Keeping Free-To-Air Services Prominent

The proliferation of new types of media content and new types of devices has made it increasingly challenging for audiences to quickly locate traditional broadcasting services, including community broadcasting.

There have also been concerns that device manufacturers may start to require free-to-air services to pay them to be available on their device, or sideline them in favour of content services that pay for a more prominent position on the device home screen.

As a first step in ensuring that Australian free-to-air broadcasting services remain prominent and free, the government last week introduced the Communications Legislation Amendment (Prominence and Anti-siphoning) Bill 2023.  While the Bill addresses only television services, it is intended to form the model for similar radio legislation.

Earlier this year, the CBAA contributed to a government review of prominence proposals and we are pleased that the Bill broadly reflects the framework we supported for both television and radio.

The Bill includes “must carry” requirements which mean that television manufacturers must meet minimum standards to ensure Australian free-to-air TV broadcasting services including community TV are prominent on the home screen of televisions free of charge (both for the audience and the broadcaster) and without any alteration.

The government has sent the Bill to a Committee to review over the summer before being debated in Parliament early next year. The CBAA will be making a submission supporting the Bill, with some fine tuning.

This legislation has major implications for what will happen next for radio receivers in cars and audio devices, so we will be closely following its progress.