budget, page-14

I believe that the chance of the Media Reform Bill being passed is almost 100%. It is just a matter of when and what amendments will be made.

Believe it or not the Communications Minister has made a lot of progress in the last 12 months but he still has one final hurdle to pass and that is convincing the Senate that the two out of three rule should remain part of the bill.

As we all know, the oppositions job is to oppose legislation put forward by the government of the time and debate that legislation until they think they have been seen to be doing their job. The latest Senate inquiry, that started last Wednesday, has perhaps given them an opportunity to ‘save face’ as it were and admit that the newsprint side of things is going down hill at a great rate of knots. Nobody is likely to step forward to invest in this industry without the ability to form synergies that may occur if they become part of a larger media mix.

If NEC took control of the mastheads likely to be spun out of the Fairfax takeover for example, there will likely be some ‘package’ benefits to advertisers that will benefit both the advertisers and NEC. If the opposition loses this chance to pass the bill, nobody will be coming to the rescue of the print industry and, as is happening in the regionals, newsprint will continue to close up shop. Some of the bigger mastheads such as AFR will probably continue to remain marginally profitable but the diversity will be gone.

The biggest draw card for the Communications Minister is, that after many years of debate and compromise, he has finally got a bill that has the backing of all major leaders in Australia’s media industry. No small feat in itself! To split the bill will see some in the industry at a disadvantage while others will likely profit at their expense.

To delay the passing of the bill could, in all probability, see the Ten Network go into administration, a continuous reduction in local content, loss of regional broadcasting and the closing down of regional newspapers. All of this, along with the job losses, is occurring now and has been confirmed once again in the current Senate inquiry. For Labor to do nothing could well see the media industry fight back through whatever means they have available causing irreparable damage to the party. Not a good place to be.

The biggest joke in all of this is that with the continuous strengthening of Google and Facebook, media diversity in Australia is diminishing faster than most political parties ever envisaged. The other fact is that any company with the resources, such as Apple, can set up a digital platform that offers SVOD, TV, music streaming, news and current affairs etc. on the internet and not be breaking any laws. Online companies are also not required to provide a certain amount of local content, pay broadcasting fees, employ Australians, pay a normal rate of tax on subscription and advertising revenue etc.... Billions of dollars are going offshore each year with next to no benefit being given to the Australian content producers and the taxpayer.

As for losing media diversity as the Labor party and the Greens are concerned about, I’ll leave you with an extract from the Media Reform Bill;

The reforms will keep the requirement for at least five independent media 'voices' in metropolitan commercial radio licence areas (mainland state capital cities), and at least four in regional commercial radio licence areas. In addition, an individual will still not be able to control more than one commercial television licence in a licence area or more than two commercial radio licences in the same licence area.

That's my Sunday morning sermon out of the way, time for a cup of coffee!