Australian profit

Press, 29 August 1977, Page 15

Australian profit

If Australian television is any guide to future trends in this country, more money should be available for increasing the local content of programmes. Television across the Tasman made a bumper profit. Australia’s 48 commercial TV stations more than doubled their profits in the year ending June, 1976, according to “Television Today,” published in Britain. They made a pre-tax profit of more than S44M in 1975-76, which is an increase of 100.4 per cent on the previous year, and the highest recorded rise in profit since the inception of television in Australia in 1956. As a result the stations are to be pressed to increase local content. The recently set up Australian Broadcasting Tribunal will tell stations applying for licence renewal that it expects an increase in local programmes, particularly on series for children. “We want to see a sizable increase in the local content of programmes — the two main areas of concern are children’s programmes and

Australian drama,” said a spokesman for the tribunal. Mr Bruce Gyngell, the chairman, said: “All the major areas of public concern expressed during our recent inquiry into self-regu-lation, including children’s programmes and Australian content, are inextricably tied to revenue and profit.” He expected stations to respond more readily to public needs and said the tribunal at licence hearings would closely compare profit results of television and radio stations with their efforts to satisfy community needs and respond to matters of public concern. Observers have put the big profit down to the emergence of colour introduced in early 1975 and the fact that advertising rates have risen sharply for the same reason. The NZPA reports from Canberra that the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal has recommended that Australian broadcasters should not be allowed full self-regu-lation immediately. It did, however, conclude that selfregulation was a worthwhile and attainable goal.