Commercial free-to-air television broadcasters
Commercial free-to-air television broadcasters are responsible for ensuring the material they broadcast reflects community standards. These program requirements are governed by the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice, developed through industry and community consultation and published on the FreeTV website.
Some programming elements on free-to-air and subscription television are regulated by the Australian Government and Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). The ACMA is a federal government statutory authority, which was established on 1 July 2005 when the Australian Broadcasting Authority and the Australian Communications Authority merged.
Free-to-air television regulations cover minimum requirements for Australian and local content, Australian content in advertising and anti-siphoning provisions for sport. They also encompass additional schemes related to community television sponsorship, political material and anti-terrorism measures. For more information, see the ACMA website.
Australian content requirements date back to 1961. This webpage provides an overview of the current content requirements (effective from 1 January 2021).
Overall transmission quota
The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 requires all commercial free-to-air television licensees (commercial broadcasters) to annually broadcast the following amount of Australian programming between 6am and midnight:
- Primary channels: minimum of 55 per cent, and
- non-primary channels: minimum of 1,460 hours.
Current content standards
On 1 January 2021, the Broadcasting Services (Australian Content and Children’s Television) Standards 2020 (the Standards) commenced.
The object of the Standards is to promote the role of commercial television services in developing and reflecting a sense of Australian identity, character and cultural diversity by supporting the community’s continued access to television programs produced under Australian creative control.
Commercial broadcasters must annually broadcast on primary and/or non-primary channels a minimum of 250 points of Australian content between 6am and midnight. The programs can comprise any combination of the following, provided the programs are also both ‘Australian’ and ‘first release’:
- commissioned drama programs (including children’s drama programs)
- commissioned children’s non-drama programs
- commissioned documentary programs (capped at 50 points)
- acquired films.
The genre point allocations for the annual quota are outlined in Schedule 1 of the Standards (copied below), with higher points allocated for more expensive content.
Commercial broadcasters may carry over up to 50 extra points broadcast in excess of the quota in one calendar year to the following year.
Commercial broadcasters must report to the ACMA each year. The ACMA publishes aggregated compliance data on its website.
Regional local content
From 1 January 2008, the ACMA has been required to ensure that specified regional commercial television broadcasting licensees broadcast minimum amounts of material of local significance pursuant to the Broadcasting Services Local Programming Determination 2018. A 2021 Review found that the Local Programming Determination is operating effectively.
Content that may be considered of local significance may range from material that deals with people, organisations, events or issues of a particular area to a sporting event that involves a team from the area or a team whose principal support base includes that area.
Captioning
Commercial broadcasters must show captions on all programs broadcast between 6am to midnight. News and current affairs programs must have captions at all times. Some exceptions apply, such as programs that are not in English.
Australian content in advertising
The Broadcasting Services (Australian Content in Advertising) Standard 2018 requires a commercial broadcaster to ensure that Australian produced advertisements occupy at least 80 per cent of the total advertising time broadcast per year between 6am and midnight. This excludes exempt advertisements, such as those for imported films, videos and recordings.
Anti-siphoning scheme
The anti-siphoning scheme is designed to protect Australians’ free access to live broadcasts of culturally and nationally significant events. From 17 December 2024, the rules extend to online streaming services in addition to traditional broadcasters.
Key points include:
- The anti-siphoning list identifies major events that should be freely available on television
- Free-to-air broadcasters get priority in acquiring broadcasting rights before subscription or online services
- Broadcasters are not required to acquire event rights, and if they do, they may provide partial, delayed, or no coverage at all
- Events are removed from the list 6 months before they occur, lifting the anti-siphoning restrictions
- Media content services like streaming platforms may only acquire rights if:
- A commercial broadcaster can televise the event to over 50 per cent of the population, or
- The ABC or SBS holds the rights to televise the event.