Australia:

2020 Media law reforms in Australia

09 August 2020

McCullough Robertson

Just over one year after the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC) released its Digital
Platform Inquiry – final
report¹  (DPI),
Australia’s media regulatory landscape is finally set for a
shake up, with reforms to address largely unregulated online media
platforms anticipated for late 2020. 

Draft mandatory code of conduct due July 2020 – news
media and online platforms

After public consultation and despite pushback from Facebook and
Google, the ACCC is due to release a draft mandatory code of
conduct (Code) by the end of July 2020 to govern
commercial relationships between large digital platforms and news
media companies.  This is just weeks after Google announced it
would launch a licensing program to pay publishers for high-quality
content for a ‘new news experience’. 

The Australian Government directed the ACCC in April to draft
the mandatory Code after tech giants, Google and Facebook, failed
to negotiate voluntary codes of conduct with media outlets, as
requested under the Government’s
formal Response² to the DPI.

The mandatory code is anticipated to address concerns
around:

• data sharing;




• ranking and display of news content; and




• monetisation and the sharing of revenue generated from
  news.

The Code is also set to establish appropriate enforcement,
penalty and binding dispute resolution mechanisms. 

Whether large digital platforms will bow to the pressures of the
Australian Government once a Code is introduced is yet to be seen,
however Google’s proposed licensing program is a step towards
suggesting a compromise.

Public consultation has ended for proposed ‘platform
neutral’ reform options to the film, television and
broadcasting industry

Earlier this year and in response to the DPI, the Australian
Government, in conjunction with Screen Australia and the Australian
Communications and Media Authority (ACMA),
released its Options Paper on how to best
support Australian stories in a modern, multi-platform media
landscape.  With submissions now closed, Australia is one step
closer to ‘platform-neutral’ media regulation as the
government deliberates on how best to move forward. 

The Options Paper proposed effectively four potential reform
models:

• maintain the status quo – no changes;




• fine tune the existing regulatory framework and
  incentives;




• significantly overhaul the regulatory framework to create
  platform-neutral regulation for both traditional broadcasters and
  online platforms; or




• completely deregulate the media industry so that no media
  platform is subject to regulation.

The models discussed options for:

• minimum expenditure and distribution quotas for local content
  across each platform;




• reworking the Producer, Location and Post, Digital and Visual
  Effects (PDV) Offset percentages, as well as the
  future of the Location Incentive; and




• discoverability requirements for Australian content on
  subscription video on demand (SVOD) services.

The Options Paper received over 300 responses from various
stakeholders, with broad support ranging from complete deregulation
and scrapping of sub-quotas, to modified versions of deregulation
to support for equal regulation standards across all media
platforms.  Netflix also proposed a flexible, reasonably set
voluntary investment model that would meet ‘cultural policy
goals and incentivises wider investment’ instead of imposing a
quota system on SVOD services.

The ACCC and Australian Government are yet to comment on next
steps after submissions closed on 3 July 2020.

Despite wide-ranging debate over the best way forward for media
regulation reform in Australia, most stakeholders are urging the
Australian Government to stick to its planned time frame to
initiate reform in 2020.  We anticipate a government response
in the coming months, and consider a draft reform plan may look
like a combination of model 3 and model 4.  The media
regulatory landscape may look very different heading into 2021.

Footnotes

¹ Digital Platforms Inquiry –
final report (2019), Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission, published 26 July 2019. 

² Government Response and
Implementation Roadmap for the Digital Platforms Inquiry 
(2019), Australian Government, published 12 December
2019.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.

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