Television
New South Wales and Victoria were introduced to television in 1956, with the other states and territories following suit up to 1971 (the Northern Territory). Colour television was introduced in 1975. [2]
In addition to the public broadcasters which are available to almost all of Australia's population, there are three major commercial television networks: the Nine Network, the Seven Network and Network Ten. Most of Australia's heavily populated cities are serviced by all three networks. Some rural or regional areas may receive a more limited selection, often with some of the channels available showing programming from more than one of the major networks. An example of such a "shared" regional network is Imparja.
Digital free-to-air broadcasts commenced on 1 January 2001. Analogue broadcasts were originally intended to be phased out by 2008, however analogue phaseout was not achieved until 2013.
After heated debate in the early 2000s over a Bill that would have removed the foreign ownership restrictions of broadcasting TV licences, the Australian government chose to retain the foreign-ownership restrictions in its 1992 Broadcasting Act. The Howard Government was set to remove this law sometime in 2007, having gained parliamentary approval to change the legislation in 2006.
In 2007, with Helen Coonan as communications minister, there were two significant changes.
Foreign ownership limits were scrapped, government changed the cross-media ownership rules to allow ownership of two out of three media types. [3]
Pay TV
Approximately 25% of Australian households had access to pay television services by the end of 2005. The main provider is Foxtel in both metropolitan, regional and rural areas offering nearly all Australian channels via cable & satellite TV in capital cities, and mostly the same channels are offered by Foxtel via satellite TV (predominantly) in regional areas with the recent merger with Austar in 2012.
There are several smaller competitors offer a subset of channels – with Fetch TV entering the market in 2010 with a subscription service over a few ADSL2+ networks, and TransACT offering TV via its own VDSL, VDSL2 and FTTP/FTTH networks in Canberra and its Neighborhood Cable network in parts of Victoria. Other providers of Internet television in Australia offer free content or PPV, but don't offer a subscription product. UBI World TV offers a number of ethnic satellite TV and Radio channels nationwide, and other small companies offer some channels via satellite, especially foreign services or free-to-air channels, and some channels are available over the Internet.
Controls over media ownership in Australia are laid down in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 , administered by the ACMA. Even with laws in place Australia has a high concentration of media ownership compared to other western countries. Ownership of national and the newspapers of each capital city are dominated by two corporations, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, (which was founded in Adelaide but is now based from the United States) and Nine Entertainment – Murdoch-owned titles account for nearly two-thirds (64.2 per cent) of metropolitan circulation [9] and Nine-owned papers account for a further quarter (26.4 per cent). [9]
News Corp, Nine and Seven West Media co-own Australian Associated Press (AAP) which distributes the news and then sells it on to other outlets such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Although much of the everyday mainstream news is drawn from the AAP, all the privately owned media outlets still compete with each other for exclusive pop culture news.
Rural and regional media is dominated by Australian Community Media (formerly Rural Press), with significant holdings in all states and territories. Rural Press received a takeover offer from John Fairfax Holdings in late 2006, and completed the merger on 8 May 2007. [10]
There are rules governing foreign ownership of Australian media and these rules were loosened by Helen Coonan under the Howard Government via Act No. 129 of 2006 which allowed for changes to the cross-media and foreign ownership laws with the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2006 . These changes came into effect in 2007 and are still in Force. The changes relaxed restrictions against cross-media ownership & control by a single company.
According to Reporters Without Borders in 2006, Australia was in 35th position on a list of countries ranked by Press Freedom; well behind New Zealand (19th) and United Kingdom (27th) (but well ahead of the US, ranked 53rd). This ranking was primarily due to the restrictions imposed by the recent anti-terrorism laws. The problem, and the concentration of media ownership, was one of many mentioned on the television show Media Watch , broadcast on the government funded ABC. As of 2018 these rankings have changed with Australia moving up to 19th, New Zealand moving up to 8th and the United Kingdom falling to 40th. [11]
On 4 June 2019 the Australian Federal Police conducted a raid on the home of News Corp journalist, Annika Smethurst's home looking for information connected to a story she had written a years earlier about new laws that would give the security forces new powers for surveillance over Australian citizens. [12] Radio host, Ben Fordham also claimed that he was under investigation for some of his reporting. [13]
The next day the police raided the ABC over a story about alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. [14] The search warrant allowed the police to "add, copy, delete or alter" any files they found on the computers. [15]
The incidents caused an outcry of condemnation, even from the Reporters Without Borders, BBC and The New York Times. [16]
In Australia itself, newspaper outlets normally driven by partisanship and advertising exhibited a surprisingly united show of protest on 21 October as they published front pages with the appearance of documents having been blacked out by government censors. The protest demanded journalists gain access to sensitive government material. [17] Most of the larger media outlets formed a coalition, Right To Know, to represent the protest and demand six changes in legislation. The demands are, for the ability to contest any search warrant of a journalist or news entity while the search warrant is under request, reform of whistleblower protection, new limitations on which documents may be classified as secret, changes in freedom of information, exemption from national security laws enacted over the previous seven years, and reforms of defamation laws. [18]
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia's national broadcaster, founded in 1929. It is principally funded by the direct grants from the Australian government but is expressly independent of government and partisan politics. The ABC plays a leading role in journalistic independence and is fundamental in the history of broadcasting in Australia.
