Online complaints system for commercial FTA TV industry goes live
Consumers are now able to lodge complaints against commercial free-to-air TV networks online, with industry body Free TV making the new complaints mechanism live on its website this month.
In a major change to commercial TV’s code of practice, for the first time consumers can now make complaints more immediately online, where previously it was only possible to do so via post or fax.
Commercial radio broadcasters have also followed suit and will soon allow listeners to make complaints electronically.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority registered a revised code of practice for commercial TV in December, with the registration of the commercial radio codes completing the review of the co-regulatory system for commercial broadcasting.
On announcing the changes, Chris Chapman, ACMA chairman, said: “The move to online commercial radio complaints is a major enhancement and responds to community demands for a streamlined complaints process.
“It also means that electronic complaints lodgement is now a reality across the community, commercial and subscription broadcasting sectors.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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A more streamlined complaints process that still has no meaningful penalty system for genuinely misleading and expoitative advertising (eg AMI) and gives too much weight to small numbers of complaints by cranky religious and consumer activist groups. The fact that it took ACMA till now to persuade/enforce FTV to move this process online speaks volumes about how interested FTV really are in complaints.
Perhaps the gov did extract a concession from FTV after all for that $250m rebate?
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One question which still leaves me baffled, and perhaps this isnt the place for it, but what the hell.
If i remember correctly, the advertising limit is 13/14 mins per hour, does any promotional/sponsorship advertising within shows count to those minutes.
My first thought is something like sunrise or today who offer their viewers a special offer priced room in, for example “The Bates Motel”
TB Motel is a sponsor of the show and is mentioned and logo shown during the the offer, now this is clearly an adveert for the hotel… does it count to the advertising minutes for that hour?
If not… there is my first complaint to the new site.
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I feel very sorry for the people hired to review and pass on the complaints to the channels. Any time you make it easier to complain you 10x the volume of complaints and /10 the quality, detail and relevance of the average complaint.
Why, I’ve got a good mind to make a complaint about what Juanita Phillips was wearing on the newsdesk last night… this is the ABC, not the Playboy Channel, for heaven’s sake…
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Crystal
I think you should check out the Media Watch ep which went into some detail on this. http://bit.ly/abPQCO
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tom gleeson on 10 like a spastic at a disco. and the morons in the audience laughed
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We are retired and since retiring have been watching The Bold & the beautiful. Yesterday we decided to count the ads in the 30 minutes of the broadcast. There were 32. What would happen if there were that many during a football game?
Channel 10 wake up, this is just too much.
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I’m just so fed up with the following:
1. Those obnoxious and load screaming, mindless commercials from the likes of Harvey Norman, Domayne, Joyce May and so on.
Don’t they realise that the majority of viewers will simply hit the mute button or change channels.
2. Late night adds which is just smutty filth,.. near naked, moaning bimbo females begging us to buy their filthy ring tones, dirty phone talk and the like. ( don’t get me wrong,.. I’m an old guy who has heard everything) .,. this crap does not belong on TV regardless of the hour.
3. When a movie finishes, it’s sometimes good to read the credits at the end but this is becoming a rarity because those greedy networks seem to have a new trick of shrinking down the screen, cutting the volume and slipping in an add for something else which makes it impossible to either hear or watch the credits.
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