It’s time to change political advertising rules
Free TV CEO Bridget Fair argues that now’s the time to reconsider Australia’s political TV advertising rules.
Last year, commercial free-to-air television broadcasters were approached by an exciting new client to run a major campaign to reset its reputation. It was a great vote of confidence in the power of free-to-air television to reach a broad audience and deliver a clear message.
There was just one fly in the ointment, in the form of a licence condition exclusive to television and radio broadcasters. The condition requires all political advertising to be “tagged”, that is, to include a billboard at the end that lets viewers know who has authorised the ad.
In an ironic twist, the exciting new client was Facebook, which had recently been the subject of considerable political debate courtesy of Cambridge Analytica and the US election campaign. This meant that the ad would need a tag.
Until the phenomenal political bias of ABCTV is rectified, “a few simple changes to the law to allow broadcasters to compete on fair terms” is a moot point.
Ita will fix it.
Chris, the ABC has been cleared of bias in so many independent reports it’s not funny. Your opinion is not fact, stop presenting it as such.
So despite the umpteen enquiries into so-called ABC bias and the umpires exonerating them every time – oh, except that one time when the ABC was found to have a RIGHT WING bias – you’re still waving your fist at the sky and shrieking your own wilfully ill-informed bias. The massive log in your eye, and that of all right wing luvvies and their puppet masters, is that unless news is not merely uncritical of the completely dysfunctional, destructive and corrupt government but glowingly positive, you consider it biased.
“According to the Gans and Leigh study the only statistically significant slant was for the ABC Channel 2 News programme which preferences Coalition-favoured intellectuals in their reporting. This suggests the ABC news has a right-wing bias with a score of 0.511.”
https://www.theguardian.com/media/datablog/2014/feb/06/australian-broadcasting-corporation-australia
Thoughtful piece, well-argued. Media regulation has needed a root and branch review for a while now to create a fair and healthy ecosystem.
Bridget your bias is clearly on show as we know the major networks contribute financially to your organisation.
This is all about revenue the free to air operators stand to make if the rules are changed in their favour.
The rules are there for a reason and that is to stop parties with big fat wallets from bombarding us with material in the final days.
If there is a concern about fake news on social sites, the major parties can spruike all they want through the various news bulletins which are not bound by any blackout laws.
I think Free TV needs to focus on jobs and quality programming in the industry going out the door.
Aussies Not Gonna Cop It…. Anymmmmooooorrree!
My personal preference would be to simply ban all political advertising. Imagine the results:
1) The corrupting hand of political donations would no longer be a problem because political parties wouldn’t need as much money. No more big business or union donations in return for tax cuts/new IR legislation.
2) Denied the advertising on the air waives to communicate with us, politicians would actually have to start answering questions in interviews and or door knock.
They’d have to interact with people who have a real job!
3) No more horrible jingles.