Updating Australia's media laws

Abstract

The Government has announced the most significant reforms to Australia\u27s media laws in a generation, supporting the viability of our local organisations as they face increasing global competition in a rapidly changing digital landscape. Why are we changing the media laws? Australia\u27s media ownership laws were drafted during an analogue era before the internet, when the media landscape was dominated by print newspapers and commercial radio and TV services. Advances in technology now allow digital content from anywhere in the world to be accessed instantly through computers, smartphones or smart TVs. These new options have changed the way we consume media in Australia and have intensified competition between media outlets. In this digital environment, Australia\u27s ownership laws prevent traditional media outlets such as TV, radio and newspapers from structuring their businesses efficiently or achieving the scale necessary to adapt and compete more effectively with newer unregulated services. To bring our media ownership laws into the digital era, the Government has announced the most significant reforms to Australian media regulation in a generation. What are the reforms? Under the reforms, the Government will repeal two media control and ownership rules in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 that currently prevent a person from controlling: commercial television licences that collectively reach in excess of 75 per cent of the Australian population (the \u2775 per cent audience reach rule\u27); and more than two of the three regulated forms of media (commercial radio, commercial TV and associated newspapers) in the one commercial radio licence area (the \u272 out of 3 rule\u27). In addition, the Government will introduce changes that will protect and enhance the amount of local television programming in regional Australia as well as introducing an incentive for local content to be filmed in the local area The Government is not proposing, as part of this package, to remove the other diversity rules including the \u275/4\u27 rule, the ‘one-to-a-market’ rule or the \u27two-to-a-market\u27 rule. Changes to the anti-siphoning list are not part of this package. Continued via lin