victorian Racing Club had signed a deal with Twitter to stream the race Live in Australia and overseas to be produced by Seven.

Today in Senate Estimates hearings, Seven West Media CEO Tim Worner urged for anti-siphoning rules to be extended from broadcast to online platforms.

“We’re asking for an assurance that changes to anti-siphoning are not made as a quid pro-quo for media ownership changes. Over 70% of Australians exclusively rely on Free to Air Television for their news, their sport and entertainment content. The anti-siphoning list needs to be maintained not dismantled nor cutback nor, another word I have heard used, ‘trimmed.’ We agree it should be extended to new content platforms.”

Tim Worner also urged for ‘holistic’ rather than ‘piecemeal’ media changes and a reduction in licence fees.

“Australian production incentives, retransmission rules and spectrum allocation are all essential elements of a total package that will enable our industry to move forward. We’re not asking for media laws to be frozen in time. What we’re asking for is broad reform that can truly empower Free to Air television broadcasters to meet the increasing pace of change that we’re facing,” he said.

Meanwhile in a Melbourne Cup press release today Kurt Burnette, Seven’s Chief Revenue Officer, said: “Seven has delivered the most-watched events this year. Our approach is to be ‘fan first’, with television driving the delivery of our content across all screens and platforms. This year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival is no exception as we give every Australian the opportunity to watch great moments in sports live and free across the screens of Seven and deliver those audiences to our marketing and advertising partners.”

Clive Dickens, Seven’s Chief Digital Officer, said: “The combined live broadcast and live-streaming total audience for last year’s Melbourne Cup was the highest since 2012. Over the past 12 months, we have served over 60 million additional live streams. We expect our extended digital coverage and promotion of this year’s live coverage to significantly surpass the 2015 streaming record.”

Saul Shtein, Seven’s Head of Sport, said: “We are looking forward to delivering one of the great moments in sport across every screen and device. Last year we set new benchmarks in our audience delivery and took that to another level during the Olympic Games. Our Melbourne Cup coverage will be engaging with our audiences wherever they may be.”

Seven today launched the cornerstone of its plans to make the Emirates Melbourne Cup available to more Australians than ever before with coverage across broadcast television and connected devices.

Seven will deploy digital content and coverage across an array of platforms – each leveraging, complementing and extending the network’s broadcast television coverage of the Melbourne Cup and the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

The 2016 Melbourne Cup marks the first anniversary of Seven’s launch of live-streaming of its broadcast channels with the launch of PLUS7 Live. That coverage set new benchmarks – with more than 488,000 Australians streaming the coverage across the day, and over 340,000 concurrent streams during the running of the Cup.

Seven’s plans for its multiplatform coverage of the Melbourne Cup builds on this success and the network’s multiple screen coverage of this year’s Australian Open Tennis and the Olympic Games in Rio. The network’s coverage of The Melbourne Cup will be simulcast via the PLUS7 Live mobile app and website allowing anyone to enjoy the race wherever they may be.

7Sport will be following the action throughout the day @7HorseRacing on Facebook and Twitter. Australians will be able to follow this through @Channel 7 and @7Sport. Seven will also create bespoke content on Melbourne Cup Day for streaming live via Facebook leading up to Seven’s live coverage that day. This will also be available @Channel7. The live and free simulcast of all Seven’s channels can be accessed via PLUS7 Live (available on Telstra TV, Apple TV (4th gen), mobile iOS, Android and web).

Seven’s partners for its coverage of the Melbourne Cup across connected devices are: Emirates, AAMI, Schweppes and TAB.

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