![Nine and Seven are at odds over news footage.](/content/dam/images/1/2/7/w/e/t/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gv5knn.png/1490500917445.jpg)
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The uneasy detente between Australia's free-to-air broadcasters seems to have been relatively short-lived.
The Nine Network has written to cross-town rival Seven accusing it of using shared footage, including chopper and pooled vision, and press conference footage as "First on 7".
The free-to-air broadcasters collaborate on a number of cost-saving measures such as pooled overnight footage and some helicopter footage.
The industry has, in recent times, rallied together in the face of mutually assured destruction, thanks to the shared push to try and stop the flow of advertising dollars away from television to US-based technology giants, such as Google and Facebook.
Nine has become increasingly frustrated with Seven and accused the rival of misleading viewers.
"We don't know who is running what agenda over at Seven because on one hand we have some constructive co-operation at an upper management/industry level (chopper agreements) and are trying to work together to address shared challenges from outside the industry," a Nine spokeswoman said.
"But, then day-to-day there is disunity within Seven and they are all over the place, some playing by the rules and some labelling chopper vision, pool vision or press conference vision as "First on Seven" to mislead viewers."
Nine alleged pooled aerial vision of the Adele concert in Perth and the Essendon plane crash last month were claimed as "First on 7" when Nine ran the vision at the same time.
Sources at Nine said the broader industry fight remains a priority, however if the cumulative effect of Seven's actions becomes damaging to Nine, the network will take further action.
Seven shrugged off the claim when approached for comment and hit back at Nine.
"Nine needs to calm down," a Seven spokesman said. "They have a list of our material they have appropriated or inappropriately labelled as their own over the past few weeks. It is quite a list. Surely, they have more important things in their life, like not losing in news."
Sources inside the Ten newsroom alleged Seven took its footage from the Essendon plane crash and obscured the Ten logo.
Australian copyright law allows for limited use of material without permission under fair dealing.
The use of sport footage, for the purposes of reporting the news, while contested, does have precedent. However, news footage remains murky.
The rivals also battled late last year over Nine's promotion of Today as the number one breakfast show in Australia. Seven sued Nine for misleading and deceptive conduct, claiming the ratings for its Sunrise program were higher once regional audiences were combined with capital cities. The matter was settled the day it was due to appear in the federal court.
It's not the first time the two networks have been involved in a dispute over footage. In 2011, Nine issued an "apology" to its viewers for the use of watermarks.
"Channel Nine would like to apologise to all viewers who find the watermark we put in the middle of the screen annoying and distracting," Nine said in a YouTube video post.
"Unfortunately, even a big watermark, like this, isn't enough to stop Channel Seven from stealing our footage. They even have the audacity to call it an exclusive."
That same year, there was a similar spat when Nine's A Current Affair ran a long stretch of an interview from Seven's Today Tonight that had aired earlier that same night, which followed Seven taking some of Nine's footage, on the same programs, a few nights earlier.