THE CLOSING down of the 6pm news service at Canberra’s Capital Television and several other regional outlets of the Ten Network in Queensland and the Northern Territory is a betrayal of the public trust given to television broadcasters in return for their access to an exclusive part of broadcasting spectrum, which is public property.
Capital was Canberra’s first and, for a long time, only commercial television channel. It ran a mix of programs from the three main commercial networks, but always had a strong local news programming and very often local current affairs programming. Then came aggregation in 1989. Under that scheme, regional stations were to affiliate with one of the three commercial networks and would be able to increase their coverage to two other adjacent regions which had original stations affiliated with other networks. The aim of aggregation was that regional audiences would get access to the full range of commercial programs enjoyed in the major cities while retaining local news coverage. It was a worthy aim.
The networks gained because they could pipe programs down the line at fairly low cost.
It was always assumed that there would be a news coverage that would satisfy the reasonable expectation of the viewers in the licence area. A news service piped from Sydney does not do that. Crash and bash stories from Sydney and a political coverage that deals with NSW events to the exclusion of ACT events is not good enough.
Sadly, the closure comes after the closure of Prime’s local news in June this year. It leaves only on commercial news service to compete with the ABC. Canberrans can at least be thankful that the ABC’s television news and current affairs programs were restored in September this year after a 10-year absence. Even so, the lost of Capital’s news is a major blow to diversity of television news in Canberra.
Ten Capital blames ageing equipment and majors costs in upgrading to digital. It is a poor excuse. It seems to have the money and equipment to pipe material in from Sydney. Ten Capital is now merely a Sydney station with local advertisements. It contributes nothing to the community of Canberra short of a few community announcements in advertising time slots created in the programming that comes from Sydney that it cannot fill.
It should have canvassed other options, like shortening the bulletin, or cross-subsidising.
The closure will result in the loss of 20 full-time jobs and seven part-time jobs – a significant blow to the Canberra economy and perhaps a statement of the regard the station has for the community it is supposed to serve.
That the closure is permitted shows a lamentable weakness in the broadcasting law and poor public policy direction in media regulation in general. If the Federal Government means what it says about trying to do better for the regions then it should look at forcing holders of television licences to provide a news service in line with the broadcasting licences area.
It is perhaps unfortunate that the decision came after the election not before it because it might have resulted in a promise by the major parties to do something about guaranteeing local news services to places outside the major cities.
The ownership of a broadcasting licence should be a two-way street. In return for exclusive access to part of a limited broadcasting spectrum which generates huge income from advertising, licencees should return something to the audiences it takes from in the form of advertising revenue via increased prices which is more than a piped session from Sydney or Brisbane.