The Olympics
C7 continued to lose programming to Fox Sports; after the Super League war in 1997, C7 no longer had exclusive rights to NRL games, having to share them with Fox, and had totally lost the rights to the FA Premier League.
C7 began negotiations with Foxtel in order to make the channels available to a wider audience, but Foxtel refused to carry them. Foxtel claimed that C7 was an inferior service, for which Seven wanted an exorbitant price. C7 won two Federal Court actions backing their position, but Foxtel claims it acted in accordance with the Court's rulings. Seven won the right to put its programming on Foxtel's analog cable system, including its set-top-boxes.
C7 still had the AFL, and crucially, had the rights to the 2000 Sydney Olympics. An additional two channels ("C7 Olympic" and "C7 Games") were set up, which would carry non-stop Olympic programming during the Games; the channels were made available to Austar and Optus customers at an additional cost. After lengthy negotiations, Foxtel and C7 reached a deal just weeks before the Games, and the channels became available to Foxtel viewers.
C7 was later forced to give refunds to some customers after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruled that they had misrepresented the C7 Olympic service in advertising; promotional materials claimed that the service would carry all Australian men's and women's basketball games.
Read more about this topic: C7 Sport