Convergence review deadline looms with local content quota top of the agenda

Tim Burrowes

October 28, 2011 1:06

Industry bodies and individuals are racing to meet today’s deadline for submissions to the government’s media convergence review which will have far-ranging implications for the screen industry including the rules on local content.

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has been open to submissions since July.

Among those already received is one from Prof Stuart Cunningham of Queensland University of Technology who addresses questions around the local content quota for television. Referring to the argument that the best rating shows are local, meaning there is no need for a quota, he argues :

“The question should be, however, whether such overall levels and popularity of Australian programming would be maintained without the quotas.”

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.