Methinks that’s not going to happen with the current laws, the current ownership structure of metros and affiliates, or any future in which the metro networks gobble up the affiliates.
Sadly, Australia doesn’t have the population or the density to support a more American-style structure. And the government is too weak to enforce any meaningful localism.
Having said that, I think every licence holder should produce content in their region to be shown in primetime.
As much as people here don’t seem to like Bruce Gordon, 2 things can be said about him, he doesn’t tow the line in the same way Seven and Nine affiliates do during the day with some program changes - for the most part unheard on the other regional stations. Also, he actually has less in regional programming variations per station he runs as opposed to Prime7/GWN7 - they replace overnight programs with infomercials - screening at least 21 hours per week of regional variations (plus Prime local News regions change the 1 hour news between 6pm and 7pm weeknights).
It would be good if the replaced programs were an improvement on the network schedule. But the content seems mediocre at best
At least its not infomercials replacing normal programs like it was when SCA were the Ten affiliate
This is interesting:
with News Corp’s Coffs Harbour newspaper obtaining 10 to 15 new subscriptions a week,
Coming off a very low base. No improvement in editorial.
Miller must have forgotten what promotional activity they’re running in that market and others.
90% required for compulsory acquisition of stock, so Bruce needs 10% + 1 to hold out on a listed company.
ACMA’s application of the BSA for deemed control of 15% or actual control.
Corps Act have a takeover limit of 20%
You do the maths. Gordon plays this every time.
You put in for the Powerball or Oz Lotto when over $30M and we’ll do it. The price of NRN over the seven markets it covers was very low on a cost/population calc.
Or NBN. This continued throughout the era post 2007 of 9 owning it. Only when Deb went to handle the SCA affiliation transition did Kylie get it kicked off the mid morning schedule.
Depending on the fragmentation of the shareholding and that he’s not really in a position to stop buyouts (that would despite any percentage threshold be potential for it to be deemed he has some level of control), he doesnt need 10% to make life difficult for any potential buyer - simply being considered a ‘major’ or substantial shareholder will be enough - Gordon’s company owns 2.4% of Prime and is the second largest non-bank/financial institute shareholder behind Seven’s investment
I recall a while back somebody discussing that the current owners’ shares in the joint venture stations are not exclusively linked to ownership of the main stations, and that they are free to offload a percentage of their 50% share in the JV, and/or would be required to offload in a sale of the main station.
What are the requirements if SCA or WIN decided to sell up in Tasmania, for example?
And what’s the story with solus markets? Do they have similar trigger requirements, or is monopoly ownership maintained?
New reporting requirements for foreign media owners
From 1 September 2018, a foreign person with company interests of 2.5 per cent or more (a foreign stakeholder) in an Australian media company is required to notify the ACMA of that interest.
This requirement follows the passing of the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Foreign Media Ownership, Community Radio and Other Measures) Act 2018 on 22 August 2018, and is designed to allow increased scrutiny of foreign investment in Australian media companies and increased transparency as to the levels and sources of foreign investment in such companies.
The new requirements include existing foreign stakeholders making initial disclosure notifications by 28 February 2019 , timings for notification of changes of foreign stakeholder status and reporting at the end of each financial year. The new provisions also apply to persons acting on behalf of foreign stakeholders, such as executors, administrators and liquidators.
The Register of Foreign Owners of Media Assets is now available on the ACMA website
https://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/broadcasting-registers-media-ownership-control-acma
I can’t see Nine and Ten on that register.
Local content 2018
A couple of graphs
Fee TV Australia comment
How come NWS Adelaide & STW Perth don’t get included in these charts? Haven’t they been network O&Os for nearly six years now? 
Anyway, going by the chart it appears that Ten airs the most First release Australian drama, Seven airs the most first release Australian documentary content (presumably because stuff like “Border Security” counts) while all three networks air roughly the same amount of childrens/preschool programs.
Someone at ACMA has presumably just been using the same templates these past years and can’t be bothered to update them.
They appear to show just enough to meet the quota.
Your Money was counted as Australian content for Nine, but racing.com is not for Seven. I have seen racing.com referred to as a datacast channel but I can’t see how it can be as in Darwin SC only has two datacast licences and has two datacast channels in TVSN and SBN, so if racing.com was a datacast channel SC would need a third datacast licence. So, if racing.com is not a datacast channel why isn’t it counted as Australian content?
Edit: Looking into a bit more it seems they possibly only need one datacast licence, so forget all that. 
Sadly, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case. All three commercial networks would probably drop their childrens/preschool programs in a heartbeat if ACMA allowed them to, I think.
Of course they would. Why do you think they pushed to have them buried on the multi-channels in the first place?
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has found that Mr Bruce Gordon, the owner of WIN Corporation Pty Ltd, breached media control and diversity rules in relation to his interests in the Prime Media Group Limited (Prime).
The ACMA found that Mr Gordon acquired a 11.59 per cent shareholding in Prime on 29 April 2019. Together with his existing 14.99 per cent interest, Mr Gordon’s total company interests rose to 26.58 per cent. This placed Mr Gordon in a position to exercise control of commercial television licences held by subsidiaries of Prime until 24 May 2019, when Mr Gordon divested 43 million shares (11.73 per cent).
Mr Gordon was found to be in breach of the ‘one-to-a-market’ commercial television licence rule in eight separate licence areas during this time. Mr Gordon’s interests also caused an unacceptable media diversity situation to occur, or to be worsened, in more than 40 licence areas.
“Media control and diversity rules exist so that Australians have access to a diverse range of voices in the media landscape. It is up to companies and individuals to ensure that they comply with these important rules at all times, especially where control occurs in more complex shareholding arrangements,” said ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin.
The ACMA considered evidence from Mr Gordon that the breaches occurred as a result of actions taken by a third party that were contrary to his instructions and that, as a result, he could not reasonably have known that he was in breach of media laws. The ACMA also noted that Mr Gordon acted immediately to sell down his shareholding in Prime as soon as he became aware of the mistake.
Finally, the ACMA found no evidence to suggest that Mr Gordon took any actual steps to exercise control over Prime during this period.
“Given the limited duration of the breaches and our satisfaction with the action to rectify the breaches, the ACMA will not take any further action on this matter,” Ms O’Loughlin said.
Under the Broadcasting Services Act, a person is deemed to be in control of a media asset when they acquire in excess of 15 per cent of a company which holds that asset. This is regardless of whether they can exert actual control over the asset, which is a separate test.
8 breaches and 40 worsening of position and it’s deemed a mistake with no further action
Why bother
More than once Gordon has had to correct shareholding declarations to the ASX because of a claimed oversight. He should not be given any leeway. ASIC took action to force him to get his Prime holding to under 20%. ACMA does nothing.
