Spectrum cuts would endanger free-to-air TV, Greg Hywood warns

Free TV chairman Greg Hywood says reducing the amount of radio frequency spectrum available to free-to-air broadcasters would endanger the industry.

Free TV chairman Greg Hywood. Picture: Hollie Adams

Reducing the amount of radio frequency spectrum available to free-to-air television broadcasters would endanger the industry, the chairman of Free TV has warned.

Greg Hywood, who heads the industry’s peak representative body, said the television landscape is “far different” to what it was just a few years ago, and the federal government needed to consider the shifting circumstances of the nation’s free-to-air broadcasters when undertaking policy reform.

Mr Hywood, a former Fairfax Media CEO, was speaking ahead of the public release this week of Free TV’s submission in response to the federal government’s media reform green paper.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher released the green paper last November, in which it recognised the financial pressures faced by the free-to-air television industry, and flagged significant reform, including the possibility of removing spectrum licence fees in exchange for reducing the amount of radio frequency spectrum used by TV broadcasters.

Mr Hywood said that any release of spectrum “down the track” would diminish free-to-air services, and deprive the viewing public of a quality product.

“It will mean fewer services and lock broadcasters into an HD world when streamers are doing (superior resolution) 4K and potentially 8K,” he said.

“You look at the world that used to be — whether it was broadcasters, newspapers, magazines — and once upon a time there weren’t a lot of players in the market. Now it’s a very crowded market and broadcasters are competing in an environment where internet has enabled the creation of streaming and there’s a lot of options out there.

“Broadcasting is a bipartisan public policy obligation for governments to deliver free TV for Australians.

“It delivers the news that most people get. There’s a lot of jobs involved and it provides an equal service to Australians whether they’re in metropolitan areas, regional or remote, and what it ­requires is a regulatory environ­ment and industry structure that is consistent with the reality of the marketplace.”

Upon the release of the green paper in November, Mr Fletcher said: “The media landscape has changed significantly over the past decade, with faster internet allowing digital technologies to generate significant benefits for industry and consumers. However, these technologies have also fractured business models and rendered many of our regulatory structures obsolete.”

He insisted that any change to policy on spectrum would be done in a way that would have a minimal impact on the free-to-air broadcasters and their viewers.

Seven West Media’s submission noted that digital giants – such as Google and Facebook – remained one of the biggest threats to competitiveness within the TV landscape.

“Be it the global digital advertisers or streaming giants, they have a global reach and can apply global efficiencies,” it said.

Seven said producing content in a crowded market was becoming “increasingly challenging”.

An SBS submission said: “The focus must be to ensure audiences continue to access the same range of high-quality services.”

SBS also said more funding was needed to produce “more quality Australian drama, documentaries and First Nations children’s content”.

The submissions will be publicly released this week.

Originally published as Spectrum cuts would endanger free-to-air TV, Greg Hywood warns