This is the second time in less than two years that the Coalition Government has given News Corp money for programming. Then it was a funding package worth a cool $30 million.
Tuesday, 29 January 2019
Why is the Australian Government subsidising a News Corp television program?
On 21
December 2018 the Australian
Communications and Media Authority announced:
The ACMA has awarded
up to $3.6 million in grants to regional and small publishers under
the first round of the Regional and Small Publishers Innovation Fund.
Round one of the
Innovation Fund will support 29 projects by 25 successful applicants
nationwide, with a mix of regional and metropolitan proposals funded.
Grants
will support innovation and digitalisation across a wide range of activities,
including market research, trials of new business models, podcasts, and video
capability.
A list of successful
applicants and their projects is here.
However,
there is another grant stream which sees News Corp’s Sky News Channel - part of
multinational media empire - receive
money to cover 15 per cent of a particular Sunday program’s production costs.
BuzzFeed, 25 January 2019:
The show is partly
funded through a Commonwealth government grant awarded to Mundine's business
Nyungga Black Group, through a closed non-competitive selection process,
according to the grant information published online.
The grant, running from
June 18, 2018 to Aug. 1 this year is for a total of $220,000. The Department of
Prime Minister & Cabinet confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the grant was for
Mundine's Sky News show.
News Corp’s 2018
annual report states of the corporation’s news channel:
Australian News Channel
ANC operates 10 channels
featuring the latest in news, politics, sports, entertainment, public affairs,
business and weather. ANC is licensed by Sky International AG to use Sky
trademarks and domain names in connection with its operation and distribution
of channels and services. ANC’s channels consist of Sky News Live, Sky News
Business, Fox Sports News, Sky News Weather, Sky News UK, Sky News Extra, Sky
News Extra 1, Sky News Extra 2, Sky News Extra 3 and Sky News New Zealand. ANC
channels are distributed throughout Australia and New Zealand and available on
Foxtel and Sky Network Television NZ. ANC also owns and operates the
international Australia Channel IPTV service and offers content across a
variety of digital media platforms, including mobile, podcasts and social media
websites. In addition, ANC has program supply arrangements with third parties
such as WIN Corporation. ANC primarily generates revenue through monthly
affiliate fees received from pay-TV providers based on the number of
subscribers and advertising.
ANC competes primarily with other news providers
in Australia and New Zealand via its subscription television channels, third
party content arrangements and free domain website. Its Australia Channel IPTV
service also competes against “over-the-top” IPTV subscription-based news
providers in regions outside of Australia and New Zealand.
This is a corporation
which admits to having assets of over $16 billion in June 2018 - $2 billion of
which was held as cash or cash equivalents - and yet the Australian Government feels the need to subsidise its weekend programming?
This is the second time in less than two years that the Coalition Government has given News Corp money for programming. Then it was a funding package worth a cool $30 million.
Labels:
News Corp,
Rupert Murdoch
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