Australia proposed scrapping media ownership restraints on Saturday which could raise huge interest among moguls looking for acquisitions, especially in its ailing, third-largest free-to-air television network, Ten Network Holdings. Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield told reporters that restraints on media asset ownership would go under the new proposals that have to be approved by parliament.
The decades-old 75 per cent reach rule and the two-out-of-three laws prohibiting a media proprietor from reaching more than 75 per cent of a free-to-air broadcast audience in any area or owning print, radio and free-air assets in the same city, would be scrapped. "The idea behind the abolition of the two out of three rule is to give Australian media organisations the opportunity to configure themselves in the way that best supports their viability," Fifield said in Melbourne.
"I am agnostic when it comes to which organisations look to partner with other organisations. "They are commercial matters for them. But what we are told, repeatedly, by Fairfax, by News Ltd, by Ten, is that the abolition of that rule will create real opportunity for media organisations to better configure themselves." The Sydney Morning Herald said the reforms, if passed, "will open the door for a major round of mergers and acquisitions".
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