SUBMISSION TO THE INQUIRY INTO BROADCASTING, ONLINE CONTENT AND LIVE PRODUCTION TO RURAL AND REGIONAL AUSTRALIA The Hon Bronwyn Bishop MP Chair Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts PO Box 6021 Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 By email:
[email protected] Introduction Thank you for the opportunity to make a submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts inquiry into broadcasting, online content and live production to rural and regional Australia. This letter is on behalf of the three major regional television providers, Prime Media Group (Prime Media), the WIN Network (WIN) and Southern Cross Austereo (SCA). Prime Media and SCA are members of Free TV Australia, the television peak body which has also made a submission to this inquiry on behalf of the industry. Prime Media broadcasts in northern New South Wales, southern New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, regional Victoria, Mildura, the Gold Coast area of south eastern Queensland and all of regional Western Australia. WIN broadcasts in southern New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, regional Queensland, regional Victoria, Tasmania, Griffith, regional WA, Mildura, Riverland and Mt Gambier in South Australia. SCA broadcasts in northern New South Wales, southern New South Wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory, Griffith, regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Spencer Gulf region of South Australia. Through affiliation agreements, Prime Media, WIN and SCA purchase almost all of their programming from metropolitan networks1 and using more than 500 transmission towers located across the country, retransmit that programming into regional television licence areas.