[LINK] Fwd: MR 43/2007 - ACMA publishes guidelines for narrowcasting television services

Tom Worthington Tom.Worthington at tomw.net.au
Mon May 14 09:16:34 AEST 2007


At 11:44 AM 11/05/2007, Antony Barry wrote:
>... The Australian Communications and Media Authority has published 
>guidelines for the types of services that may be provided as 
>narrowcasting television services under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. ...

The ACMA have done the best they can to make sense of the definition 
of narrowcasting from the Broadcasting Services Act, but this is 
Alice in Wonderland stuff: <http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD//pc=PC_310173>.

The narrowcasting guidelines only make sense, if you realize the 
overriding reason for the legislation was to protect the business of 
existing broadcasters. As a result the definition of narrowcasting is 
so narrow as to exclude any service which could be profitable.

Apart from some very limited community information services, there 
would seem to be little point for anyone to apply for a narrowcasting 
licence. If they found a valuable use for the service, it would not 
be permitted. They might as well provide the service via the Internet 
and bypass the regulations. The Internet is explicitly excluded from 
being regulated as broadcasting and, it appears, narrowcasting:

---
"In relation to (c) above, on 12 September 2000, the Minister 
determined that the following is not a broadcasting service:

a service that makes available television programs or radio programs 
using the Internet, other than a service that delivers television 
programs or radio programs using the broadcasting services bands."

From: "Narrowcasting services on television - Guidelines and 
information", ACMA, May 2007: 
<http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib310092/narrowcasting_televsion_guidelines.pdf>.
---



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd           ABN: 17 088 714 309
http://www.tomw.net.au                PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617  




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