With ongoing speculation surrounding Australia's media ownership rules we keep track of this changing landscape through this 'MediaScape'.

• Also see ACMA's Interactive Guide to Australia's Media Ownership Landscape

We create and update the MediaScapes regularly and appreciate industry input to keep them as accurate as possible.  Feel free to get in touch if you have any comments or feedback - or if you'd like a PDF copy.

• Subscribe to MediaScope's weekly newsletter - join media's 'influentials'

Current media ownership regulations enforce the “two out of three rule”, where ownership of more than two of either television, radio or newspaper services in a given region is prohibited. And no individual provider is permitted to reach more than 75% of the population.

FACT CHECK:  Is Australia's Media Ownership One of the Most Concentrated in the World? Verdict - Yes!

 

Timeline of Articles Regarding Australia's Media Ownership Rules:

May 2017

• - Fifield: Package of Compromise for the Greater Good
• - Turnbull: Democracy & Aust's [my] Future Depends on Strong Media Sector
• - Be Afraid: Future of Media Rests with Pauline Hanson
• - 'Too Many Guys One Girl' Media Owner Edition
• - Don't Blame Google for Journalism Woes Says Google Boss
• - NewsCorp Boss: Google Destroying Journalism Model

• - Alternative Media Offers Hope in a Post Truth World
• - Failed Media in the AngloSphere 
• - Bauer/Rebel Wilson: Disgusting - Can't Be Called Journalism
• - Amazon Jumps into Investigative Journalism with Berkeley Partnership
• - Aust FinTechs Are Worried Foreigners Will Kill Them Like in the Media Industry
• - Schappelle Effing Everywhere Corby 
• - When Politicians Bully, Journalists Need to Stand Firm
• - One Nation Can't Blame the ABC for Its Troubles
• - Media's Role in the Politics of Fear & the Rise of the Alt-Right

• - Podcast: Trump, Brexit - the Media - & the Future of Democracy
• - We Should Levy Facebook & Google to Fund Journalism & Here's How
• - ACCC Boss  Warns Outdoor Media Failure Offers Lessons for Media Consolidation

• - Hansard Transcript of Day 2 of Senate Inquiry into Public Interest Journalism
• - TPG Commits to Fairfax Editorial Fairness - To Sell Publisher Within 5 Years
• - Future Fund an Investor in H&F's Fairfax $11b Fund
• - Fairfax Redundancy Funds Don't Yet Add Up

• - Media Reforms Don't Do Enough to Save FTA
• - Fifield Confident 2 out of 3 Rule Will Pass Senate
• - How Do You Save Journalism?  Google the Answer
• - The Future of the 4th & 5th Estates
• - Hanson in Media Reform HoldOut
• - Media Outrage over a 7 Word Anzac Day FB Post Tracked 
• - No NewYork Times It is Not Up to AdBuyers to Save Media
• - Newspapers See AdSpend Plummet 
• - Digital Disruption & Civil Rights
• - How to Kill a Public Broadcaster
• - Fox News Undermines a Free, Independent Press
• - Fairfax Receives Rival Bid
• - The Newspaper: Journalism's Fairweather Friend
• - 10 Year Media Futures
• - Demonising the Duopoly Won't Save Journalism

Senate Inquiry Into Future of Journalism 

• - Senate Inquiry - Public Interest Journalism#
• - Hywood Fronts Journalism Inquiry
• - Hywood: ABC Creates Additional Pressure on Commercial Media
• - Digital Makes Up for Lack of Diversity in Radio/TV
• - Time for a Facebook & Google Tax?
• - ABC Defends Use of Google AdWords
• - Funding Journalism's Future

March 2017

• - Southern Cross Pulls Pin on Regional Talks with Win Regional
• - Southern Cross Austereo Calls for Urgent Media Reform
• - Is Fairfax in Alibaba's Sites?
• - Govt Handpicks Mining Lobbyist for ABC Board
• - MegaMergers Not Sure Thing Should Govt's Media Changes Go Through 
• - Media Reform Hits Further Delays
• - Just How Much Trouble is Ten In?
• - Is there a Takeover Bid for Fairfax? Shares Hit 5 Year High
• - WIN Bought SCA's Northern NSW TV Assets

February 2017

• - Southern Cross & WIN Enter Discussions on Media Assets Deal

December 2016

• - Bauer Media in Talks to Buy Pacific?
• - NewsCorp Buys Sky News
• - Media Ownership Reform Passes Lower House
• - Community Station C31 Shutting after 44 Yrs as Govt Scraps Spectrum
• - Fairfax Won't Float Domain
• - More Journalists Redundant at NewsCorp
• - ACCC OK's News' Buyout of APN Regional Press
• - Media Experts Weigh in on News Buyout of APN's Regional News
• - ABC Board Calls for Head of RN - Not Advised of Cuts by MD
• - The Reshaping of the ABC

