Audience Reach, Ownership Control and Local Content

What the US is doing regarding audience reach - heading in the opposite direction to Australia

FCC Dumps 30-Year Rule That Helped Big TV Companies Buy UHF Stations

The arguments (for and against) were around concepts of localism and diversity.

The technical reason was:

Station groups are limited to reaching a maximum of 39% of all TV households. But with the discount, they only had to count half of the households reached by UHF stations.

That made sense in the days of analog TV. UHF stations lacked the reach of rivals on the lower-numbered VHF band.

But following the national transition in 2009 to digital over-the-air broadcasts, “UHF channels are equal, if not superior, to VHF channels,” the FCC says.

1 Like

Nine chief in U-turn on reform

Nine Network chief Hugh Marks has reversed his company’s media laws position by proposing to defer the reform bill until licence fee cuts are tackled.

Mr Marks told the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee that any change to ownership and concentration rules “before addressing onerous and unfair licence fees has the potential to distort the market and have unintended consequences”.

The U-turn has caused astonishment in media circles. There was snickering from some that Mr Marks is deploying stalling tactics for time to help Nine fend off the prospect of potential takeover bids as the network’s shares crater amid weaker ratings and lower advertising revenues.

Other submissions are broadly in line with previous ones, but now take into account events such as Nine’s new affiliate deal with Southern Cross Austereo.

Bruce Gordon’s WIN seized on a “demand” by previous affiliate partner Nine for a 55 per cent slice of its ad take as evidence that regional operators are under increasing pressure to pay “high program supply fees to metropolitan broadcasters”.

Together with its peers Prime Media Group and Southern Cross Austereo, WIN wants to see the bill passed as a matter of urgency.

Looks like Nine isn’t as interested in the purchase of regional TV licences as SCA might like. Or perhaps Nine think that a legislation change will push up the price of the regional TV shares.

2 Likes

Some interesting speculation in an article in The Australian this week

High-level talks as Fairfax and Nine ponder post-reform deals

The news comes after Nine ­offloaded its entire 9.9 per cent stake in regional affiliate partner Southern Cross Austereo for $120 million.

The sale ended speculation about any intentions Nine had of initiating a merger with Southern Cross, although the regional broadcaster is now the bigger of the two companies and could launch a takeover of its metro partner.

The new stand suggested Nine was not working on any deals that required the ownership laws to change.

Senate committee backs media reform bill but Labor dissents

A Senate committee has recommended the Turnbull government’s media reform bill be passed, but it will need crossbencher support after Labor slammed the proposals as “narrow and short­sighted”.

It recommended abolishing the reach rule, preventing mergers between metropolitan and regional free-to-air broad­casters, and the two-out-of-three cross-media ownership law.

The change would allow mooted merger combinations, such as Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media or Seven West Media and its regional TV affiliate Prime Media Group, to be consummated.

Also in the article.

Labor supports abolishing the reach rule and reductions to free-to-air TV licence fees but opposes scrapping the two-out-of-three rule “because it ­thinks that would benefit News Corp Australia, publisher of newspapers highly critical of the former Gillard and Rudd governments”. The Greens echo the Labor’s view on the reforms…

1 Like

I still think license fees should work like income tax - allow local content created in the market of the license to be deducted from the license fee. Pump in everything from Sydney/Melbourne - pay more.

Television networks that use the argument that online services don’t pay license fees are more than welcome to hand in their licenses and go online only. Their broadcast spectrum is their competitive advantage - it should come at a price.

3 Likes

Agree, they should pay something to use public airwaves, or be bound to air a strict amount of certain news, children’s and SCRIPTED entertainment programming each year, substantially more than now.

I agree with Labor, the reach rule is dumb these days, but 2 out of 3 still matters, especially considering how concentrated media ownership is in Australia.

4 Likes

I completely agree with Moe and TVHead. Broadcasting licence holders should have to pay for the privilege of using public airwaves and have a responsibility to properly cover the communities of the local licence areas they serve.

As far as the reach rule is concerned, that’s rather outdated these days. But the “2 out of 3” rule should be kept, since media ownership in Australia is quite concentrated as it is. As I always say, media consumers are always better served with more choices rather than less!

3 Likes

When Fairfax closes the weekday editions of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and what’s left of the daily regional papers, and then merges with another media company it will show how outdated the restrictions are/were.

1 Like

Well it’s clearly not directed at Fairfax…

1 Like

Media ownership reforms pass lower house

The Turnbull government’s proposed changes to media ownership laws have passed parliament’s lower house.

The reform package scraps the so-called reach rule, which prohibits a company controlling commercial TV licences which reach more than 75 per cent of the population.

It also removes the two-out-of-three rule, which prevents a proprietor controlling more than two of three radio, TV and newspapers in one area.

Expect News Corp to buy out the Long Doomed Network Ten and become Privately Owned in the Near Future, Ten’s Sport Offerings shall become under the Fox Sports Banner and it’s only Remaining News Bulletins come under the Sky News Banner as well.

Or don’t, because none of that is happening.

5 Likes

I’m sure (or at least hope) your prediction will never come true.

News Corp already has strong interests in Pay TV, so we don’t need them on free to air TV.

2 Likes

delete

2 Likes

It’s 2017 & still No Action in Media Reform

Where politicians need to do something don’t expect anything until they’re backed into a corner (look at what they did with a supposedly high priority thing, changing their ‘entitlements’ after Bronwyn Bishop’s chopper fiasco; nothing).

1 Like

The Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Media Reform) Bill 2016 is currently sitting in the Senate.

2 Likes

Any legislation that didn’t pass both houses in the last session is basically abandoned; it has to be re-introduced to parliament in the new session, in this case Autumn session starting Tue 7 Feb:
http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Sitting_Calendar

1 Like

What happened to the SAVE OUR VOICES campaign?

They ere everywhere proclaiming how much they cared about regional voices - ads everywhere and posting nonstop on Facebook every day about how much they cared about regional voices and their respective communities and wanting pity from everyone left right and centre.

Now nothing. Crickets. Dead.

I guess they stopped caring?

Safe to assume it was all to lobby govt - and not actually a reflection of how much they cared at all.

2 Likes

Of course that’s what it was about. Although to be fair at least SCA have found a workaround with Nine News Regional.

3 Likes