Regulation Impact Statement – Department of Communications and the Arts
On 15 June 2017 the Government introduced the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Broadcasting Reform) Bill 2017 to Parliament.
The Bill amends the operation of the anti-siphoning scheme in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 by extending the automatic delisting period from 12 weeks to 26 weeks before events take place. This enables subscription television broadcasters to acquire rights to events at any time within the 26 weeks in recognition that major sports rights contracts are typically settled between six months and two years from the commencement of an event. The Bill also repeals the now redundant multi-channelling rule that prevents free-to-air broadcasters from premiering events on their digital multi-channels. In addition, the Bill implements a reduction in the number of events on the anti-siphoning list to reflect contemporary audience viewing patterns and rights acquisitions to ensure rights to events with widespread public appeal will remain available for acquisition by free-to-air broadcasters before the subscription broadcasters.
A Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) was prepared and certified by the Department of Communications and the Arts and has been assessed as compliant with the Government’s requirements and consistent with best practice.
The RIS estimates that the preferred option will have an annual average regulatory saving of $8,000.