Media ownership in Australia is distributed between commercial, national public broadcasters and not-for-profit community broadcasters. Australian media ownership has been described as one of the most concentrated in the world.[1] For example, 11 of the 12 capital city daily papers are owned by either Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation or by John Fairfax Holdings.[2]
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Nine Entertainment Co. (previously PBL Media) is a media company owned by CVC Asia Pacific. Originally a 50/50 joint venture with Consolidated Media Holdings. Has diverse interests including the Nine Network, ACP Magazines, Ticketek and Acer Arena.
Assets
The WIN Corporation is a Wollongong based media company, that owns the WIN Television network, NWS, and STW in Australia.
Assets
Television
Other
News Corporation has interests in the film, magazine, publishing, sports & television industries. These include the following:
This can impact on the way information is presented in that News Corporation can also feature/advertise their other products & services. For example, News Corporation newspapers can ‘promote’ the NRL in the sports section. However, News Corp has no presence in free-to-air television in Australia.
Southern Cross Broadcasting owns a number of regional television stations and some metropolitan radio stations across Australia.
Assets
Assets
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is a state-owned company that provides television, radio and internet news services. It was founded in 1929. The ABC is 100% funded by the Australian Government.
The Special Broadcasting Service was founded in 1980, and is now a hybrid-funded provider of television, radio and online media with an emphasis on multi-lingual services. The Australian Government contributes approximately 80% of funding to SBS, the rest is generated from advertising revenue.[6]
The Australian Government legislated specific controls over the ownership of broadcasting on television and radio in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. These effectively prohibit ownership of more than one television station or two radio stations in a given market.[7] The Commonwealth's legislative reach over print media ownership is largely limited to general competition law such as the Trade Practices Act 1974.[8]
On 14 March 2005, the Australian Government announced proposals to amend the current media ownership laws.[9]
Australian television broadcasting is dominated by free-to-air services including ABC TV, Seven Network, Nine Network, Network Ten, SBS TV and their affiliates, as well as subscription television providers Foxtel, Austar and SelecTV.
Ownership of these stations and affiliates is mostly shared between PBL Media, Seven Media Group, WIN Corporation, Macquarie Media Group and Prime Television Limited. ABC Television and SBS Television are government owned stations.
There are also some smaller subscription television providers, such as Neighbourhood Cable and TransACT, but they are limited both in channel availability and subscribers. Community television stations are broadcast in most capital cities.
None of the commercial networks are owned by News Corporation.