New rules a lousy deal for country media consumers: Des Foster

Independent regional operators are not happy with the media law changes announced by Helen Coonan, but they are not surprised by them, according to Independent Regional Radio director Des Foster.

He has told radioinfo:

“The government’s announcement of its intentions regarding cross-media ownership in regional markets comes as no surprise. The only question is why they went to the trouble of inviting submissions on the subject.

“More than 20 years ago a coalition Minister for broadcasting confided to me, ‘We will have an inquiry and then we will do what we want to do.’ It seems nothing has changed.”

Foster believes the proposed regional change is all about giving a handful of companies the opportunity to increase profit at the expense of local service.

“It means fewer voices, not more. There is nothing in this for the public.”

Proposals for minimum content levels are meaningless until we see the detail, according to Foster, but he says they will not prevent reduced localism in many markets.

“Curiously, the government statement on minimum content levels appears to apply only to future acquisitions or format changes, ignoring the fact that many existing services have already stripped practically all local programming from their schedules.

“This is a lousy deal for country media consumers, and it will be interesting to see whether some courageous regional MP’s are prepared to stand up and frustrate the sell-out of what localism and diversity still remain.”