Local TV content in regional areas

We measure local content using a points system in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. This ensures that larger regional communities have access to local content, such as news broadcasts.

As a regional broadcaster, you gain points for each minute of locally significant material you broadcast.

You gain 2 points for each minute of news that ‘directly relates to a local area’.

You gain one point for each minute of:

• news that ‘directly relates to the licence area’.
• other material that directly relates to the local area or the licence area, such as a community service announcement

You must meet the quotas in each of your licence areas for material of local significance. This is at least:

• 90 points per week
• 720 points per six-week period

You must also meet the following rules:

• at least 50% of your points must come from material that relates directly to the local area
• no more than 10% of your points can come from community service announcements
• material of local significance must not include advertising or sponsorship material unless it is a community service announcement

‘Material of local significance’ is information that relates directly to:

• a ‘local area’ or smaller area within a particular licence area
• the whole of a licence area

In a larger licence area with several local areas, you do not have to broadcast material of local significance in all those local areas. You can nominate specific local areas to gain points.

Content that might be significant to a particular community is broad. The material could be about:

• individuals
• people
• places
• organisations
• events
• market conditions
• issues

You can view boundaries and populations of local areas in licence area populations.

You have to meet the quota if you are a licence holder:

• in any of the 7 regional television licence areas
• in any of the 5 aggregated markets
• in a non-aggregated market that is affected by a trigger event

7 regional television licence areas that must meet the quota

• Northern New South Wales TV1
• Southern New South Wales TV1
• Regional Victoria TV1
• Eastern Victoria TV1
• Western Victoria TV1
• Regional Queensland TV1
• Tasmania TV1

5 aggregated markets that must meet the quota

• Regional Queensland - Seven Queensland, Southern Cross and WIN TV
• Northern New South Wales - NBN Ltd, Prime Television and Southern Cross
• Southern New South Wales - Prime Television, Southern Cross and WIN TV
• Regional Victoria - Prime Television, Southern Cross and WIN TV
• Tasmania - Southern Cross, WIN and Tasmanian Digital Television.

These aggregated areas contain a number of local areas to reflect the different sub-markets.

*Tasmanian Digital Television (TDT) is jointly owned by WIN and Southern Cross (SCA)

On 14 October 2021, the Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts tabled a report into the ACMA’s Review of the operation of the local programming requirements for regional commercial television broadcasting licensees.

A copy of the report is available here.