The ACMA has released the 2022 Australian content compliance results for metropolitan and regional commercial television broadcasters.
To comply with the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, commercial television licensees must broadcast Australian content at least 55 per cent of the time between 6 am and midnight on their primary channel. On non-primary channels, licensees must broadcast at least 1,460 hours of Australian content between 6 am and midnight in the calendar year.
All 13 metropolitan licensees and 62 regional licensees met the Australian content requirements for their primary and non-primary channels in 2022. The Seven Network reported an average of 76 per cent Australian programs across its primary metropolitan channels, the Nine Network 79 per cent and Network Ten 71 per cent.
Regional licensees, including those from the WIN Network, SCA TV and Prime7, reported a compliance range of 70 per cent to 80 per cent on their primary channels.
These results represented an overall increase in the transmission quota percentages of Australian content compared to 2021.
Under the Broadcasting Services (Australian Content and Children’s Television) Standards 2020 (ACCTS), commercial television licensees are required to reach 250 points by broadcasting first release Australian content across certain genres each calendar year.
Points are allocated per broadcast hour based on a program’s genre and, for drama programs, the program’s production budget. This means that more points can be claimed per hour for commissioned Australian drama programs with high production budgets.
The results show that all metropolitan licensees met the required points quota, with the Seven Network reporting 324 points of first release Australian content, 287 points for the Nine Network and 348 points for Network Ten. These results include ‘carry over’ points from the last calendar year.
All regional licensees met the required points quota, with 54 regional licensees reporting a range of 266 to 348 quota points. Eight regional licensees did not broadcast 250 points, but these met the rules to be deemed compliant with the ACCTS points quota obligation.
The full 2022 Commercial television compliance with Australian content requirements report has been published on the ACMA website.
