Broadcasting Services Amendment (Community Radio) Bill 2022

The CBAA welcomes efforts to remove red tape, streamline community licensing and provide greater certainty by amending the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the Act).

We appreciate the Government's efforts to consult with our sector in the drafting of the Bill. We are working on a fact sheet explaining the Bill's likely impact on permanent and temporary licence holders which will be available shortly.

The Text of the Bill and Explanatory Memorandum are available here.

The measures in the Bill amend Parts 3, 6 and 6A of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (BSA) to:

• Confirm that community broadcasting licence (CBL) renewal is not a competitive process and that when considering applications for renewals of existing CBLs, the ACMA will consider, among other things, the current service provided under the existing licence and not a “proposed service”.
• Clarify the ACMA’s powers to allocate new CBLs and temporary community broadcasting licences (TCBLs) with effect from a specified future date.
• Clarify the matters the ACMA may consider when allocating a new TCBL by adding criteria to give consistency to reflect that of long-term CBLs to improve management of TCBLs.
• Allow the ACMA the discretion to limit the number of TCBL licensees that can share a particular frequency.
• Include deadlines by which late applications for the renewal of a community licence can be made.
• Clarify the ACMA’s powers to commence a process to allocate a new CBL.

If you wish to discuss the Bill or raise any concernce please contact the CBAA’s Member Services team on 02 9310 2999 or email [email protected]