COMMUNICATIONS Minister Mitch Fifield says he intends to take advantage of his parliamentary colleagues’ “very open minds” to media reforms — confirming he’s got the reach rule and “two-out-of-three” rule in his sights.

Senator Fifield said he’d spent time late last year sounding out his Coalition colleagues, as well as members of the crossbench and Opposition over potential reforms, which he plans to introduce to Parliament “as soon as possible”.

“What I don’t want to do is introduce a package into the Parliament that won’t have the support of the Parliament,” he told the ABC.

“I want to make sure that this opportunity that we have — given there are very open minds across the Parliament — that we take the opportunity of that.”

Senator Fifield confirmed speculation the reach rule — which prevents metropolitan media outlets from owning country broadcasters — was among possible changes.

He said he was also “particularly looking at” the two-out-of-three rule, which stops a single company from having a TV licence, radio licence and a newspaper in the same area.

“What I am told and what I hear from various players in media markets is they want the freedom to configure themselves the way that they best think suits their business and that’s particularly important for regional operators,” he said.

Senator Fifield said he expected rules dictating the amount of local content broadcasters must put to air would remain, in a bid to safeguard local programming.

Asked whether the Opposition would support changes to the two-out-of-three rule, Labor Leader Bill Shorten said he would consider any legislation carefully.

Mr Shorten said Australia’s media sector should be diverse and regional services protected, but acknowledged consideration of technological advancements was needed.