Seven launches anti media reform ads aimed at regional rivals as SCA hires ex-News lobbyist
Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media has launched its own regional ad campaign aimed at undermining a push by regional television networks Prime, WIN and Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) to force media reform back on the political agenda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8wb5cglJhk&feature=youtu.be
The new ad, which is running in regional Queensland from this week, accuses the rival TV networks of “bullying”, criticises them for threatening regional newsroom closures and of using viewers as “pawns”, before urging viewers to contact their local MP and “tell them to leave TV laws alone.”
Media mogul Stokes has long been a key roadblock to forcing changes that many of the smaller regional media players want such as removing the two out three rule or abolishing the reach rule which might facilitate a round of mergers between the regional networks and their bigger metro sister stations.
Seven must be living in a glass house. Regional broadcasters have a tough role and service over a hundred markets while Seven charges increasing fees to their Affiliate and at the same time invests in Presto/Fixtel allowing streaming content into their affiliates market.
I think Seven are afraid of competition – why else are they protesting so loud !!!
I have followed the regional TV networks for well over 30 years. Their decline from operating profit margins of over 60% to the current levels of 24% for Prime TV (one of the lucky ones over the next 12 months), is a measure of their loss of monopoly buying status before aggregation, and the current situation of ever rising affiliate fees. These fee rises reflects the low value add of regional operators. A regional TV affiliate for fills 4 economics functions only, infrastructure owner, infrastructure maintenance operator, sales, and network promotion (either marketing spend or news services). These four functions do not support the operating earnings that some regional’s now still earn.
The issue boils down to whether regional’s as independent companies will spend more on news services than metro networks owners of regional services. We see no difference as the economic decisions are the same. There appears to be only modest linkage between the mandated 2.5 hours pw of local news across the 21 ACMA defined breakout areas, the wildly different operating earnings of the three regional operators- WIN TV, SCA, and Prime – and the “quality” of these 3 competitor news services.
The 75% restriction is an anachronism and should be eliminated. It serves no substantial apparent benefit in local news quality. Seven West Media’s wholly owned Queensland service examples that it is the economic return from news that determines the investment, not the owner.
So how to maintain regional news services when mandated local TV news, at 2.5 hours per week, is it? Regional radio has had a poor record during emergencies in localism, and in any case local radio is not the place, other than a microphone, for local news and analysis.
Possibly the best alternative, is for the ABC to be split into two entirely separate organisations with their own charters. Metro ABC -long term likely to finance by advertisements and or subscriptions. It will pay its own way, just like TVNZ’; s two New Zealand networks. T he second charter for this public organisation, a well funded and more focused ABC regional service with network content limitations similar to USA affiliate stations, e.g. a maximum of prime time from the national ABC per night, of say 2-4 hours. In fact given the plethora of metro news outlets and usage, “metro” ABC could simply be extinguished and the spectrum sold for mobile communications.
At least the interference by the Government in commercial activities directly (the news quotas) as is the case now, and the artificial and economically illogical existence of the regional TV players, can be solved. Plus the party that does this wins local seats at the next election, and saves some more coin by only having to fund ABC regional. Also one can then split religious right wingers into ABC regional and Greens left wingers into ABC metro. They won’t have to coexist and therefore saves some hysteria too.
The real issue that the regional networks won’t reveal is the cost of running all TV stations.
The Gillard government paid the regional networks to upgrade their transmissions to cover all 15 or so of the digital channels. They did so very reluctantly, and only in the last few weeks of the years even though they had been given funding at the start of the year.
They have failed to maintained transmission so that many rural household have very poor reception most of the year.
The “reform” they want is to remove this broadcasting requirement, so they can go back to only four channels, which raise the same amount of money but cost much less to transmit.