Australia – (F1) Geographic distribution of news media availability

In a country the size of Australia – 21.5 times the size of Germany and 186 times the size of Switzerland – and with a population density of close to 3 persons per square kilometre, it is no surprise that there are regional divides. Large parts of Australia are unpopulated or have so few people living in them that infrastructure, in particular broadband and mobile telephony coverage, has always been a problem for regional areas, and has been hotly fought over politically. Access to the media is no problem in the capital cities and large regional centres.

The media consist of commercial and public broadcaster radio and television stations, daily newspapers, as well as a large array of journals.

Table 2. Access to telecommunications in Australia

Source: ABS 2009b.

These figures show that analog free-to-air television, provided by the public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and, in the main, three commercial television networks, is available to 99 % of Australians, while the percentage of digital free-to-air users is increasing. In breaking down these figures, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA 2008, 7) shows that socio-economic reasons play the large part in determining access to the Internet, whereas country location has the largest impact on broadband access.

Access to radio is put at 99 %, and the availability map for 2007 shows that most of Australia is serviced by one to five stations, and up to twelve in the metropolitan centres (ACMA 2009). There are 274 commercial radio broadcasting licences in Australia, including 150 FM licences and 106 AM licences, with the largest concentrations of commercial radio licences in the major capital cities. Most regional centres are served by two licensees, typically with one AM and one FM service.

Table 3. Number of commercial radio licences by city

Source: ACMA licensing information (ACMA 2008, 4).

The public broadcaster, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), provides 60 local radio stations throughout Australia, and four national broadcast networks: the national talk network, Radio National; the national news network, News Radio; the national youth network, Triple J and the national classic music network, Classic FM. Via shortwave, satellite and online Radio Australia broadcasts in the Asia-Pacific region.

The second public broadcaster, Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), whose brief it is to broadcast to Australia’s various migrant ethnic groups (Ang 2008), broadcasts in 68 languages to all capital cities and key regional centres on a mix of FM and AM frequencies. SBS radio provides Australian and international news, homeland news, a mixture of current affairs, interviews, community information, sport and music (ACMA 2008)

In terms of television, the public broadcasters Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), and three major commercial networks, Seven, Nine and Ten, are the main providers of free-to-air television. The ABC’s analog service is available to more than 98 % of the Australian population. SBS’s multilingual and multicultural television services reach 95 % of the Australian population through its analog service and 80 % through its digital service.

Map 1. Radio availability in Australia by licence area, January 2007

There are 28 distinct commercial television licence areas across Australia. Broadcast planning provides for three commercial television licence operators in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. The Seven, Nine and Ten networks operate in each of these cities. There are three licensees operating in Canberra and Hobart, and two in Darwin. In regional areas, the majority of broadcasting is provided by the NBN, Prime, Seven Queensland, Southern Cross Broadcasting and WIN networks (ACMA 2008).

Permanent community television services were established in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney in 2004. In January 2007, there were 83 permanent community television licences, 79 of which were remote Indigenous media services (ACMA 2008).

Until 2001 only a limited number of analog free-to-air television channels were available. From 2001 the two public broadcasters and from 2004 the commercial channels have begun to add further digital channels.

In 2006 the reach of the major television companies was given as such:

Table 4. Reach of television broadcasters

Source: Jackson 2006.

The reach of the major commercial television broadcasters is calculated according to the number of metropolitan and regional television licences they hold. The Seven Media Group controls five metropolitan and one regional television licences; the Ten Network controls five metropolitan television licences and the Nine entertainment Co, which also is Australia’s largest magazine publisher, controls three metropolitan and one regional television licences. The regionally based Southern Cross Broadcasting has one metropolitan and seven regional television licences. Recent audience share figures show the following:

Source: The Numbers, 1.11. 2010.

Despite an overall decline of metro newspaper circulations (daily and Sunday) in Australia of 7.31 % since 2000, this compares favourably with falls in circulation in other english-speaking countries.

Table 5. Circulation figures October – December 2009

Source: Isaacs 2010b, 9-11.

Australia does not have the diversity of daily print media experienced until recently in the United States or europe. Its demographic distribution brought about a higher concentration of press ownership much earlier. There are two national papers, The Australian and The Financial Review. each of Australia’s major cities has one local or metropolitan paper, with only Sydney and Melbourne having two papers, one broadsheet and one tabloid.