Australian Media

Overview:
The Australian media industry enjoys a history which is second to none. Whether you take TV, radio or print, Australia has produced some of the best media, and on the rare occasion, the most controversial, media coverage on the globe.
Television:
Television has traditionally been the most “entertaining” of the three main mediums, or should that now be four, given the advent of the Internet, which originated in the United States. Some may well argue that the Internet should not even be classified as a form of media, given its problems.
Australia’s first media broadcast was by way of a news broadcast presented by Bruce Gyngell on the 16th September 1956, when Bruce said “Hello everyone, and welcome to television”.
Interestingly, only 1% of Sydneysiders owned a TV set, while 5% of the Melbournites owned a “box”.Colour television was introduced in 1975.
The first commercial television licences were issued to the Herald and Weekly Times (Melbourne), General Television Corporation (Melbourne), Amalgamated Television Services (Sydney), and Television Corporation (Sydney).
November 1956 saw TCN9 launch “Bandstand”, hosted by Brian Henderson, who went on to become a living legend in Australian television.
In the same year, the Australian Government invites applications for new commercial TV licences in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.
In 1968 the Government elected that Australia would adopt the European standard, PAL, rather than the United States, NTSC system.1971 proves to be a huge year, with the launch of Sesame Street, Young Talent Time,  Hey Hey It’s Saturday and A Current Affair, hosted by Mike Willesee, on Nine.
The 19th of October 1975 saw test color transmissions by all networks, and November saw Countdown, with music legend, Molly Meldrum, begin its amazing 12 year run on the ABC.
1979 sees SBS screen a series of multi-lingual programs on the ABC, and 60 Minutes commences, and goes on to become the most successful current affairs program in Australian history.
The 1980s were huge, with many new hit shows, and live television was elevated with telecasted of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and 1986 Commonwealth Games from England.
1991 sees massive coverage of the Gulf War, Glenn Ridge replace Tony Barber on Sale of the Century, and The Simpson’s premier on Channel 10.
Pay TV commences in 1995 with Galaxy, Foxtel and Optus Vision. The 2000s sees Reality TV and games shows become all the rage with hits like Big Brother, Temptation Island, The Osborne’s and Who Wants to be a Millionaire break record numbers.
In addition to the public broadcasters which are available to almost all of Australia's population, there are three major commercial television networks: the Nine Network, the Seven Network and Network Ten. Most of Australia's heavily populated cities are serviced by all three networks. Some rural or regional areas may receive a more limited selection, often with some of the channels available showing programming from more than one of the major networks. An example of such a "shared" regional network is Imparja.
Digital free-to-air broadcasts commenced on 1 January 2001. Analogue broadcasts were originally intended to be phased out by 2008, however the target has been moved to 2013
After heated debate in the early 2000s over a Bill that would have removed the foreign ownership restrictions of broadcasting TV licenses, the Australian government chose to retain the foreign-ownership restrictions in its 1992 Broadcasting Act. As such, Australia continues to disallow foreign control of a broadcasting license and limit foreign ownership of broadcasting firms to 20%. The Howard Government were set to remove this law sometime in 2007, having gained parliamentary approval to change the legislation in 2006, however the Howard Government was removed from power in 2007.
Pay TV
Approximately 25% of Australian households had access to pay television services by the end of 2005. The main operators are Foxtel and Optus in metropolitan areas, and Austar in regional and rural areas. Smaller operators include Selectv and UBI World TV.
Radio:
Radio broadcasting in Australia officially commenced on evening of 13 November 1923, with a concert.
For many years, the wireless was the most important and used form of broadcasting for news and entertainment, and a weekend sitting around the wireless was all the rage.
Australia's first regular radio broadcasts began on November 13, 1923 with station 2SB (later to become 2BL) in Sydney. The ABC began broadcasting in 1932. Talkback radio was first broadcast with 3AW in Melbourne, 1967. ABC began experimenting with FM stations in the 1960s, but it wasn't until July 1980 did the first FM station commence full operations. Melbourne-based 3EON (now known as 3MMM) was the first to air.
Currently there are 264 operational commercial stations (funded by advertising) and more than 300 community (publicly funded) radio stations.
Newspapers:
The Sydney Gazette the first newspaper printed in Australia, one of the earliest pieces of printing in the colony.
The key players in Australia’s newspaper publishing industry were, and in many cases still are, Fairfax, Murdoch and Packer.
Today, Australia’s most popular newspapers include the Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph, and The Herald Sun is the biggest selling daily, whilst the Sunday Telegraph is the biggest selling newspaper.
Independent newspapers are making a small dint in the market; however the big three will continue to dominate for decades to come.
There are 2 national and 10 state/territory daily newspapers, 37 regional dailies and 470 other regional and suburban newspapers. All major newspapers are owned either by News Limited, a subsidiary of News Corporation, or Fairfax Media. The only national daily newspaper is The Australian, other notable newspapers are The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph, The Age, The Herald Sun (Melbourne) and the most prominent financial newspaper, The Australian Financial Review. There are a few popular independent news sources, including online news source Crikey.
Of 1600 magazines published in Australia, 30 have circulations of more than 80 000, including women's interest, general interest, television, home and garden, leisure and current affairs titles.
Regulation of the media in Australia is limited to a narrow range of specific areas. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is the broadcasting regulator for radio and television in Australia, and also the co-regulatory Online Content Scheme. Consumers who have complaints about programs on television and radio or certain types of content on the Internet can apply to the ACMA. The Commercial Television Code of Practice is a set of regulatory guidelines, registered with the ACMA, of which commercial television broadcasters should comply.
