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
Over the last decade there has been a fundamental transition in the TV market in Australia. Free-to-air television broadcasting services now exist as one of many content options on connected TV interfaces, and are becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to find. There is a material risk that free-to-air television broadcasters will be crowded out by the larger, international services operating in the Australian market. This risks inhibiting the ability of the free-to-air broadcasting sector to continue to support the achievement of important policy objectives.
Proposal
The prominence framework proposes to support the availability of free-to-air TV services, delivered both as linear TV broadcasts and broadcast video on demand (BVOD) apps, on regulated TV devices (those that are primarily used to provide TV or TV-like content). The framework would be legislated through the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (BSA), with the following key features:
- An obligation on manufacturers of regulated TV devices to make free-to-air broadcasters’ linear TV and BVOD services available on those devices without fee, payment or other form of consideration, consistent with ‘minimum prominence requirements’ determined via regulations. Minimum prominence requirements would include the pre-installation or automatic installation of free-to-air TV service Apps and the availability of linear TV services and BVOD apps of free-to-air broadcasters from the ‘front page ’of the device’s user interface.
- Compliance with the obligation to be subject to free-to-air broadcasters offering services (for their linear TV and BVOD services) that meet reasonable technical standards, with free-to-air broadcasters responsible for maintaining and updating the software for their respective apps and for handling any consumer complaints regarding the operation and functionality of those apps.
- No restriction on the ability of the manufacturers of regulated TV devices to seek payment, fees or any other form of consideration for the promotion of apps or content on relevant devices from any party, provided that the minimum prominence requirements are upheld for free-to-air broadcasting services. Search functions or other features of regulated TV devices that operate in response to user input or requests would not be subject to the minimum prominence requirements.
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 change 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 an estimate of the anticipated regulatory burden. The IA only acknowledges that the establishment of the framework and its oversight by ACMA will impose compliance burden but does not provide cost estimates of the anticipated regulatory burden.