National Party want regional content guarantees
Nats proposal for regional content to be maintained as part of media reform, is already under fire.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
A National Party working group on media policy has proposed a “local presence” requirement be introduced for regional broadcasters as part of media reform.
The idea comes ahead of fears regional content could be diluted or wiped out in mergers with city broadcasters if the so-called reach rule is abolished.
The Australian Financial Review reports the Nats care calling for two-thirds of local content requirements to be met through locally produced content to stop newsrooms from solely broadcasting “rip-and-read” headline-only bulletins from capital cities.
Keith Pitt, the Liberal National member for the seat of Hinkler in Queensland, said “There are a number of regional providers who do an incredibly good job and are well above the mandatory requirements and the general view of the media policy working group is that what the legislation states probably isn’t adequate and we need to ensure any future change doesn’t result in a reduction in existing services.”
Last week Communications Minister Mitch Fifield told ABC, “We wouldn’t want to see a situation where in anticipation of the opportunity for mergers that media organisations . . . reduce their local content. So we have to make sure that legislation was drafted in such a way to prevent that from happening.”
But some regional networks are already unhappy with the proposal.
Ian Audsley, chief executive of Prime Media, told the newspaper the Nats had misunderstood their concerns if they placed further onerous obligations on regional broadcasters.
“If you go to the ACMA [Australian Communications and Media Authority] report on local content, 91 per cent of regional Australians said they were happy with the level of local news. The market is saying there is no market failure in local news,” he said.
“The Nationals have not told Prime what their views are but maybe they should be more earnestly looking at the ABC’s service obligations to regional Australia.”
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9 Responses
I watched WIN News Ballarat the other day and it was ridiculous. You use to only get news that the area covered from Ballarat , across to Horsham and down to Warrnambool and Portland. Now you are getting news up to Mildura and way over to Gippsland. hope this is only a Summer thing. I love the Nationals idea but they should of been making a lot of noise years ago. The horse has bolted.
Make up your mind LNP, either you want a deregulated, defunded market, or you want a protected market, you can’t have both. This is a bit bolshie for the Nats, I’m amazed Barnacle hasn’t pounced on this kind of talk.
The current regional news situation is horrible. Most stations only do a 90 second bulletins produced out of someone’s basement throughout the night. They should either get regional stations to fully produced a full bulletin in the place of the metro counterpart or just let the metro bulletin just completely replace regional news.
The same National Party that has cut funding over time to the ABC. The ABC axed the old 5 mniute 6.55pm Regional TV News bulletins back in the 1980s owing to lack of funds. They were mostly rip and read as they were, produced from the nearest capital city ABC TV studios. QLD was an exception with local ABC TV studios in Rockhampton (now gone) and Townsville (now used as a store room and cyclone shelter). How about the Nats fund the ABC to restore those bulletins before they think about imposing onerous obligations on the commercial stations?
The Nationals, like Xenophon, have no clue. They are just trying to exploit the issue politically.
The Internet is creating a race to the bottom in journalism. There is very little viable market for it, and the last place it is going to exist is in struggling commercial TV stations.
The ABC doesn’t even do any local TV bulletins, they don’t even do a local weather reports, just one from the state capital. They do however do regional radio, though are cutting back on that to fund their internet presence.
The Nationals are in the right direction but 50 years to late. Local news is dead. By the look of the pink skyline in the picture these people are not even trying to hide the fact that they serve no purpose. The spectrum is a national resource and must be paid for at a true commercial cost.
What’s local content? Is it recycled local newspaper stories and local police advice posted via Facebook then read from a broadcast centre in Sydney? This is not local news in my view. Does however sound like SCA news on regional ten.
Local television news in Mount Gambier virtually non existent, but the Nats nuts say regional viewers happy with level of service, no we are not.
Why should the country get better service than most of the rest of Australia?
For most of the state capitals & major cities 2/3 of the news is already ‘rip and read’ from Sydbourne, with just the talking suit sitting locally…