The original incarnation of News Corporation was an American multinational mass media corporation operated and owned by media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, headquartered in New York City. Prior to its split in 2013, it was the world's fourth-largest media group in terms of revenue, and News Corporation had become a media powerhouse since its inception, almost dominating the news, television, film and print industries.
As early as 1929, two Melbourne commercial radio stations, 3UZ and 3DB were conducting experimental mechanical television broadcasts - these were conducted in the early hours of the morning, after the stations had officially closed down. In 1934 Dr Val McDowall at amateur station 4CM Brisbane conducted experiments in electronic television.
Concentration of media ownership is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. Contemporary research demonstrates increasing levels of consolidation, with many media industries already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of firms.
Network 10 is an Australian commercial television network. One of five national free-to-air networks, 10's owned-and-operated stations can be found in the state capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to regional areas of the country. The network is owned by Ten Network Holdings, which in-turn is owned by ViacomCBS.
Television in Australia began experimentally as early as 1929 in Melbourne with radio stations 3DB and 3UZ, and 2UE in Sydney, using the Radiovision system by Gilbert Miles and Donald McDonald, and later from other locations, such as Brisbane in 1934.
Mediacorp Pte. Ltd. is a Singaporean public broadcasting conglomerate. It holds interests in radio, television and digital content creation. It runs 6 television channels and 11 radio stations, making it the largest media business in Singapore; it holds a monopoly on free-to-air television in Singapore. It is owned by Temasek Holdings, a state-owned investment arm.
Nine Regional is an Australian television network owned by Southern Cross Austereo that is broadcast in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia. The network is the primary affiliate of the Nine Network in most regional areas.
Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United States, as well as full- or partial-ownership of cable television and national digital subchannel networks.
Mainstream media is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large mass news media that influence many people, and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought. The term is used to contrast with alternative media which may contain content with more dissenting thought at variance with the prevailing views of mainstream sources.
News Corp Australia is one of Australia's largest media conglomerates, employing more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,000 journalists. The group's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, subscription television, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television production trading assets. News Pty Limited is the holding company of the group.
ABC Australia is an Asia-Pacific pay television channel, launched in 1993 and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The channel broadcasts a mix of programming, including lifestyle, drama, sports, English-language learning programs, children's programming and news and current affairs to viewers across East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate, which is independently owned and carries network programming by contract.
Digital terrestrial television in Australia commenced on 1 January 2001 in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth using DVB-T standards. The phase out of analogue PAL transmissions began in 30 June 2010 and was completed by 10 December 2013.
KTVX, virtual channel 4, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, as part of a duopoly with Ogden-licensed CW affiliate KUCW. The two stations share studios on West 1700 South in Salt Lake City and transmitter facilities atop Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of the city. On cable, KTVX is available on Comcast Xfinity channel 4.
Nine Entertainment Co. Holdings Limited is an Australian publicly-listed media company with holdings in radio and television broadcasting, newspaper publications and digital media. The entity is largely a successor to the former Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), which was established by the Packer family.
Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased The Sydney Morning Herald in 1841. The Fairfax family retained control of the business until late in the 20th century.
This timeline of Australian television lists important station launches, programs, major television events, and technological advancements that have significantly changed the forms of broadcasting available to viewers of television in Australia. The history of television in Australia can be traced back to an announcement from the Menzies' government concerning plans for television services in Sydney and Melbourne.
Media cross-ownership is the common ownership of multiple media sources by a single person or corporate entity. Media sources can include broadcast and cable television, film, radio, newspaper, magazine, book publishing, music, video games, and various online entities. In the United States, a recent increase in media merging and concentration of ownership has correlated with a decrease in trust in mass media.
Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed from the 2013 spin-off of the publishing assets of News Corporation, as founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1980.