December 2016

• APN & Ooh Media Announce Merge
• ACCC OK's News' Buyout of APN Regional Press
• Media Experts Weigh in on News Buyout of APN's Regional News
• Bauer Media in Talks to Buy Pacific?
• NewsCorp Buys Sky News
• Media Ownership Reform Passes Lower House
• NYT Opening Bureau in Oz
• Seven West Media’s acquisition of News Corp’s Sunday Times and PerthNow to be completed early next week
• Foxtel redundancies follow US$11m loss
• News Corp Australia forced to make $40m in cost cuts
• Amazon is coming to Australia and wants to ‘destroy’ local retailers
• Media reform future in hands of crossbenchers after Labor opposes Bill
• Cross-media ownership: Xenophon bloc likely to support scrapping diversity rules
• Communications Minister Mitch Fifield tops AdNews Power 50 list

• ABC - Broadcaster Under New Leadership
• Staff Move to No-Confidence Motion
• Is Michelle Guthrie Remaking the ABC?
• Attacking ABC Win-Win for Conservatives
• Murdoch & ABC Need Each Other - & We Need Both More Than Ever
• ABC Like a Victim Trapped - by the Government
• ABC Board Calls for Head of RN - Not Advised of Cuts by MD
• ABC 'Stars': If They Don't Like It They Can Go
• The Reshaping of the ABC
• No Hidden ABC Agenda - Guthrie (Australian Newspaper Paywall)

November 2016

• Media Reform Put on Hold
• Trump Victory A Good Day to Bury News - inc $40m for TV Networks
• Media reform future in hands of crossbenchers after Labor opposes Bill
• Cross-media ownership: Xenophon bloc likely to support scrapping diversity rules
• Communications Minister Mitch Fifield tops AdNews Power 50 list
• Media reform future in hands of crossbenchers after Labor opposes Bill
• ABC Chairman says Coalition criticism of staff pay deal threatens independence
• ABC Boss Muddles Her Answers & Then Wields the Axe

October 2016

• Media reform hearings: Broadcasters call for level playing field with digital invaders
• APN News & Media to buy rest of Adshel and digital publisher Conversant Media
• Worner: 'Level the playing field on fees, not sport'
• Fairfax chief wants media ownership rules relaxed, even if it helps News Corp
• SBS Boss Says The ABC Is A Different Beast - Merger Unlikely

• Fifield: Further licence fee cuts an “active consideration”
• Networks set for licence fee win
• OohMedia completes institutional placement to raise $60 million
• Twitter goes head-to-head with Seven with live stream of Melbourne Cup
• ASTRA slams Twitter for Melb Cup plans
• Foxtel buys Seven out of Presto as it prepares to shutter service
• Anti-siphoning needs to encompass digital players: Foxtel chief executive Peter Tonagh
• ACCC concerned by industry impact of News Corp’s proposed acquisition of Australian Regional Media
• Macquarie Media Could be Forced to Sell 2CH

September 2016

• Nine sells stake in Southern Cross Austereo after only 6 months
• Media reform talks progressing: Fifield
• Media ownership changes 'conservative' Henry Tajer says
• ACCC Approves Seven's Takeover of Sunday Times
• FreeTV Calls for Reform to TV Licence Fees
• Media Owners Steer Govt Away from Reform in Public Interest
• Media Reform must be rushed through while regional media is ‘viable’ says Senate committee chair
• Coalition rejects Labor's call for media ownership review before changing laws
• Media chiefs to lobby reform package
• Media reform bill reintroduced but uncertainty hangs over progress through the Senate
• SCA calls on reform ‘at earliest possible moment’
• TV Needs Broader Reform to Level Playing Field
• Media Reform Faces 10 Week Inquiry

July 2016

• Fifield Retains Communications Portfolio - Pressure to Act on Media Reform

April 2016

• Media Ownership Changes Dead as PM Calls for Double Dissolution Election

March 2016

• Mumbrella's Live Blog of Senate Inquiry into Media Ownership Reform
• A Layman's Guide to Media Reform

February 2016...

• Turnbull Government Approves New Laws, Paving Ways for Mergers & Acquisitions
• Fifield Builds Cross Bench Support for Media Reform
• ACCC Addresses Fears Over NewsCorp Expansion
• Regional TV Networks Welcome Media Reform Progress

January 2016...

