"Never should've happened" - Tony Pasin on Seven's shutoff

Channel 7, 7 mate and 7two have officially returned to free-to-air television screens across the Limestone Coast, Riverland, and Griffith regions after a three day shut-off - an event that while short-lived, has been branded "disgusting" and "heartbreaking" by one local MP.

"It's disgusting that constituents in my electorate were used as pawns in a commercial negotiation and this should've never happen and will never be allowed to happen again," Federal Member for Barker Tony Pasin said in an interview with FlowFM on Monday, July 7.

The three Channel 7 channels were pulled from local free to air television screens on July 1 in the Limestone Coast and Riverland in South Australia, and Griffith in New South Wales, after WIN TV and Seven West Media failed to reach agreement on a new content supply deal.

The decision caused outrage across the affected regions, with Mr Pasin launching an online petition calling for the situation to remedied ahead of the July 1st shut-off - which ultimately did not happen.

He said that while at first, his main concern about the switch off largely revolved around the loss of free-to-air football, he was surprised to learn how emotionally connected people in the Barker region were to other Channel 7 programs.

"I thought that (the end of free-to-air football) was the issue that most people would be focused about but as it turns out people have an emotional and strong connection to very many programs.

"Some people it was a news service, other people it might be morning breakfast programs or game shows. It's fascinating and to watch that play out in real time I think shocked both the CEO of WIN Television and Channel 7."

He said it was "completely heartbreaking" to read the many emails he received from family members across the region who were concerned about the impact the shutoff would have on their family members in aged care.

"Let's face it (people in aged care) spend a lot of their time in a small room and the television is their window to the outside world."

"I had an example yesterday of a family member who came home to find a 90-year-old who could least afford it having just bought a smart television, not understanding that he needed an internet connection as well. And when asked why he'd done this, he simply said he just couldn't be without his Thursday night football."

Mr Pasin said he'd given that specific example - amongst others - to the television CEOs as examples of the "real-world anxiety, pain and discomfort" the blunder cost - regardless of how commercially beneficial it was for the companies to play the matter out the way they did.

"These parties knew this matter was coming to, this agreement was coming to an end on the 30th of June. It should have been sorted in time, it wasn't, and that's a great shame," Mr Pasin said.

He said looking forward his discussions with WIN and Seven have morphed into "how we can ensure that this never occurs again, as well as finding way to have local television news services return to regional screens.

"That would be an amazing silver lining to what has been a pretty dark cloud," he concluded.