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D-Day for TV Code of Practice

Media watchdog is set to rule on proposed changes in Classification, complaints & advertising sought by TV networks.

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2015-11-10_0146

Media watchdog the Australian Communications and Media Authority is set to hand down its decision on changes to the Commercial Code of Practice today.

In February TV networks proposed sweeping changes, with a 6 week public consultation period, that included:

  • M classified material airing from 7:30pm
  • MA15+ programmes from 8:30pm
  • PG rated content allowed across the day
  • AV classification would be removed, subsumed by MA15+
  • Alcohol advertising could air from 7:30pm,
  • News and Current Affairs accuracy required only in relation to material facts
  • News and Current Affairs corrections only required on their websites
  • Complainants must have viewed the broadcast on terrestrial television in order to make a formal complaint
  • Complaints about privacy and vilification can only be made by those directly affected
  • Broadcasters no longer required to respond regarding issues that may be the subject of legal proceedings or to obscene or offensive submissions

At the time Free TV Chairman Harold Mitchell said: “We are confident that the proposed Code catches up with the range of ways people now access content, while ensuring Free TV remains Australia’s safest place for viewers.”

Today they will find out if their proposals are approved or rejected.

The Code of Practice was last reviewed in 2009.

9 Responses

  1. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth saying again: if you want hints to what will be in the _next_ Code of Practice, look at the details of ACMA complaints & FreeTVAU submissions over the previous couple of years. Things they have been pulled up on or restrictions they have complained about will be allowed in the new code.

    It’s hard to blame ACMA – the whole self-regulatory system is designed to allow networks to write their own rules while ACMA takes the blame.

  2. The public consultation resulted in a massive number of submissions against the 7:30pm M, allowing alcohol advertising at 7:30pm, the lack of on air corrections etc. And they just totally ignore the public.

    Hopefully the ACMA won’t.

    1. Well maybe there was a vastly greater more people who were in favour of the change (such as myself).

      Because a lot of people were against change, doesn’t mean that they outnumbered those who wanted it.

  3. “corrections only required on their websites”. “The plans to demolish your house were on display in the basement of your local planning department on Alpha Centauri, in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet, stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’.” HHGTTG, Douglas Adams.
    Mistake on TV, apology on TV. Embarrassment is the least punishment that viewers should expect.

    1. Yeah, they want any complainant to have seen the offending material on “terrestrial television” – not even on their catchup site – but want to only put any corrections on their websites? I love self-regulation, it always works so well – for the ones (not) doing the self-regulation.

  6. In the digital age where we all have access to some kind of parental lockout feature,why restrict classifications to set times anymore? I’d be more keen to see SA based TV stations align their times with AEST so we can see things live instead of 30 minutes behind. The whingers can just use their parental lockout or pvr to control their viewing.

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