Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is an urgent need to modernise and streamline our media legislation. The Broadcasting Services Act is from a pre-internet era. It is an anachronism that is squeezing the life out of our regional TV networks. Current legislation restricts broadcasters to a reach of less than 75 per cent of the population—what is known as the 'reach rule'. Yet now, any broadcaster can reach the entire population online—with services like Channel Seven's Plus7 or ABC's iView.

As a regional MP, I despair at the impact of the reach rule. As the metropolitan networks sell content to the regionals at exorbitant prices, they cut local news content to the bone and cut new investment in TV transmission towers. They have no choice. TV towers might seem unnecessary in a modern era to some, but free-to-air TV will remain important for older viewers and high-profile national TV events for many, many years to come. To make things worse, large parts of regional Australia lost TV reception—including in towns like Crookwell—in the switchover from analogue to digital. Despite the former Labor government spending more than $900 million on the switchover, not a single new TV tower was funded.

Broadcasters also face restrictions in merging with radio and newspapers. The 'two out of three' rule prevents ownership of TV, radio and newspapers in any one licence area. Again, in a modern era, the obvious answer is to combine written content with TV and radio, just as the ABC does. In practice, this rule means that a newspaper company like Fairfax cannot add both radio and TV to its network. In the past, this restriction may have been justifiable. Media markets were restricted to a single town or city, and there was little convergence across media channels. But now, we can view video, listen to podcasts or live streams and read news articles on a single website, and there is fierce competition crossing traditional geographical boundaries. We also have a competition regulator to look after these things.

The answer, as many already know, is to get rid of this anachronistic legislation. In the process, it will be possible to manage a sensible transition, where the local news content and TV transmission are protected and enhanced. Regional viewers want it; regional networks are campaigning for it. The results of a recent survey undertaken by Prime, Southern Cross, WIN and Imparja, released this week, showed that 85 per cent of regional and rural respondents were concerned about losing their local news bulletins. Tellingly, the vast majority supported changes to the media rules that would help broadcasters continue to provide local new services. Media deregulation has been waiting in the wings for too long. It is now time for change.