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Nine CEO shifts focus from media reform to licence cuts

Submission from Hugh Marks to Senate inquiry is being touted as something of a "backflip."

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Media reports today claim Nine CEO Hugh Marks has told a Senate inquiry that Nine is calling for a halt to media reform proposals until broadcast licence fees are cut.

“Nine seeks that all media reform be deferred until the issue of licence fees is addressed,” he wrote in a submission to a Senate inquiry.

“Changing any ownership rules before addressing onerous and unfair licence fees has the potential to distort the market and have unintended consequences.”
 
In March Nine offered  “conditional support” for the removal of the 75 per cent population reach rule and two-out-of-three cross-media ownership cap.
 
One executive described the move as bizarre, with suggestions it was a stalling tactic to buy time to help Nine fend off the prospect of potential takeover bids.

Meanwhile TEN supported the government’s proposed changes of removing the “reach rule”, and the “two out of three rule”, as well as licence cuts.

“Even with the May 2016 reduction, commercial free-to-air broadcasters continue to pay 3.375 per cent of gross revenue to the government as an additional ‘broadcast tax’ on top of normal corporate taxes and in addition to meeting onerous and increasingly expensive Australian content obligations. This remains by far the highest free-to-air television licence fee in the world,” TEN’s submission said.

The Senate Committee is due to report its findings on November 7.

Source: AFR, The Australian

One Response

  1. Nine is no longer in a rush to support media reform as Nine/SCA are already operating like one big happy nationwide network

    Wasn’t media reform meant to “save our voices” – and protect local news

    Nine is now focused on license fee cuts as that helps them not the viewer

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