The majority shareholder CAAMA (8KIN) was looking to sell its ownership of Imparja by 31 December last year but it appears that didn’t happen, but they are still looking to exit it seems. While CAAMA has majority ownership and claims control of Imparja they do not have actual control. CAAMA has requested full access to Imparja’s accounts but Imparja has refused access. Imparja made a loss of $900,000 in the year to June 2018, including a write down of their investment in CDT. CAAMA itself made a loss the last two years and is in such bad shape their auditor questions their ability to continue as a going concern.
I’d think there would be some issue with the idea of Imparja being sold to a white-owned company within the indigenous community. Even if it looks like it’s badly run (judging by the annual reports), I’d suggest there is somewhat a pride issue in having a major media player run by “their mob” .
Here’s what could be done, and yes, this will also involve a shakeup to how ABC and SBS are operated:
Imparja is no longer a commercial broadcaster. It goes back to its roots as a Indigenous broadcaster, and is merged with NITV. License is gifted (for lack of a better word) to either Ten or WIN.
Create a new national broadcaster, let’s call it Australian National Media. ABC, SBS and a merged Imparja/NITV each given its own editorial board and self-control, but backend operations owned by ANM. Buys out WIN’s share in Mediahub and plays out from Ingleburn. WIN told to fuck off.
ABC stays in Sydney. SBS possibly moves to Melbourne, and the new Imparja/NITV based out of Alice Springs.
Create two new license areas (naming not perfect, but fuck it):
Central and Northern Remote, taking in the NT (including Darwin), Queensland, NSW and ACT, with Nine (NTD), Southern Cross (TND/QQQ/ITQ) and WIN/Ten (taking a cancelled IMP license with a new call sign) each owning a license. Submarkets are Darwin, Central Australia and North Eastern Australia, all with appropriate local news and content requirements.
Southern and Central Remote, taking in all of Western Australia (except Perth), South Australia (except Adelaide), Remote Victoria and Remote Tasmania. GWN (SSW/VEW/GTW/WAW), Southern Cross (GTS/BKN) and WIN (SES/RTS) all get a license. Submarkets are South West and Great Southern, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton, Remote Western Australia, Western South Australia, Eastern South Australia, South Eastern Australia, all with appropriate local news and content requirements.
With the last one, you could potentially merge Regional Victoria and Tasmania into its own license area, especially with WIN holding the Ten affiliation, but SC’s ownership of 7 and 9 affiliates is both areas is an issue, unless SC takes full control of TDT and TNT is sold to Prime. A remote possibility.
These appropriate local news and content requirements would be having at least ONE operator produce a substantial local news service, TWO preferable, and all producing some sort of local content. This means GWN, Nine and Southern Cross can’t axe their news services unless at least one replaces them.
Griffith is absorbed into Southern NSW as part of Riverina submarket and Mildura into Regional Victoria with its own submarket. Appropriate re-licensing of transmitters takes place.
It’s long and its complex, but I reckon it would solve Imparja’s long term future, simplify licensing boundaries and give true competition. You’d have 5 cap city license areas and 6 or 7 regional license areas.
If WIN Corp or Prime Media bought Imparja, in a perfect world, they’d be able to use excess revenue from their aggregated markets to prop up Central.
Would there really? It’s seemingly hemorrhaging money and what does it actually do for the Indigenous community any more? There’s no local programming at all, any remnant programs are now on NITV. The communities involved in Imparja would probably be better served contributing to NITV or Aboriginal Broadcasting Darwin (community TV) than attempting to run Imparja.
Still better than what they currently get. Partnering with a local newspaper for SA-style nightly updates would probably be what happens over the more regular NNSW-style updates.
Yes. In years gone by the profits have funded indigenous programs. Now there is no profit. The community training programs they provide are funded by government grants.
What time zone does IMP show on their “cover-up” clock - is it the same for both the north and south feeds?
To be honest I’m a little confused as to why they cover up the clock on the network feed - the time will be correct for their viewers in the Eastern states all year round, as it’s a feed from Sydney and Brisbane respectively. The networked clock will be wrong for SA and NT viewers, but that’s the case for all on screen time checks and promos on Imparja. Why the cover-up?
Nine leave a blank space under the Today logo so a local clock can be added by an affiliate or so Nine themselves can adjust the clock (like in WA with Today Perth News breakaways). So Imparja aren’t removing/covering any clocks, they’re adding one in which is good. It’s just that the design is outdated now like the rest of their presentation.
Practicality aside, there could be a pride thing. Yes, Imparja seems to have Uncle Tom-med it up for whitey, but they could have an opportunity to change that.
Proving that three main channels of inventory is a waste in small markets. Laughable but Canberra knows best that supposedly we all need to see all the channels. Led by the FTA influence of course.
Would CAAMA falling over drag IMP with it?
If the indigenous leaders had any sense,they’d have a new entity ready to go to take over from CAAMA.
Understand your thinking,however in this era, it wouldn’t be attractive to them. Might never have been, could be viewed as a charitable buy.
I don’t think any network would want to take on the number of transmitters, let alone wanting a market with so few advertisers. I still think it’s more likely to turn into a sole market. Imparja folds, no Nine affiliate for weeks, SC pushes for a temporary arrangement to transmit Nine, eventually gets the nod from government to be the sole affiliate. If a market can not sustain a second affiliate broadcaster the laws will change, and Southern Cross has always been in the best position to take over.
could it be possible to have different states have different feeds on VAST: here’s my suggestion: Remote Qld/NT and Western Australia would carry the existing signals, but in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania they should have VAST carrying the same signals, networks and affiliations as their main markets eg. a Victorian/Southern NSW feed will carry Prime7, SCA Nine and WIN Ten for those in Victoria/Southern NSW on VAST, and Northern NSW will carry Prime7, NBN and WIN.
I suggested a few months ago in the VAST thread that VAST should use a new satellite with more precise spot beams to transmit local affiliates Australia wide.
Thanks @WAtvVideos for your astute appraisal. You are correct, Fletch won’t let voters miss out on their ‘precious’ three metro affiliations that the metros keep drumming in to Canberra everyone needs.
Laws will change instantly, by regulation if procedurally possible.
Well, we’ve never seen this happen before. The closest is the WA affiliation situation with WDT. There wasn’t much outrage other than on social media, but it only lasted a couple of days. I can only imagine that if a station went bust in any market then something would eventually give from an ownership/affiliation perspective.
Possibly - its hard to tell, any administrator would likely seek to sell their share in IMP to help resolve any financial shortfall
If they had any sense, they’d want to understand why CAAMA is struggling before forming a new entity - replacing a failing entity with one that could be destined to fail is a poor move all round.
This is fundamentally the problem with regional broadcasting - the broadcaster has to cover a vast area (quite often at considerable cost), pay significantly for content and have limited revenue streams.
I’m not convinced this will happen - propping up Imparja or selling the licence is more likely.
About the subject of selling Imparja, I can honestly see Nine buying out the network and merging into NTD eventually if it’s that full of debt. Or possibly having a similar model to SCA with Seven Darwin and Seven Central
Presumably any buyer of Imparja would only buy the television licences and any infrastructure rather than the company Imparja Television Pty Ltd which is a not-for-profit entity?
They do this because the majority of the population in the license area is in QLD, not the NT. Thus why the Queensland bulletin is slightly more relevant.
Yes Imparja based in Alice Springs but that’s less then 10% of the license area they serve in population.
Partnering with a local newspaper for SA-style nightly updates would probably be what happens over the more regular NNSW-style updates.