Ownership was assigned for all newspapers where possible. There have been regular calls and inquiries into media ownership in Australia. It is also worth pointing out that the media of several of the countries that ranked more highly are largely state-owned, such as in China and Egypt. The associated maps also include the ACMA's views about a person being a 'controller' of media operations. Here, while News Corp has the highest market share it’s almost half of the market share of print newspapers at 26%: Putting all of this together, Tiffen suggests that as newspaper circulation continues to decline, the dominance of News Corp will have less impact nationally. Your support powers our independent journalism, Available for everyone, funded by readers. The petition is accepting signatures until 11.59 on 4 November 2020. The Saturday edition figures for mastheads were excluded. The research further differentiated “content media” – newspapers, magazines, books, radio, TV and film – and “platform media”, which consists of sectors like telecom and internet service providers. View recent updates. Australia's proposed media code could break the world wide web, says the man who invented it. The displayed data on car ownership shows results of the Statista Global Consumer Survey conducted in Australia in 2020. Here is a list of the main media owners in Australia:• The Murdochs. The snapshot provides an overview only of the main interests in major TV and radio networks and related newspapers. “The structural issues are immovable, and the cultural issues are not things that governments can do much about.”. So what has happened since then? For each country, the researchers calculated a number of different measures of market concentration across 13 media industries. Successive governments have made laws trying to prevent the foreign ownership of Australian media. The ACMA regulates ‘pay-TV’ in Australia under Part 7 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 relating to subscription television. 16 December 2020. In 2016, a landmark study on media ownership and concentration, Who Owns the World’s Media?, was published. One key measure is the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI), which sums the square of the market share of all companies in the market to give an index ranging from 0, the least concentrated, to 10,000, which indicates a monopoly – a market dominated by single owner. Ownership of Australia’s newspapers is one of the most concentrated in the world, but changes in how media companies measure their audience figures make it difficult to get an up-to-date picture. As of 2020, the largest media conglomerates in terms of revenue rank Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, AT&T, and ViacomCBS, per Forbes. First published on Fri 13 Nov 2020 19.00 GMT. Despite the announcement of a Senate inquiry, Tiffen is not sure how the situation could be improved. Updated Updated 01/03/2016 Sony also owns non-media assets, including a bank, financial holdings, and a creative suite. ... From Mystery Road to The Secrets She Keeps: the 10 best Australian TV shows of 2020. They are not meant to give a full picture of all media interests in Australia. Statement on subscription television and foreign ownership rules . This debate has been fuelled by the advent of new media technologies, a number of inquiries proposing regulatory changes, and the self-interest of those media organisations that report the controversy. While this isn’t the same as circulation we can use it as a reasonable proxy to approximate market share. However it is a good indication that the industry remains highly concentrated and is probably at the higher end in a global comparison. What does the industry look like in 2020? CBS beat a joint bid from Australian media moguls Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon, which prompted the Government to reform existing media ownership laws by way of the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Broadcasting Reform) Act 2017 (Cth) (Broadcast Reform Amendments), which repealed key cross-media ownership limitations (discussed in question 5.3 below). As a media consumer, it never occurred to me to have individuals be in control of what we are exposed to and what we consume. The online news market is much more diverse when looking at market share by audience, with an HHI score of 1,739. In nations described as authoritarian by most international think-tanks and NGOs, media ownership is generally something very close to the complete state control over information in direct or indirect ways. Find out more about the snapshot and maps. Although Australia's media ownership laws have remained unchanged for over a decade, debate on the desirability of reform has continued unabated. But despite the howls of outrage, there has bene little political appetite to do anything about it. The book covers thirteen media industries, including television, newspapers, book publishing, film, search engines, ISPs, wireless telecommunication, and others across a 10- to 25-year period in thirty countries. “I can’t see any official policies doing much to improve the situation,” he said. I’ve counted any site that has an Australian-specific homepage or edition, and a substantial editorial staff presence in Australia. This is a summary of the main interests in major commercial TV and radio networks and associated newspapers. Australia’s newspaper industry ranked third in 2011, behind state-owned media of China and Egypt, Fri 13 Nov 2020 21.14 GMT Digital has helped us stay connected – whether it’s through social media with friends, keeping across the news or conferencing for work. The public broadcaster – the ABC – continues to face battles to maintain its funding, with cuts and restrictions constantly pushed by News Corp’s bevy of culture war commentators. Hill will become an even more influential media boss in 2020 should a $40 million acquisition of Seven's Pacific Magazines be cleared by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. With further consolidation of media companies likely thanks to Federal Government deregulation, the real risk is that Australian stories – our “truth” – will be told largely by two companies. “The basic issue of concentration, the structural issue, has been fairly constant in news media for some decades,” he said. The newspaper industry no longer reports circulation, however, and now reports “average issue readership” for print, which uses survey data to estimate the average number of people who read each single “issue” of a given newspaper. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. For better or worse, the media spotlight shone brightly on many business leaders in 2020, but there was one CEO that outshone them all – by a mile. Prof Rodney Tiffen from the University of Sydney was one of the Australian researchers on the 2016 study and says he’s unaware of any similar global comparisons since. We will update the media interests snapshot and associated maps (the infographics) as required. This intention was thwarted in 1984 when Rupert Murdoch – proprietor of News Limited which controlled newspapers plus Channel Ten – gave up his Australian citizenship for US citizenship so Murdoch’s News Corporation could acquire broadcast media interests in the United States. Commercial media organisations are privately owned companies that compete to make profits through advertising and program sales. the media landscape was dominated by print newspapers and commercial radio and TV services However, as circulation is no longer available, and revenue figures aren’t available for smaller companies, I’ve used readership as a proxy for circulation. It’s also possible to measure market share by revenue, which is what industry market research company IBISWorld does. His son, Lachlan Murdoch, is a majority shareholder in Nova, Network Ten, 93.7FM and FiveAA.