Section 38A

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Section 38A refers to a specific license which can be issued to an operator of a television station in the Australian television industry. This is generally granted to stations that operate in a solus market, that is, they are the only commercial television station operating in that area, provided no objections are found in the issuing of such a license.

The new license category came in existing in the mid 1990s when residents of smaller country regions, who were excluded from aggreation, began to protest about the lack of choice in their area. In these areas, viewers had only two choices: the existing station or the ABC (SBS wasn't widespread at time).

The first 38A license was granted to Griffith station MTN-9, who were previously part of the Midstate and Prime networks of stations serving central and southern New South Wales. This was awarded in late 1996, and went to air in 1997, after being initially rejected by the Australian Broadcasting Authority. It is a feed from Prime Television in Canberra, and is licensed as AMN-31.

Since then, stations in regional South Australia have been granted an 38A license, there were:

• Spencer Gulf/Broken Hill: Central GTS/BKN, owned by Southern Cross Broadcasting. Station was granted callsigns SGS and SCN, and branded as Southern Cross Ten, carrying Ten Network programming.
• Renmark/Loxton and Mount Gambier: WIN Television South Australia, owners of existing stations SES-8 and RTS-5A. Granted callsigns LRS and MGS, branded as WIN Ten, carrying Ten Network programming.

In more recent years, 38A has been extended to allow for two station markets where there are two different owners to co-own a third station, transmitting in digital only. These licenses were awarded to Tasmania (Tasmanian Digital Television, owned by WIN and Southern Cross) and Mildura (Mildura Digital Television, owned by WIN and Prime). A license is expected to be granted in Darwin.