The AWG Responds to Senator Conroy's Convergence Review Announcement

After months of speculation, Senator Conroy finally announced the first stage of the government’s response to the Convergence Review on Friday afternoon.

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Despite the headlines, the Australian content requirements on commercial television were vague and flexible, while licence fees remain cut in half for Channels Nine, Ten and 7 – that’s $142 million per year going straight to the bottom line of the networks.

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The requirement for 730 hours on the new multi channels includes news, sport, reality and repeats, with no requirement for new Australian stories. A tokenistic incentive of first run drama counting for two hours of any other content is not a financially meaningful inducement when an hour costs many times more than the highest rating, biggest budget, most heavily marketed American programmes in the world.

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The repeated rhetoric of assuming that cash in broadcasters' pockets will translate into new Australian ‘stories’ is demonstrably false. The Australian experience mirrors the international experience and is intelligently and compellingly explained in the Convergence Review recommendations.

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After years of expert and industry consultation Conroy has essentially ignored both the key recommendations of his own Convergence Review in this area, and the economics underlying them.

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The networks benefit from a uniquely protected oligopolistic position – they are given that protection for cultural, not commercial, reasons. The hours of local content linked to the government rebate can and will be filled by everything but the new Australian stories the Convergence Review, and Conroy himself, repeatedly claim they are trying to protect. He may have carved out a small reprieve from American re-runs on the digital multi channels – but it will be filled with either cheap local re-runs or the very type of programming that pays for itself.

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The AWG will continue to lobby on these issues, and will be working alongside our industry colleagues to push for meaningful Australian content requirements before this proposal reaches parliament.

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Read our submission to the Convergence Review last year here.