Trading opportunity, page-23

If the ownership restrictions is lifted, TEN would be taken over by Mr Murdoch.

More than 25 media CEOs will gather in Canberra to push new media reform.

Interesting time ahead.

DYOR.



MAY 30 2017 - 4:30PM
Media reform laws gaining more support in the Senate

• Lucy Battersby
• Amy Remeikis

Cross bencher and former journalist Derryn Hinch has thrown his weight behind the government's proposed media reform bill, increasing the chances that ownership restrictions will be lifted.

The government is now just seven votes short of getting the bill through the Senate, as it is expected to pass the House of Representatives easily when it is introduced in a few weeks.

The new laws would lift ownership limitations that currently force media proprietors to choose whether they are a "prince of print" or "queen of the screen", as former prime minister Paul Keating quipped when introducing the rules in the 1980s.

Senator Derryn Hinch said he had "no qualms" about scrapping the two-out-of-three rule. Photo: Andrew Meares
Senator Hinch said he had "no qualms" about scrapping the two-out-of-three rule, which prevents a person controlling television, radio and daily newspapers in a single city.

"As an ex-journalist ... If you want to be stupid enough to start a new radio station or a new newspaper, or a television station, go for it," he said.

"I am saying that as a person who started a magazine of their own and went bust trying to get it going."

He said the media industry had legitimate arguments about the changes brought by internet and social media, which didn't exist when the laws were first written.

• media industry will visit Canberra on Wednesday to encourage the opposition and cross bench senators to vote for the reforms.
  
  The changes include cuts to broadcast licensing fees, limits on gambling ads during live sports, a reduction of sports on the anti-siphoning list, and minimum local content rules for regional television and radio.
  
  
  
  
  Senators Cory Bernardi and David Leyonhjelm agree with industry that reform is necessary for survival.

"The problem is the old media are being put out of business by the new media ... and if we don't take the brakes off, remove the constraints, they could be forced out," Senator Leyonhjelm said.

"Even with the constraints removed, they might still fail, but at least they have had a chance."

But Labor and Pauline Hanson remain staunchly opposed to removing the two-out-of-three rulefor fear it will permit too many mergers and reduce the number of media owners.

"Removal of the two-out-of-three rule will achieve very little for industry at potentially great cost to our democracy," opposition communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said.

"It is a fact that Australia already has one of the most concentrated media markets in the world and abolition of the two-out-of-three safeguard will make things worse."

She said Australians still relied on newspapers, television and radio for most of their news, particularly in regional areas.

A spokesperson for Ms Hanson said the party was "not convinced that the challenges facing media operators justify the abolishment of the two-out-of-three rule". It had concerns that a single domestic or foreign operator could establish monopoly control of media distribution in a single region.

Concerns from The Greens also centred around the loss of the two-out-of three rule.

"We are jumping to the commercial imperative and the public interest is not really getting a look in," communications spokesman Scott Ludlam said.

"While we try and come to grips with what the future of independent and diverse media is in this country, why would we remove one of the few protections we have in place?

"The only thing [Communications Minister] Senator [Mitch] Fifield can guarantee is less media diversity - and why would we do that?"

But the chief executive of regional broadcaster WIN Television, Andrew Lancaster, believes the internet is more pervasive.

"At a time when Australians are consuming news and content from so many different online sources, it is incorrect to believe that either the 'reach' rule or two-out-of-three - both rules from a quarter of a century ago - have any place in this post-internet world," he said.


http://www.smh.com.au/business/medi...re-support-in-the-senate-20170530-gwgd58.html