Announcement date
29 November 2023
Link to announcement
https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/rowland/media-release/modernising-australias-media-laws-all-australians
Problem being addressed
In the 2022 election, the Government committed to review (www.infrastructure.gov.au/department/media/publications/anti-siphoning) the anti-siphoning scheme and the anti-siphoning list. The review found that changes in technology and media markets have created a latent but material risk that nationally important and culturally significant events will migrate behind online paywalls, and no longer be available for free to Australian audiences. The review also found that there is a case to reconsider the composition of the anti-siphoning list with respect to women’s sports events and Para-sports. This analysis has been undertaken to assess proposed reforms that aim to address the findings of the review.
Proposal
The proposal seeks to establish:
- a ‘broadcast safety net’ model for the anti-siphoning scheme - This would expand the current scheme to prevent the acquisition of a listed event to Australians by any ‘content service provider’ until a free-to-air broadcaster has acquired a right to televise the event on a broadcasting service, or the event is automatically delisted (12 months prior to the event commencing) and,
- a ‘modernised’ list option - This responds to the finding of the review that the current list is outdated and proposes to make inclusions to the list to better reflect the modern media landscape and moderately broaden the composition of nationally important and culturally significant events.
Assessed Impact Analysis outcome
Adequate
Assessment comments
While the IA is well-structured, to be considered good practice as per the Australian Government Guide to Policy Impact Analysis, the IA would have benefited from quantitative assessment of the anticipated changes to regulatory burden. OIA notes the proposed review and strongly encourages additional data collection on impacts in advance of this review.
Regulatory burden
The Department has not provided quantitative estimate of the anticipated regulatory burden (or broader impacts).