Source: Simon Canning, The Australian
ABC television chief Kim Dalton has called on the federal Government to extend Australia's TV content standards to web-based video, a move that would greatly increase government regulation of the internet.
But Mr Dalton will argue in a speech at the CCI International Conference in Brisbane today that with more TV being delivered through broadband internet services there is a risk of our culture being lost under a tide of cheap-to-access overseas programming.
He warns that unless urgent moves are taken, Australian content could be wiped from the new broadcasting landscape in as little as five or 10 years.
"Consumers are demanding more extensive online, video-based entertainment," he says in the speech. "The business model here favours cheap, foreign video content and ... online content is putting pressure on established business models.
"It is likely that existing regulatory arrangements to deliver local drama, documentaries, comedy, children's, news, current affairs and other programming may have diminishing effects on the market as the existing business models of broadcasters are challenged and the content offered becomes, increasingly, foreign.
"It is time to reassess and reshape the Australian content policy framework.
"By making new connections between the previously distinct fields of communications, media and cultural policy, the Government can address the issue ofensuring Australian content ismade available in the digital environment."
Mr Dalton says our existing content policies, which for example require 55 per cent of all programs broadcast on free-to-air TV between 6pm and midnight to be Australian, were first drafted in the early 1960s and are out of touch with the multimedia environment of the 21st century.
"In my view the availability of Australian content in these many forms in the broadband environment is a key policy challenge for the Rudd Government," he says. "We are living with a policy framework designed for the analog world that is no longer fit for purpose. As consumers we are embracing convergence across terrestrial broadcasting, satellite, cable, broadband and mobile. We are the 'what, when and how we want it' generation.
"Yet, as we engage with these unlimited options and choices, our analog policy framework is letting us down and in fact is arguably putting at risk a fundamental social and cultural choice: availability of Aus- tralian content."
Although Mr Dalton admits regulating the online industry is problematic, the Government has shown it is capable of such regulation in the areas of online gambling and pornography. Ahead of delivering the speech Mr Dalton told The Australian the failure to protect the Australian culture in the online environment could have wide implications in as little as five years.
"There needs to be a policy response if we are not to wake up in five or 10 years and a whole generation is no longer able to partake in Australian culture," he said. "What we know is that market forces will not deliver that content."
Mr Dalton denied a call for government regulation to preserve Australian culture on broadband platforms was an attempt to hold back the tide, saying policy-makers in Europe and North America were working to make sure their cultures were not being undermined by the globalisation of content.
He highlighted Canada's solution, with its Government proposing a range of options such as directly regulating broadband content, with new media or multi-platform distribution requirements as part of licence obligations, including new media explicitly in trade agreements and even developing terms of trade between portals, ISPs and content developers.
It even goes so far as to suggest making the promotion of Canadian new media content a regulatory obligation for Canadian broadcasters.
And in Britain, the regulator Ofcom recently said the emerging new media structure would not be able to deliver the existing levels and diversity of British content.
"I think we are running a real risk over time with an important part of our culture," Mr Dalton said.
At the same time, he said the ABC could become a test bed for innovation in content creation, delivery and development by providing a space where Australian culture would continue to thrive.
"What jumps out immediately are the possibilities in collaboration, mentoring, training, accessing the latest technologies, making connections throughout Australia and linking with local communities," he said. "(And) by providing multiple national digital platforms for Australia's digital content creators, innovators, artists and arts organisations ... the ABC can facilitate innovation and encourage entrepreneurial initiatives."
Sounds like Mr Dalton is tilting at windmills!
Posted by: Sean Carmody | June 26, 2008 at 04:12 PM