Audience Reach, Ownership Control and Local Content

So many parties want 2/3 to remain, I don’t see the package passing without that staying.

It’s hard to have any sympathy for FTA at the moment with their complaints about financial troubles caused by competition from non-linear TV especially when they must have spent a huge amount of money on their recent coverage from Bali. Cost of travel, accommodation, satellite links etc.

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Out of interest, who? Labor + Greens?

I thought Xenophon wanted 2/3 scrapped?

probably most minor parties but ALP + Greens make up a big voting block.

An editorial piece by Prime Media Group CEO Ian Audsley.

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Interesting backdrop

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COLLUSION!!! :smirk:

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Different angle

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Smirked when I saw SCA CEO Grant Blackley sitting next to Ten CEO Paul Anderson…

He’d be thinking “sucker!” :wink:

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Grant Blackley can thank himself that he wisely quit as the CEO of the Keystone restaurant group in mid 2015, just twelve months before the company was put into receivership.

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Looks like the laws won’t pass. Labor not gonna play ball. Perhaps they pull out the 2/3 law and pass everything else. That’s the only sticking point.

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I was referring to him being axed as Ten CEO at the start of 2011.

Right before the network started going pear-shaped (actually, he was probably the start of it).

He dodged two bullets.

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Seems the only way they can pass it right now.

And they should just get on with and pass what they can. It’s getting desperate for some media companies.

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If they did that, the media organisations wouldn’t be too happy. And be crossed with the government for splitting up the reform. They would be calling it “piecemeal reform”. The Senator has refused to split it up since day one, from what I can remember. Can’t they get Pauline Hanson in somehow by threatening to cut ABC budget once more.

Especially with the way the Senate is at the moment, I find it hard to believe that the government wouldn’t at least try and do a compromise by splitting the more controversial part of the package (removal of the “2 out of 3” rule) into something that can be dealt with later on down the track.

And to be honest, I think I’d want the “2 out of 3” rule to be kept. Surely I can’t be the only one who’d feel more than a little uncomfortable with an Australian media landscape which would allow a company like News Corp Australia (in addition to their already very large and influential presence in Pay TV and print/online) to own a major free to air television network and/or a radio network?

Putting the internet to one side, Foxtel can access close to 100% of the population. The ABC and SBS (who as far as I’m aware, don’t need to have independent affiliates like the commercial networks do right now) can access close to 100% of the population. For as long as we still have at least three commercial TV networks in the metropolitan markets + major regional areas, I don’t think I’d have too many issues with Seven, Nine and Ten as networks accessing close to 100% of the population if they wished to.

As it stands right now, there’s really only three or four commercial TV networks for regional Australia which are independent of their big capital city partners. Removing the reach rule probably would’ve been more controversial 20-30 years ago, before the internet (and to a lesser extent, Pay TV) became as big as it is now and when there were more independent regional TV stations/networks on a local level.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/one-nation-has-flagged-a-possible-amendment-to-media-reforms/news-story/fcd42ab21d126097e24b6b684ff3e108

One Nation is still playing hardball with the Media Reform Bill reintroduced to the Senate.

However, an interesting proposal of theirs is that the “2 out of 3” rule is replaced with a “three out of four” rule:

Senator Burston said a three-out-of-four rule could allow a person to control radio, TV and newspaper companies but not, for example, a cable television ­network.

Not sure if the Liberals would consider such an amendment, but it would allow them to pass the reforms with One Nation support, and could potentially satisfy Labor and the Greens who want to keep the “2 out of three” rule.

If Labor and the Greens remain opposed to the reforms, the government will have to win over the four One Nation senators for the changes to become law.

The government yesterday declared that any merging of news companies would be restricted to metropolitan and larger regional markets as it introduced the broadcasting reform bill, which has unanimous industry backing, into the House of Representatives.

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