EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of the Australian Communications and Media Authority
Broadcasting Services (Deemed Digital Radio Licence Areas) Determination 2007
Broadcasting Services Act 1992
Purpose
The Broadcasting Services (Deemed Digital Radio Licence Areas) Determination 2007 (the Determination) provides for specified community radio broadcasting licence areas to be taken, for the purposes of digital radio, to be the same as a specified commercial radio broadcasting licence area. In deeming these areas to be taken to be the same, the community radio broadcasting licensee becomes eligible to provide digital radio broadcasting services.
Legislative Provisions
Subsection 8AD(3) of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the Act) provides that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) may determine, by legislative instrument, that a specified licence area of a community radio broadcasting licence is taken to be the same as a specified licence area of a commercial radio broadcasting licence.
The Minister may by legislative instrument, give ACMA a direction about the exercise of the power conferred by subsection 8AD(3) of the Act. No such direction has been made.
Background
On 10 May 2007, the Parliament passed the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Radio) Act 2007 (the Digital Radio Act) that, amongst other things, gives effect to the Government’s digital radio policy announced in October 2005 and facilitates the introduction of digital radio services by amending the Act and the Radiocommunications Act 1992. This will be done initially in the six state capital cities, by commercial radio broadcasters, national broadcasters and wide-coverage community radio broadcasters.
To give effect to the policy, that wide-coverage community radio broadcasters would be able to participate in the provision of digital radio services, section 8AA of the Act makes community radio broadcasting licensees eligible to participate if their licence area is the same as the licence area for the commercial radio broadcasting licensee(s).
There may be some cases where a community radio broadcaster covers a substantial part of the commercial radio broadcasting licence area to the point where that community radio broadcasting service is considered to be wide coverage and should therefore be eligible to provide digital radio services. It was considered that this issue would be likely to arise in regional licence areas and accordingly ACMA was conferred the power under subsection 8AD(3) of the Act to deem that a specified licence area of a community radio broadcasting licence is taken to be the same as a specified commercial radio broadcasting licence.
Operation
Following the passage of the Digital Radio Act, ACMA reviewed licence areas and eligible licensees for each state capital city. This review showed that the licence areas for the Radio Print Handicapped community radio broadcasting services known by the call signs of 2RPH and 3RPH which serve Sydney and Melbourne respectively had been varied to extend coverage of the services to regional centres in their respective states. Prior to these variations, each service had the same licence area as the commercial radio broadcasting services (i.e. the 2RPH licence area was Sydney RA1 and the 3RPH licence area was Melbourne RA1).
The Determination therefore deems that for the purposes of digital community radio broadcasting, the 2RPH and 3RPH services have the same licence area as the commercial radio licence areas Sydney RA1 and Melbourne RA1 respectively.
Consultation
ACMA on 7 September 2007 wrote to all commercial and community radio broadcasting licensees which operate with the Licence Areas of Sydney RA1 and Melbourne RA1 seeking comment on a draft determination to deem the NSW Community Radio RA1 licence area to be the same as the Sydney RA1 licence area and the Victorian Community Radio RA1 licence area to be the same as the Melbourne RA1 licence area. The draft determination was also posted on the ACMA internet site for 33 days, inviting comments on the instrument.
ACMA ceased accepting comments on the draft determination on 12 October 2007, having received two submissions on the proposed arrangements. Both submissions indicated that they had no concerns with the draft instrument. ACMA has considered these submissions when making this instrument.
Regulation Impact
ACMA obtained advice from its SES contact officer for the Government’s regulation impact analysis arrangements that the Determination has no or low impact. For those reasons under the self-assessment regime administered by the Office of Best Practice Regulation, ACMA has determined that there is no need to produce a Business Cost Calculator report or to prepare a Regulation Impact Statement. The ACMA RIS reference number is ACMA029.
Attachments
Details of the Determination are in Attachment 1.
ATTACHMENT 1
Notes on sections
Section 1 Name of Determination
This section provides for the name of the Determination.
Section 2 Commencement
This section provides for the Determination to commence on the day after it is registered.
Section 3 Definition
This section provides a definition for Act, being the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.
Section 4 Deemed licence areas
This section deems that for the purposes of digital community radio broadcasting, the community radio licence areas mentioned in an item in the Schedule are taken to be the same as the commercial radio licence area mentioned in the same item.
Schedule
Item 1 NSW Community RA1
This item mentions the NSW Community RA1 licence area and the Sydney RA1 commercial radio licence area which under section 4 the former is taken to be the same as the latter.
Item 2 Victorian Community RA1
This item mentions the Victorian Community RA1 licence area and the Melbourne RA1 commercial radio licence area which under section 4 the former is taken to be the same as the latter.