Australia’s media regulator is reviewing a rule that lets alcohol companies advertise freely during live sports broadcasts on free-to-air TV, no matter what time of day it airs. Gendered violence researcher and advocate Jess Hill argues that this sports loophole does real harm, and that closing it could reshape how young Australians grow up understanding alcohol and masculinity.

Under the current Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) code, alcohol marketing is restricted for most of the broadcast day because regulators accept that it normalises heavy drinking among young viewers. Live sport carries an exemption. Hill points out the contradiction directly: the same code that treats alcohol advertising as harmful to young people every other time of day suddenly treats it as harmless the moment a match kicks off.

Why the loophole matters so much

Hill’s argument centres on how young people actually watch television. Plenty of children and teenagers rarely tune into free-to-air TV at all unless live sport is on. That makes the sports loophole disproportionately powerful: it is often the single biggest window through which young viewers encounter alcohol marketing, precisely because it is the moment they are watching.

FARE Australia, the organisation behind the campaign, frames the issue as one of everyday cultural conditioning rather than a single harmful advert. Repeated exposure to alcohol promotion during sport, the group argues, embeds heavy drinking as central to a particular version of masculinity, one built around aggression and toughness. FARE and Hill both link that cultural pattern to a documented risk factor for gender-based violence, arguing that a society serious about reducing violence against women and children cannot keep carving out exceptions for sport.

What closing the loophole would mean

Hill’s proposal to ACMA is straightforward: apply the same standard to sport that already applies to the rest of the schedule. Rather than treating live sport as a special case where alcohol and gambling advertising rules relax, the code would simply state that this kind of marketing is harmful to young people regardless of the time slot or the program.

FARE’s campaign points to broad public support for the change, noting that most Australians already say they would prefer less alcohol advertising around sport. ACMA is currently weighing whether the sports loophole remains fit for purpose, giving the federal government a genuine opening to act. As Hill puts it, closing that gap would let regulators finally send one consistent message instead of two contradictory ones, and take a meaningful step toward shifting the drinking and gambling culture that surrounds Australian sport.

Source: Fare Australia