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Local content on regional TV
Local content on regional TV
Television viewers in regional Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria are seeing more local news and community information thanks to an additional licence condition imposed on certain regional commercial television licensees by the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) last year.
The imposition of the licence condition on licensees in regional Queensland, northern New South Wales, southern NSW and regional Victoria, has meant that audiences in these areas have access to minimum levels of local content on their television screens.
Each licensee has provided the ABA with information about the type and duration of local material being broadcast in each local area served. As a result, a mix of diverse and innovative programming, in addition to local news and information programs specific to local audiences, is being provided.
- Prime TV is broadcasting daily half-hour news bulletins and updates in northern NSW and regional Victoria. In southern NSW, Prime TV viewers will see local news updates throughout the day. Other specific local material on Prime TV includes local non-commercial community information (Monday to Friday), a weekly one-hour rural focus program, and a locally produced country music program.
- Southern Cross is broadcasting individual news updates four times each weekday and a weekly community information segment to each of the 17 local areas it serves in regional Queensland, northern NSW, southern NSW and regional Victoria. On Saturdays Southern Cross viewers in each licence area can see a half-hour current affairs program that focuses on regional issues.
- WIN Television is providing a half-hour news service in each local area it serves in regional Queensland, southern NSW and regional Victoria.
- In northern NSW, NBN is broadcasting a one-hour local news bulletin each day, local news updates throughout the day, and a local magazine-style show three days a week.
- Seven Queensland is broadcasting half-hour local news bulletins in every local area it serves in regional Queensland.
Under the terms of the licence condition imposed on broadcasters, the four television licence areas are divided into a number of local areas, reflecting the different communities of interest within those areas. Broadcasters in regional Victoria. and southern NSW must serve all four local areas in their licence area. In northern NSW, broadcasters must serve four of five local areas and, in regional Queensland, five of seven local areas.
The condition also imposed a requirement that minimum amounts (or quotas) of local content had to be broadcast in those areas. Licensees must broadcast a weekly and six-weekly quota of material of local significance (local content) within each local area they serve. Material must have a local emphasis to qualify as ‘material of local significance’. Licence area material is material that is relevant to the wider licence area, but not sufficiently focused or specific to be relevant to a local area.