Malcolm Turnbull has just announced he is booting community TV off the spectrum. He shows no such firmness in relation to the regulation of commercial media. He is delaying reform there until there is what he calls a high level of consensus in the industry. He denies this means that he is waiting until the media moguls agree on what the reforms should be. So where was the genuine public consultation and where was the independent costs benefit analysis before this highhanded decision was taken? His decision means that twenty year old citizens media is to be pulled off the air with a no more than a stroke of the ministerial pen. Malcolm Turnbull says community TV have low ratings and therefore should go to the internet. This is not a viable alternative for those many community TV viewers who do not have such access. Curiously he has made no similar suggestions for similarly low rating public and commercial TV channels. There would be at least fifteen of these in most of the places where community TV is broadcast. What has he got against community TV? When digital was introduced, all existing commercial and public broadcasters received a bonanza from the government. in return for each analog channel, they received bandwidth sufficient for at least five channels. This was without any charge whatsoever. They still dont know what to do with the surplus channels. Just scroll through the many free-to-air channels in your area to see what is being broadcast. Some broadcasters even add radio to fill their bandwidth. Accordingly, the last communications minister, Senator Conroy, sensibly required SBS to give up a surplus channel to indigenous TV. So if Mr. Turnbull is so anxious to sell off the community TV spectrum, why doesnt he follow this example and require the ABC or one of the other broadcasters to hand over one of their surplus channels to community TV – citizens media – to ensure real diversity in the media. theaustralian.au/media/death-knell-for-community-tv-as-overthetop-turnbull-flicks-switch/story-e6frg996-1227054492166
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 11:52:06 +0000