Media Concentration in Australia Franco Papandrea and Rodney Tiffen Introduction
Daily Newspapers Concentration Indices (1984-2008)
Download 401.9 Kb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Magazines
Daily Newspapers Concentration Indices (1984-2008)Magazines The magazine industry is dominated by three large Australian companies and some international publishers (such as Time and Readers Digest) but with a plethora of small circulation periodicals, some of which are fairly short-lived and on which the Audit Bureau of Circulation has limited data. On the other hand even small circulation journals, which have a distinctive advertising constituency, can be viable. However the most reliable data are on the largest magazines, and Table 2 gives the data for the top 50 circulating magazines in each of the years selected. Magazines
Notes:
1. The largest magazine publisher has always been the Packer company, called PBL (Publishing and Broadcasting Limited) and earlier ACP (Australian Consolidated Press). 2. Pacific Magazines has become a major player in the last decade and a bit. It is associated with the Seven Network (television). 3. Murdoch has moved in and out of magazines while shuffling his overall assets. 4. FPC and Horwitz, two relatively smaller publishers, both sold out between 2004 and 2008.
Magazines Concentration Indices (2000-2008)Book Publishing Book publishing is a much less concentrated industry than newspapers and magazines. Unfortunately the available data are both less comprehensive and are only available for recent years. Compiled by the industry monitor Nielsen BookScan the data do not include the very sizable sector of educational textbooks. However there has been a high turnover rate of smaller and medium size publishers and, as the table suggests, one means of survival is having a larger parent company. Book Publishing
3.5.Audiovisual Media Audiovisual media examined in this section include over-the-air broadcast media (Television and Radio), subscription TV (cable and satellite delivered program channels), film production/distribution and cinemas. The development of the first three (the electronic media) was largely guided by licensing and other ownership regulation. The domestic film production industry, while relatively small by world standards, is well developed and has gained some international success. Film distribution is dominated by the major Hollywood studios. The cinema industry was initially characterised by widespread localised ownership but eventually saw the emergence of major chains that now control over 60 per cent of box office takings. Broadcast TV (over-the-air) Broadcast television in Australia was established in 1956 as a dual public-private system in which the government strictly controlled entry and the size of the industry. In the public sector, the ABC already established as public service radio networks operator, had its mandate extended to the operation of a public service television network with national coverage. A second national public service television broadcaster (SBS) to provide multicultural programming began operating in the early 1980s and was gradually extended nationally1. The commercial sector developed under strict licensing provisions of entry. Initially, individual commercial television owners were prohibited from holding a controlling interest (defined as 15 per cent or more of the stock in the company holding the television station licence) in more than one television station in any one area and two stations nationally. As previously mentioned, in July 1987 the national ‘two station’ restriction was replaced by a prohibition of multiple station ownerships with an aggregate population reach of more than 60 per cent of the national population of Australia. (The aggregate reach limit was increased to 75 per cent of the national population in 1992 and has remained unchanged since.) The concurrent introduction of cross-media ownership restrictions prohibited a controlling interest in more than one of the then main media of daily newspaper, commercial television or commercial radio in the same local market. The number of commercial operators in the market was also strictly controlled. Initially, two commercial television licences were allocated in each of the mainland state capital cities. In other areas only a single commercial television licence was issued. A third commercial operator was progressively licensed in each of the mainland capital cities in the period 1965-1988. In the late 1980s, through the policy of ‘market aggregation’, existing commercial operators in designated contiguous regions were permitted to extend distribution of their signal in competition with each other in the aggregated area. Foreign nationals and entities were prohibited from holding a controlling interest in a television station. As a direct consequence of the foreign ownership restrictions, on becoming a US citizen in 1985 Rupert Murdoch (News Corporation) divested his previously held controlling interest in the TEN Network television stations in Australia’s largest cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Both cross-media and foreign ownership restrictions were abolished in 2006. These regulatory provisions had a profound impact on the level of ownership concentration in the industry. Initially, the ‘two station’ ownership rule ensured widespread ownership of television assets and