Chapter 1 - Introduction
Background
1.1 The Government originally introduced the Broadcasting Services Amendment
Bill into the Senate on 2 July 1998. The bill proposes amendments to the
Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (BSA) and contains three major elements:
- an `anti-hoarding' regime for free-to-air broadcasters (Schedule 1
of the Bill);
- regional area programming restrictions on pay-TV operators (Schedule
2); and
- a new retransmission regime for pay-TV operators (Schedule 3).
1.2 During the Committee's inquiry, it was clear that all of those who
gave evidence and made submissions regarded retransmission as the key
issue in this legislation.
The Committee's inquiry
1.3 On 8 July, following a report by the Selection of Bills Committee,
the Senate referred the Bill to the Environment, Recreation, Communications
and the Arts Legislation Committee [1], setting
a reporting date of 9 September 1998.
1.4 The Committee held one public hearing on the bill in Canberra on
Friday 21 August 1998, taking evidence from a range of witnesses, including
representatives of the commercial and subscription television industries,
national and community broadcasters, copyright holders and the Communications,
Information Technology and the Arts and Attorney-General's Departments.
A list of witnesses who gave evidence appears at Appendix A.
1.5 The Committee also received a large number of submissions and letters
from organisations and individuals. The bulk of these submissions were
in response to advertising by Foxtel of the Committee's inquiry and expressed
concern about possible restrictions on retransmission of the commercial
and national broadcasters' signals by pay television companies. A list
of submissions and letters appears at Appendix B.
1.6 The Prime Minister called the Federal election before the Committee
could report and the Bill and reference lapsed. The reference was subsequently
restored to the Senate Notice Paper on 12 November 1998 with a reporting
date of 8 December 1998. The Committee finalised this report based on
the evidence received in respect of the original reference and the provisions
of the Bill introduced in the previous Parliament .
1.7 The Committee thanks those who gave evidence and sent submissions
and letters.
Footnotes
[1] Renamed the Environment, Communications,
Information Technology and the Arts Committee at the commencement of the
39th Parliament.
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