• Fairfax. A decision is expected in April and if successful will make Bauer an even more significant presence in … Last, Sony has a portfolio of investments, much like other media companies on this list. They looked at which companies controlled how much of any given market using various measures of concentration. The snapshot and maps are a guide only. Nov 11th 2020, 9:08 AM ... AUSTRALIA’S PARLIAMENT WILL launch an inquiry into media ownership, ... said the Senate had backed her push to probe the lack of news media diversity in Australia. “I do think the advent of Guardian, Crikey, the Conversation, Inside Story, these sorts of things have enriched what is available, but their reach and penetration into wider society is not anything like what used to exist,” Tiffen said. Australia has a modern and diverse media industry spanning traditional and digital formats, and catering mostly to its predominantly English-speaking population. media diversity, particularly the Murdoch-owned sections of the media, sold regional and community newspaper group Australian Community Media (AMC), industry market research company IBISWorld does. International media mogul Rupert Murdoch owns a number of Australia’s major capital city newspapers, including The Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Courier-Mail. Foreign interests in Australian media Learn more. Who owns who in Australia’s media With media ownership restrictions scrapped, the industry is likely to see more mergers and marriages between its major players. In 2018, the takeover of Fairfax Media by Nine increased concentration again, until Nine sold regional and community newspaper group Australian Community Media (AMC). “But it has been made worse by how – in Malcolm Turnbull’s words – how increasingly propagandistic News Corp has become.”. The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 tells us how we define these companies. The high newspaper industry ownership concentration was largely due to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp which, at the time, controlled 57% of the newspaper market by circulation. This does not show shareholding interests under 5%, or all companies in a corporate chain. News website HHI and market share was calculated using Nielsen’s unique audience figures for September 2020 which covers 59 websites. The 2013 federal election demonstrated the corrosive effects of concentrated media ownership on democracy. Australia had the 10th most concentrated content media industry by this measure, and was very close to the global average. Kerry Stokes owned media in Australia Janet Cameron owned media in Australia Currently News Corp controls around 70 per cent of newspapers in the country, ahead of rival newspaper group Fairfax Media Ltd. You should make your own enquiries and use your own judgement about the facts. The study was a collaboration between academics in 30 countries, and it collated and analysed data on the ownership and concentration of media in each nation. 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Media Ownership in Australia (And Why it Matters) April 9, 2019 March 20, 2020 ~ James It will come as no surprise to you (particularly if you have attended the media ownership lecture) that the vast majority of Australian media is owned by a few large corporations that in turn own lots of smaller media organisations within the country. ... tracking the behaviours cemented by the extreme events of 2020. More than 500,000 Australians have signed a petition calling for an inquiry into the dominance of Rupert Murdoch's media empire. It’s a shrinking total market, but within that market the biggest fish are still getting bigger,” he said. Individuals and corporations with vested commercial interests in the outcome of the election, such as Rupert Murdoch, the founder and CEO of News Corp, used the media to sway” voters with headlines such as: “Australia needs Tony” and “Kick this Mob [Labor] Out”. The results show that in 2011 Australia had the most concentrated newspaper industry out of any country studied with the exception of China and Egypt: Australia’s content media industry as a whole was also highly concentrated, and had been getting steadily more concentrated over time. We have tried to make sure the information shown in the graphics is correct. Non-Media Assets. • The headline of this article was amended on 13 November 2020 to clarify that it is Australia’s newspaper ownership that is among the most concentrated in the world, rather than its news media as a whole as an earlier version had stated. The information comes from a variety of public sources. They are not meant to give a full picture of all media interests in Australia. [1] Despite these restrictions, today Australia has a relatively high degree of media concentration. “When you look at print, you’re getting increasing concentration with smaller reach. Since the Who Owns the World’s Media research was carried out, APN News & Media was bought by News Corp in December 2016, further concentrating ownership. 1609116240 By Cameron England December 28, 2020 Flamboyant West Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond bought media assets—including the Channel Nine television stations in Sydney and Melbourne—from Kerry Packer, then one of Australia's media moguls, for more than $1 billion. It’s worth taking a new look at how concentrated the ownership of Australian media is, and how it compares to other countries around the world. However, while the online news sector is more diverse, it has yet to replace the local reporting done by regional and community newspapers. But because it is complex and often changes, we cannot confirm it will always be accurate or up to date. News Corp has 53.3% of the newspaper market by revenue, and if you compare the distribution of the top four companies across newspapers, radio and TV, News Corp’s market share is a clear outlier: In both radio and television, the largest player has only 26% and 27% of the market respectively. This is an updated version of an article and analysis written in 2018. Investments. To get a current picture of media ownership concentration it is possible to work out the HHI index based on the most recent data available, and also to look at the percentage of the market covered by the top four companies. Media ownership in Australia is a controversial issue and is a tough issue to address. The authors described this combination of high concentration with an upward trend as “problematic”, highlighting Australia alongside Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, France and Russia. Click on a company to bring up a map of where it operates and the details of its media operations. 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