Legislative Instruments Act 2003

Section 26 – Explanatory Statement

Variation to Licence Area Plan for Albury Radio – No. 1 of 2010 made under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992

In accordance with the Australian Communications and Media Authority Act 2005, since 1 July 2005 the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has exercised powers and functions under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (BSA) previously exercised by the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA).

On 15 March 2010, the ACMA made a variation to the licence area plan (LAP) for Albury radio. The variation was made under section 26(2) of the BSA and is referred to in this explanatory statement as “the instrument”.

The LAP and variations

The ACMA prepares LAPs under subsection 26(1) of the BSA. LAPs determine the number and characteristics, including technical specifications, of broadcasting services that are to be available in particular areas of Australia with the use of the broadcasting services bands.

The ACMA may, by legislative instrument, vary LAPs under subsection 26(2) of the BSA.

The ABA made the Licence Area Plan for Albury Radio on 15 September 1997 and varied it on 28 April 2005. It is referred to in this explanatory statement as “the Albury LAP”.

Intended impact and effect

In relation to broadcasting services, the instrument varies the characteristics, including technical specifications, of broadcasting services in the Albury area by:

• making FM frequency 100.9 MHz available for a new national radio broadcasting service at upper Murray. The service to be provided is the Parliamentary News Network (PNN) radio service; and
• changing the carrier frequency from 100.7 MHz to 98.5 MHz of the community radio broadcasting planned at Wodonga.

The instrument also deletes information, included for reference only, that does not form part of the LAP and which may create confusion, and makes some minor amendments to correct drafting errors. The instrument also updates each of the licence area definitions so that they are defined in terms of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’s (ABS) 2006 census data.

The intended effect of this variation is to clarify the number and characteristics, including technical specifications, of radio broadcasting services in the Albury area. The ACMA does not intend the variation to alter any existing rights and obligations, except as set out above.

Regulatory impact analysis

The ACMA has considered whether a regulatory impact statement is required and formed the view that the recommendations in the instrument gives rise to a low impact regulatory obligation. Therefore, the regulatory impact analysis process has not been applied.

Consultation and submissions

Before making a decision to vary the Albury LAP, the ACMA undertook the following consultation:

On the 11 November 2009, the ACMA published the following papers on its web site:

• a draft of the instrument;
• a draft variation to the frequency allotment plan (FAP);
• an explanatory paper about the changes proposed in the draft instrument, inviting public comment by 11 December 2009; and
• a media release announcing the proposed variation to the Albury licence area plan.

On 11 November 2009, the ACMA wrote to the licensees providing radio broadcasting services to Albury, to advise them of the release of the draft instrument and to invite their comments.

The ACMA placed advertisements in the Albury Border Mail on Saturday 14 November 2009 and the Deniliquin Pastoral Times on Friday 13 November 2009, outlining the effect of the draft variations to the Albury and Deniliquin licence area plans. The advertisements contained details of how to obtain copies of the draft instrument, how to access it on the ACMA web site, and inviting public comment.

The ACMA received five submissions on the draft instrument and the accompanying explanatory paper.

Four of the received submissions supported the proposed variations to the Albury LAP.

The fifth submission received by the ACMA was from the Albury Wodonga Christian Broadcasters (AWCB). AWCB was generally supportive of the proposed variation; however, it did raise a number of other points including:

• a request to relocate the transmitter from within the Wodonga RA1 licence area to a location outside of the Wodonga RA1 licence area;
• AWCB have requested an expansion of Wodonga RA1 licence area to include Wodonga, Albury, Indigo, Greater Hume, Towrang, Corowa and Wangaratta; and
• AWCB also requested that, in the event that the ACMA was unable to identify a suitable frequency to allow it to serve the proposed extended areas, it would like to be able to provide a temporary community radio broadcasting service with a maximum ERP of 2 kW, which is equivalent to the existing long-term community radio broadcasting services 2REM and 2APH already operating in the Albury RA2 licence area.
  • Allowing AWCB to locate its transmitter outside of the Wodonga RA1 licence area is not consistent with the ACMA’s general approach to analog planning or with the Broadcasting Services (Technical Planning) Guidelines 2007.
  • An extension of the licence area to include AWCB’s proposed target audience would extend well beyond the boundary of the Albury RA1, Albury RA2 and Wodonga RA1 licence areas.
  • The ACMA’s engineers have been unable to identify a suitable frequency to facilitate AWCB’s request due to spectrum congestion.

