LawFont.com

The commercial FTA networks, through Free TV, are pushing for a change to the Commercial Television Code of Practice in advance of the imminent Federal election. The changes, which are the subject of public consultation, would allow the commercial FTAs to sell an additional minute of political advertising…

The additional advertising will be broadcast between 6pm and midnight in election periods. The proposed amendment allows the networks to broadcast, on average, an additional minute of non-program material per hour (with a cap on non-political material) from 6 to midnight, during election periods. The effect of the proposed change will be to allow the FTA networks to broadcast up to 15 minutes of “non-program” material per hour (from 6-midnight, during election periods). Free TV regard the proposed amendment as a clarification of the operation of the code. The idea behind the amendment is to bring consistency to the “average” non-program content per hour provision (cl 5.6) and the absolute non-program content per hour provision (cl 5.7) of the code. Free TV argue that the current operation of these two provisions actually stops the networks from broadcasting their extra minute of political advertising during the election period. Free TV further argues that this disadvantages smaller political parties because the networks don’t have the “average’ non-program content broadcast time available and therefore can’t broadcast the advertising. Submissions are due by 24 August 2007…