Bill to go to parliament on Wednesday scrapping rules about owning more than two forms of media or TV licences for more than 75% of people

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Coalition has released its media package which will scrap cross-media ownership laws, while boosting local content incentives at the request of the National party.

If passed, the changes – which will be contained in a bill presented to parliament on Wednesday, are expected to spark a round of media mergers and acquisitions.

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The changes would remove the “reach rule” which prevents a person controlling commercial television licences that collectively reach more than 75% of the population.



The changes would also remove the law that prevents a person from controlling more than two out of three regulated forms of media, such as radio, television and newspapers.

The changes do not touch anti-siphoning laws, which reserve premium events for free-to-air television.



And the government will also maintain the 5/4 “minimum voices” rule, which stipulates at least five independent media outlets must be present in metropolitan commercial radio licence areas and four in regional areas.

Fifield described the reforms as “the most significant media reform in Australia in a generation” and hoped to pass the bill before the next election.

He said the changes were required because technology had changed the way media was accessed.

“Technology is affording consumers new options as to how they consume their media and existing laws no longer represent the world we live in and, bit by bit, technology and consumer choice are rendering those laws increasingly redundant,” Fifield said.

“The laws are also increasingly constraining the capacity of media organisations to configure themselves in ways that are right for their business and right for their consumers.”

Media companies have been positioning in anticipation of the change, with News Corp Australia eyeing the Ten Network and Fairfax Media potentially merging with the Nine Network.

Fifield said he had kept Labor communications spokesman, Jason Clare, informed and hoped the Senate environment and communications committee scrutinised the bill as a whole package.

A spokesman for Clare said while Labor recognised the digital world had changed the media landscape, the reform bill needed to be properly scrutinised with full input from the public. He said Labor would only determine a position after the committee process.

Turnbull, who negotiated much of the package as communications minister, told the parliament that his government was bringing media laws into the 21st century.



“The media ownership regulations in our law were written before paid television, they were certainly before the internet, they are a relic of a past economy, a past media economy, they have been out of date for years,” he said.

“Governments have kicked the reform of these media ownership rules into the long grass for so long that they have formed part of the rich subsoil of Australian political inertia and we are taking them out.”

Local content rules under the proposed bill mean that new commercial television broadcasters which exceed 75% of the population will have incentives to increase news filmed in the local area. The new rule would only kick in after a local television licence changed ownership or control.



The government claims this will ensure local television content in “nearly all regional licence areas”.

The current system requires a minimum of 90 “points” a week for local television licences in aggregated markets. Non-aggregated markets currently require no points. One point is equal to one minute of local content or two points per minute for local news programming.

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Under the new system, television broadcasters in aggregated markets would require 120 “local content” points a week while broadcasters in non-aggregated markets would require a minimum of 60 points per week (which is only activated after a change of ownership or control).



Victorian Nationals MP Andrew Broad said while he had a question about the phase-in period, he was fairly happy with the outcome.

“I am reasonably satisifed giving weighting to local content which is locally produced,” said Broad.

“This change is good for its time but anyone who thinks reforms will set us up in perpetuity is naive.”

Broad, whose hometown of Mildura is not an aggregated market, said he was happy that there would be some requirement for local content under the proposed rules.

The Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said she was confident that the National party had received a very clear commitment for local content.

“I’m sure these changes combined with technological advances, indeed, and infrastructure, will ensure that we’ll be getting locally produced content in the regions for many years to come,” McKenzie said.