The Australian Communications and Media Authority has put the spotlight on narrowcasting services, recently finding two stations in breach of their narrowcast licence conditions. Territory FM 98.7 is in breach of the Act for not providing an open narrowcasting service in accordance with licence requirements and Queensland country music narrowcaster KIX is in trouble for operating a commercial service rather than a narrowcast service.
There are about 245 high power and 1000 low power open narrowcast licences in Australia.
Territory FM
Territory FM is a high power open narrowcasting radio service targeting Alice Springs tourists and young visitors, particularly students.
In 2008 ACMA received a complaint that alleged Territory FM was “no longer providing an open narrowcasting service, as its programming was dominated by commercial broadcasting components, in particular music similar to that played on commercial radio services in the Alice Springs area.”
The station rebroadcasts about 25% of its programing from the community station Territory FM in Darwin, particularly a live breakfast show. The other 75% of programming contains mostly R&B and dance music, with some local announcements and tourist information.
ACMA found that the Territory FM licensee did not satisfy the criteria for an open narrowcasting service at section 18 of the Broadcasting Services Act, and so contravened a condition of its licence under the Radcomms Act, because it was broadcasting music that could be heard on mainstream commercial radio and also had live sport and news bulletins and the live breakfast show Charlie D Show with JP and Ali from Darwin.
In response to the ACMA’s findings, the licensee of Territory FM indicated that it would substantially alter the nature of the service. It wil discontinue the breakfast programs and adopt a predominantly country music format, with non-stop unhosted country music programming taking up 87% of airtime.
In light of the proposed changes ACMA will not take any further action, but will monitor the station’s changes.
Kix FM
ACMA found that Bundaberg Broadcasters’ open narrowcasting country music radio network KIX Country FM breached the Broadcasting Services Act by providing a commercial broadcasting service without having a licence to do so. Although the parent company is a commercial radio operation, the Kix service is only licenced for narrowcasting.
ACMA received a complaint that the licensee of KIX was operating a commercial broadcasting service because “the overall programming of KIX was of broad rather than narrow appeal.”
KIX is a country music-oriented radio network, with 25 narrowcasting stations (both high power and low power) broadcasting in regional Queensland and regional South Australia. The complaint referred specifically to the services in the Inglewood and Alpha areas of regional Queensland.
Kix devotes 85% of its airtime to playing country music (half of which is Aussie Country artists). There is a 3 minute news, sport and weather bulletin every hour (5% of air time), 6 mins of ads and community announcements every hour (7.5% of air time), plus station and artist information breaks.
An earlier ABA investigation some years ago decided the service was not commercial, but since that tie a regular news bulletin has been added to the program schedule. This was a major sticking point in the investigation, which seems to have tipped the scales in favour of a finding that the station is commercial.
The ACMA found that these services provided programs that, “when considered in the context of the services being provided, appeared to be intended to appeal to the general public and satisfied the other criteria for a commercial broadcasting service at section 14 of the BSA.”
In response to the ACMA’s findings, the licensee of KIX informed the ACMA that, as of 18 May 2009, general news bulletins were no longer broadcast on the KIX network. The licensee also provided the ACMA with a written agreement that it will not in future broadcast news (including sporting news) bulletins in breach of sections 133 and 136C of the BSA.
In light of the licensee’s actions, the ACMA will take no further action at this stage, but will continue to monitor compliance.