Changes to the B66 form

The Australian Communications Media Authority (ACMA) has made some amendments to the B66 form that licensed community broadcasters need to complete every five years in order to renew their licences.

Get the most up-to-date B66 form from the ACMA website. And get resources to help you with your next licence renewal.

The changes to the form are as follows:

Question 10 (programming)

Stations have been given some more clarity about what information to provide in regards to denoting local content/non-locally produced content.

Question 11 (programming + community of interest)

This question now requests stations to document how much of their programming counts as 'material of local significance'. This is the biggest change to the form, following the passing of the recent Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Foreign Media Ownership and Community Radio) Bill 2017 (get more information on the changes and what this means for your station). This bill provides a new assessment criterion for applications and renewals relating to material of local significance.

The question requests stations to document which programs from the past week were: hosted and produced in the licence area, hosted but not produced in the licence area, produced but not hosted in the licence area, Australian produced material that relates to the licence area, overseas produced material that relates to the licence area.

Material could relate to the licence area if, for example, it relates to a person, community organisation or event in the licence area, or if it relates to a social, economic, political or cultural issue as it affects the licence area (either in the sense of the geographic area or a community within the licence area).

The following sentence in bold has also been added to the final question in this section:

Provide the program titles from the weekly program schedule that meet specific needs and interests of the community that are not available on other broadcasting services in the licence area (eg for youth and/or seniors, for Indigenous and/or ethnic groups, coverage of local sports and/or community events). Please specify whether or not they are locally produced.

Question 12 (programming decisions)

Licensees are now asked to provide more information about how they share with the general community information about how to submit a program proposal. It also now asks whether Program Committee/sub-committee members (when paid staff or management committee members) have voting rights within the Program Committee/sub-committee.

Question 12 (members + volunteers)

No longer asks for information on subscribers.

Now asks for volunteer numbers in two categories: those that are also paid members and those that are not.

Get the most up-to-date B66 form from the ACMA website. And get resources to help you with your next licence renewal.

The CBAA can also help you answer the new questions, including around external content such as CRN, so please don't hesitate to call on 02 9310 2999.