Description of the provisions of the instrument

Clause (1)

Clause (1) identifies the power under which the ACMA makes the instrument, section 26(2) of the BSA.

Clause (2)

Clause (2) names the instrument the Variation to the Licence Area Plan for Albury Radio – No. 1 of 2010.

Clause (3)

Clause (3) provides that the instrument commences the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

Clause (4)(a)

Clause (4)(a) of the instrument deletes the heading “September 1997” from the front page of the Albury LAP. The information was included for ease of reference only, but may be confusing.

Clause (4)(b)(i)

Clause 4(b)i of the instrument varies the words in clause (2) of the Albury LAP to increase the number of national radio broadcasting services available in the Albury RA1 licence area by one, to allow the PNN service to be extended to the upper Murray area.

Clause (4)(b)(ii)

Clause (4)(b)(ii) of the instrument varies the words in clause (2) to include Attachment 1.30. Attachment 1.30 contains the technical specifications for a new PNN service that will service the Albury and upper Murray area.

Clause (4)(c)

Clause (4)(c) of the instrument replaces the schedules to the Albury LAP. These schedules set out the details of the national, commercial and community radio broadcasting services, and the open narrowcasting radio services that are to be available on particular frequencies in the Albury LAP. In particular, the schedules provide the technical specification numbers for each transmitter to be used by the services in each licence area in the Albury LAP, and specify the attachments which contain the technical specifications for each of those transmitters.

Schedule One has been amended to reflect the new PNN service in the Albury and upper Murray areas.

In the Channel/Frequency column of Schedule Three, the entry for service licence number SL1150022 at Walwa/Jingellic has been changed from 87.7 MHz to 88.7 MHz to correct a previous drafting error.

Additional changes include removing the words “September 1997” from the heading of Schedule Two and Schedule Four. The information was included for ease of reference only, but may be confusing.

Clause (4)(d)

Clause (4)(d) of the instrument removes Attachment 1.15 and Attachment 1.19 of the Albury LAP. These attachments contained a special condition that required the licensees of the relevant services to cease transmission of their services no later than 12 months after the date of publication of the gazette notice of the 2005 variation to the Albury LAP. The gazette notice was published on 11 May 2005.

Attachment 1.15 contained the technical specifications for a transmitter for a commercial radio broadcasting service with the service licence number SL10289 that served the general area of Falls Creek which has ceased transmission. The new technical specifications for this service can be found at Attachment 1.28.

Attachment 1.19 contained the technical specifications for a transmitter for a commercial radio broadcasting service with the service licence number SL1150011 that served the general area of Falls Creek which has ceased transmission. The new technical specifications for this service can be found at Attachment 1.29.

As more than the 12 months has passed attachments 1.15 and 1.19 are now redundant and should be removed from the Albury LAP.

Clause (4)(e)

Clause 4(e) of the instrument removes the remaining attachments to the Albury LAP and substitutes in the corresponding places the attachments to the instrument having those same numbers. These new attachments contain the technical specifications for each transmitter to be used by the radio services in the Albury LAP. The site tolerance has been updated in each of these Attachments to refer to the Broadcasting Services (Technical Planning) Guidelines 2007. This information has been updated for ease of reference only.

Additional changes include removing the words “- September 1997” from the attachments in which they appear, and removing the words “- April 2005” from the headings of the attachments in which they appear.

The nominal location of the transmitter specified in many of the attachments have been updated to provide a more accurate description of the transmitter site. This information is updated for ease of reference only and does not signify a change in broadcast site.

The Australian Map Grid reference at Attachment 1.7, Attachment 2.2 and Attachment 2.3 has been updated to reflect the actual locations of the transmitters for these services. The change in co-ordinates does not change the planned performance of each of the services.

The antenna height at Attachment 1.4, Attachment 1.5, Attachment 1.9, Attachment 1.10 and Attachment 1.11 has been updated to reflect the actual operating conditions for these services on the advice of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The change in antenna height does not change the planned performance of each of the services.

The Australian Map Grid reference and antenna height at Attachment 1.8 has been updated on the advice of Broadcast Australia. The change in co-ordinates and antenna height does not change the planned performance of the services.

Clause (4)(f)

Clause (4)(f) of the instrument inserts Attachment 1.30 into the Albury LAP. The new Attachment 1.30 contains the technical specifications for the transmitter to be made available for the PNN service.