• Fifield Describes TV/Radio Licence Fees as 'Super Profits Tax

September 2015...

• Why Turnbull Should Pursue Media Reform Despite Oppositioin from Stokes & Murdoch (Sept 21)

August 2015...

• Regional TV Networks Take Aim at Plus7 App
• APN & News in Regional Tie-UP
• Fox (News), Seven, Telstra Ink $2.5B AFL Rights Deal

July 2015...

• Michael Miller Leaves APN for News CEO

June 2015...

• Foxtel to Take 15% in Ten & Buying Stake in MCN
• The Long Awaited Ten-Foxtel Deal Means a Third 800 Pound Gorilla Enters the Market

March 2015...

• Macquarie-Fairfax Radio Deal Complete
• Murdoch's News Corp Takes 14.9% Slice of APN News & Media
• Malcom Turnbull Puts Plan for Media Ownership Reform on PM's Desk
• Govt Targets Online Ad Dollars with Tax
• Media Reform Plans Cause Industry Rift
• On Media Ownership Reform Keep an Eye on the Court Jesters
• Malcolm Turnball Stirs Up Rupert Murdoch, Media Barons
• Mayne: Time to End the Murdoch-Packer Ten Soap Opera 

2014...

• Turnbull Tells Media Industry to Find Consensus Before Reach Rules Can be Changed (Mumbrella) - In a speech to the Newspaper Works Future Forum, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said the government will not pursue changes to the much-debated media ownership rules until “more consensus is achieved” between executives from the major companies.

2013...

• Media Consolidation is Coming - & the Deals Have Probably Already Been Done (Tim Burrows - Mumbrella) - "It’s starting to seem likely that communications minister Malcolm Turnbull will do away with the key rules around media ownership, covering the percentage of the population any individual TV network can reach, and the rule that in any given city, media owners can hold no more than two out of three of newspapers, TV stations and radio stations.  The coming wave of media consolidation could push Ten into the arms of News Corp, Seven into bed with Fairfax Media and Nine".

• Media Laws Should Serve Everyone - Not Just the Moguls (Guardian) - "Malcolm Turnbull’s proposed changes will potentially benefit the dominant players in the industry most, specifically News Corp. He absolutely believes technological change and a combination of market forces and inspired philanthropy are in the business of sorting out Australia’s diversity problem. If that’s actually your core belief then the logical thing for a communications minister to do is precisely what he’s foreshadowing – rip up the outmoded media regulation, let the industry rationalise while guiding some traffic behind the scenes – like a form of intelligent design, but for the media. The problem is that Turnbull’s assessment of the current media landscape is both right, and quite wrong."

• Election IOU: How will Murdoch Call in Abbott's Debt to Him? (via Crikey) - The News Corp wishlist for media policy is likely to be substantial -
  

•   - A new look at anti-siphoning rules
•   - More handouts for free-to-air networks and in particular Lachlan   Murdoch’s Ten Network
•   - A return of government recruitment advertising to newspapers
•   - Curb the ABC I: undoing of the Gillard government’s decision to permanently award Australia’s international television service to the ABC
•   - Curb the ABC II: as both News Corp and its main rival, Fairfax, are moving behind paywalls, the ABC remains a key competitor
•   - 100% control of Foxtel - which can only be achieved by forcing out the other 50% shareholder - Telstra

• Australia's Lamentable Media Diversity Needs a Regulatory Fix (via The Conversation) - Three owners – News Limited, Fairfax Media and APN News and Media – hold approximately 98% of the sector, and two of these owners, News and Fairfax, together hold about 88% of the print media assets in the country. With the exception of Sydney and Melbourne, no other large Australian city has more than a single daily newspaper. 
  

• Our Fast Vanishing National Media Diversity (via Crikey) - In fact, our national media diversity comes down to the Murdochs, Kerry Stokes, James Packer, the Gordons, the private equity-controlled Nine and Fairfax. And the first four of those are already acting in concert in various permutations across free-to-air and subscription television.

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Further Resources...

• MediaScapes - well-known guides mapping the entire Australian commercial media landscape - including digital media, television, outdoor and mobile billboard media, media agencies & more.  MediaScapes appear on office walls throughout the industry!

• Q&A Profiles - tap directly into opinions and market views from over 300 of the most experienced and successful professionals in Australia's advertising and media market.

• Newsletter - stay up to date on media industry news and opinion by joining over 2,700 media trading 'influentials' who receive MediaScope's newsletter each Friday.

 

• What's On - we keep track of the most worthwhile media industry events, surveys, training courses and awards

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