consequently concentration within the industry was low and remained so until 1987. However, within the prescribed ownership limits, newspaper interests were also major players in commercial television and radio. The intention of the cross-media ownership prohibitions introduced in 1987 was to break-up existing cross media groups over time. Consequently no divestiture of pre-existing arrangements was required and the regulation sanctioned (grandfathered) them until the event of a change of ownership of the relevant assets. In the event, by the end of 1992, economic turmoil and other events in the industry led ownership changes of all the major commercial television networks and in the process to the dissolution of the main affected cross-media groupings. The post-1987 regulatory regime led directly to the formation of major commercial networks controlling individual stations in each of the mainland state capital cities — the extension of the aggregate population reach to 75 per cent was specifically implemented to allow this. Similarly, the population reach restrictions together with implementation of the market aggregation policy contributed significantly to the formation of regional commercial networks. The resultant substantial concentration of commercial television assets in the hands of a small number of major players significantly changed the Australian television landscape. Today, reflecting the constraints of the 75 per cent population reach regulation, ownership of the commercial component of the Australian television industry is almost entirely concentrated in three major metropolitan network operators and three smaller regional networks. The remaining independently controlled operators (two) are economically small entities in control of small individual licenses of remote and regional services. In terms of programming, the three regional networks are affiliated with their metropolitan counterparts and invariably retransmit the metropolitan programming with only minor local inputs. Table 4 provides details of market shares held by the major operators. Broadcast Television 1988-2007
Notes: a Until July 1987 ownership regulation prohibited ownership of more than two television stations and consequently ownership concentration in the industry was very low. The 'two station' rule was then replaced by a prohibition of multiple station ownerships with an aggregate population reach of more than 60 per cent of the national population of Australia. In 1992 the aggregate reach limit was increased to 75 per cent of the national population. Cross-media ownership of television, radio or newspapers was also prohibited between 1987 and 2006. b Owned by Publishing and Broadcasting Limited since 1990; sold to private equity investors CVC Asia Pacific in late 2006. c Canwest sold its stock in TEN in September 2009. d The ABC and SBS are separate independent entities. Source: Estimates by authors based on original data from: Australian Communication and Media Authority, Broadcasting Financial Results (various years); Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Annual Reports; Special Broadcasting Service, Annual Reports; Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, Annual Reports; and Communications Law Centre, Update, 'Media Ownership Update' (various years). Because of the cross-media ownership restrictions (in place from 1987 to 2006) and the ban on foreign ownership which applied until 2006, broadcast television ownership has been largely free of links with domestic or international media conglomerates. Packer’s Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (Australia’s largest magazine publisher) except for a brief period (1987-1990), controlled the Nine Network, before its sale to private equity investors CVC Asia Pacific in late 2006. News Limited sold its ownership of the Ten Network when cross-media ownership rules were introduced in 1987. A consortium of interest headed and largely funded by Izzi Asper’s Canwest acquired the network in 1992 and held it until 2009. Although Canwest had a 57.5 per cent economic interest in the network, it held only 15 per cent of the stock to comply with the then ruling restrictions on foreign ownership. Kerry Stokes acquired 20 per cent of the Seven Network in 1995 making him the largest stockholder in the company. His interest in the company has increased since. In more recent years, the network has expanded its interests in other media sectors including magazine publishing (Pacific Magazines) and daily newspapers (West Australian). In 1998 the Australian Government implemented a digital transmission conversion plan for over-the-air television. All available spectrum was allocated to established television operators and bans placed on the use of the digital spectrum to start new services in competition with established operators were to remain in force at least until completion of the transition to digital transmission. Slow progress in consumer adoption of digital television forced a rescheduling of the initial completion target and the process is now due for completion in 2013. Although each of the incumbent television operators (public service and commercial) now broadcast up to three channels each, the digital policy has entrenched the pre-existing industry structure and concentration levels. Download 401.9 Kb. Share with your friends:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||