Australia's broadcasters call for 'urgent reform' amid losses due to streaming services

Since the online streaming platforms have widely dominated the traditional TV programs, the Australian Commercial television broadcasters have reportedly called for ‘deregulation’ of the content. The broadcasters’ lobby group, Free TV have called out on the Australian government in a statement released on July 5 to ‘urgently reform’ the regulatory framework so the broadcasters have the option to deliver the Australian content which is being demanded by the audiences. 

This move comes as traditional Australian content ranging from drama to children’s programs is driving the audiences away fro the free-to-air television to streaming services. According to international media reports, the audiences have drastically shifted their likeliness to OTT platforms resulting in a huge loss for Australian programs that were once profitable. According to international media reports, the audience for a local program that was an average of one million in 2008 fell to 400,000 in 2018. At the same time, the production of such programs has spiked from $500,00 per hour to $760,000 per hour in the last decade.

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Seven West Media, Nine Entertainment, Network 10, Southern Cross Austereo, Prime Media Group, WIN Network and Imparja Television under the umbrella of Free TV Australia have said that they invest nearly $1.6 billion on the country’s content dispute the plunging revenues caused by the disruption of language as 85 per cent of their content is in Australian. 

Free TV Australia said in a statement, “Free TV Australia today called on the government to urgently reform the Australian content regulatory framework to provide commercial television broadcasters with flexibility to deliver the Australian content that audiences are demanding.”

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‘Content same for 20 years’

Commenting on Free TV’s submission to the government’s options paper, ‘Supporting Australian stories on our screens’, Free TV CEO, Bridget Fair said that reform is required to the current quota system because it is almost like stepping into a time machine to the past.  Fair even noted that despite the fundamental change in the landscape of the media there is still a lack of significant change in Australian content for nearly two decades. 

Bridget Fair said: “The current quota system is like stepping into a time machine straight back to the 1980’s.  It clearly needs significant reform.

“We have seen fundamental change in the media landscape but there has been no significant change in Australian content regulation for almost 20 years,” she added.

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