The Australian Press Council is the self regulatory body of the print media. The Council deals with complaints from the public about editorial material in newspapers and magazines published in Australia, and aims to maintain the freedom of the press.
Media ownership
Controls over media ownership in Australia are laid down in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, administered by the ACMA. Even with laws in place Australia has a high concentration of media ownership compared to other western countries. Ownership of national and the newspapers of each capital city are dominated by two corporations, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, (which was founded in Adelaide but is now based from the United States) and John Fairfax Holdings — Murdoch-owned titles account for nearly two-thirds (64.2 per cent) of metropolitan circulation and Fairfax-owned papers account for a further quarter (26.4 per cent).
News Corporation (News Corp) and Fairfax along with West Australian Newspapers and the Harris Group work together to create Australian Associated Press (AAP) which distributes the news and then sells it on to other outlets such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Although much of the everyday main stream news is drawn from the AAP, all the privately owned media outlets still compete with each other for exclusive pop culture news.
Rural and regional media is dominated by Rural Press Limited, with significant holdings in all states and territories. Rural Press received a takeover offer from John Fairfax Holdings in late 2006, and completed the merger on 8 May 2007.
There are rules governing foreign ownership of Australian media and these rules were being considered for loosening by the Howard Government.
According to Reporters Without Borders in 2006, Australia is in 35th position on a list of countries ranked by Press Freedom; well behind New Zealand (19th) and United Kingdom (27th) (but well ahead of the USA, ranked 53rd). This ranking is primarily due to the restrictions imposed by the recent anti-terrorism laws. The problem, and the concentration of media ownership, is one of many that is mentioned on the television show Media Watch, broadcast on the government funded ABC.
The Australian Press Council
The Australian Press Council, a voluntary body established in 1976 by the Australian Journalists' Association (AJA), three publishing associations (Country Press Australia, Australian Suburban Newspapers Association Ltd. and Regional Dailies of Australia Ltd.) and Australia's major publishers, is the principal body which promotes press ethics in Australia. It consists of a Chairman, ten representatives of the constituent publisher and publishers' organisations, one representative of the Media, Entertianment and Arts Alliance (MEAA, formerly the AJA), two independent journalists, one editor, and seven public members.
The objects of the Press Council include the maintenance of the character of the Australian press in accordance with the highest journalistic standards and the preservation of the press's established freedom. The Press Council has a specific mandate to consider, investigate and deal with complaints about the conduct of the press as well as the conduct of persons and organisations towards the press.
The objects of the Press Council include the maintenance of the character of the Australian press in accordance with the highest journalistic standards and the preservation of the press's established freedom. The Press Council has a specific mandate to consider, investigate and deal with complaints about the conduct of the press as well as the conduct of persons and organisations towards the press.
The Council is based on the proposition that the freedom of the press to publish is the freedom of the people to be informed, and that press freedom includes "the right of the newspaper to publish what it reasonably considers to be news, without fear or favour, and the right to comment fairly upon it". The Council believes that press freedom is necessary to the fulfilment of the press's function as "public watchdog" and to the public's right to receive information of public interest.
The Council is funded by its constituent bodies, with the associations (country, regional and suburban), magazines, MEAA and AAP paying certain percentages of the annual budget, and the balance being divided among publishers based on a proportional basis calculated on the circulation of all metropolitan dailies in Australia.
The Council provides an independent, efficient and free facility for hearing complaints against the press. In so doing, the Council gives first and dominant consideration to what it perceives to be the public's interest. The Council is guided by 9 basic principles contained in its Statement of Principles which, however, is not meant to be a precise or exhaustive formula. The 9 principles concern accuracy; provision for response to harmful inaccuracy; fairness, with respect for the privacy and sensibility of individuals; avoidance of news obtained by unfair or dishonest means; distinguishing fact from opinion and not distorting material; offensive coverage; avoiding gratuitous reference to race, nationality, religion etc; provision for response for those subject to criticism; and a guarantee to publish all adjudications relevant to a publication.
There are also some acts made for media in the press council of Australia which are also included in the country's constutions which are listed below:
1.Restrictions on advertising
The Smoking and Tobacco Products Advertisements (Prohibition) Act, 1989 (Cth) prohibits cigarette and tobacco advertising in the print media. The ban has been criticized as discriminatory in that it exempts advertising in newspapers printed or published outside of Australia which are brought into Australia for sale, free distribution or personal use.
2.Blasphemy, obscenity and protection of public morals
Australia has adopted the English test for determining whether a publication is obscene: "whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose hands a publication of this sort might fall".
3.Restrictions on offensive language against identifiable groups
Australia adopted the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975 which makes discrimination on the grounds of race, color, descent and national or ethnic origin unlawful. Clause 7 of the Australian Press Council's Principles states that "a newspaper should not place gratuitous emphasis on the race, nationality or colour of individuals or groups". The various codes of ethics that apply to journalists contain similar provision.
4.Registration requirements
There is no licensing system as such or any requirement of government approval to launch a newspaper or other press enterprise. [3] All states and territories other than South Australia and Victoria (the latter repealing the relevant legislation in 1998) require newspaper printing houses to include their name and address and the name and address of the publisher in the newspaper; some states also require registration."
5.Regulation of import and export of publications
There are no restrictions on import and export of publications apart from those relating to obscenity, violence, the promotion or incitement of terrorism, and the use of certain drugs.