Convergence Review

Submission to the Department of Broadband, Communications and Digital Services

Prepared by Lynn Gailey
October 31, 2011

In its third submission to the Convergence Review as it progresses, the Music Council agrees with the ten principles put forward by the government to guide the review, which include an objective of sustaining Australian content on broadcast platforms.

The Music Council sets forth a history of local content on radio and television, noting that for the last 70 years the broadcast of Australian content has followed only upon the introduction of regulatory requirements. In this day, those channels that are not regulated to require local content have almost none. Commercial radio for several years now has endeavoured to weaken radio content regulations and has temporarily escaped them for digital-only radio.

The traditional free to air broadcasters still dominate the market. While they may be displaced by other technologies in the future, until that happens it is important to use regulatory mechanisms to sustain Australian content levels and to search for ways to do so in the new media.

Read the submission