Pay TV boss wants less red tape for industry
Exclusive: ASTRA boss Andrew Maiden wants the Productivity Commission to review the Broadcasting Services Act.
- Published by David Knox
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EXCLUSIVE: The new CEO of Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association wants to see government red tape removed for Pay TV channels.
Andrew Maiden told TV Tonight, “At the moment the impact of regulation on the smaller channels makes some of them quite marginal business propositions and the other is cleaning up the Broadcasting Services Act which is now 1000 pages long, has doubled in the last few years and is four inches thick.
“The cost of complying with that for channels, especially small independent ones is very expensive. So we would like the Productivity Commission to review the Broadcasting Services Act with a view to cleaning it up after the election, whoever wins.”
Maiden became ASTRA CEO in March and when asked about the challenges from IPTV and piracy, he acknowledged the challenges the sector is facing.
“We believe that subscription platforms offer viewers the ability to watch whatever they want whenever they want over whatever device they want. They can now watch a lot of their favourite content across iPads and as you’ll hear in the next little while they’ll be able to watch it on an IPTV based product too,” he said.
“Growth is a challenge for everyone in the media whether you have an advertiser-supported model or a subscription model. But we believe because of the investment we are making in content and innovation we will be able to grow.”
Foxtel is expected to announce its new internet subscription packages known as Foxtel Play this week.
3 Responses
@nevothirty: Yes, but everyone has to play within the usual classification guidelines. If anything, pay TV has it easier because they are not restricted to scheduling content in specific time bands due to its classification. They can screen MA content at 4 in the afternoon if they want.
The advertising revenue licence condition, I agree, is a silly thing. I suppose it was legislated that subscription fees have to be the predominant source of revenue in order to stop rampant commercialisation; and it was probably done, like most broadcasting legislative quirks, as a sop to the FTA commercial channels.
@Chris TP. pay tv has some pretty tough rules to follow, from how much revenue they can make from advertising to cencorship.
Given the amount of first run content now on foxtel, I think an overhaul of these rules needs to be looked at.
Of course, most of the 1000-page, 4 inch thickness of the BSA doesn’t actually apply to subscription television channels. If anything, pay TV probably has the lightest regulation of any part of the broadcasting sector.