Prime, SCA and WIN launch regional advertising campaign aimed at pushing media reform
Hartigan
Australia’s major regional media players Prime Media, Southern Cross Austereo and WIN have begun running an advertising campaign across TV and radio aimed at pushing the Federal Government to act on media reform.
The campaign was first flagged by Prime chairman John Hartigan last month, after he accused Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s office of being “bloody-minded” in its refusal to move on issues such as the reach rule and restrictions on owning multiple media type, known as the two out of three rule.
“Tonight there is a series of advertisements being launched,” said Hartigan, on stage at The Kennedy Awards, “This is about saving the jobs of journalists and it is something that has gotten little interest in most ranks, especially in government.
This is a WIN-initiated campaign to get the government to scrap the reach rule so WIN can take over NBN-TV. Note that NBN is not a signatory to this campaign. But it is a double-edged sword. If the reach rule goes the big city Seven, Nine and Ten networks could take over WIN, Prime7 and SC Ten meaning there would no longer be independent regional TV at all. That would *really* silence regional Australia’s voices.
Hey The Magaus,
NBN is already owned by Nine. And if it wasn’t, the current reach rule would not prevent WIN to purchase it if it wanted to.
Independent Regional TV died when aggregation started anyway, game over.
We choose to watch local news and news stories that are relevant to our area .We in regional areas miss out on many things because we choose to live away from cities but that doesn’t in any way give the Government the right to shut down or slash regional funding as has happened to the ABC .We want regional news and local voices .We are hard working tax payers we are voters .Keep your slashers away from regional .