SCMA | Southern Community Media Association

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)  released their Draft Application Form for Renewal of Community Radio Broadcasting Licence (B66) for industry comment.

As you may be aware, the ACMA has been working on revising the application form for the renewal of a community radio broadcasting licence (ACMA Form B66).

Since the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the BSA) was amended in December 2002 to enable the ACMA to take into account the same matters that it considers when allocating a new community broadcasting licence (section 84(2) of the BSA), all community radio broadcasting licensees have applied for and their applications considered against those matters.

They have received feedback from many licensees and consider it timely to revise the form before the next round of licence renewals. You will note that they have streamlined the form so that:

1. It more closely aligns with the matters at section 84(2) of the BSA; and
2. It more closely aligns with the application form for a community radio broadcasting licence (B32), as it is assessed against the same matters when allocating a new community radio broadcasting licence. Attached is a copy of the current B32 for comparison (minor amendments are being made to this form, based on feedback from applicants during allocations in 2009-2010).

They  expect to discuss have the form finalised in time for licensees to use from January 2011.

To enable them to achieve this timeframe, they would appreciate if comments on the draft revised renewal form can reach the ACMA no later than 5.00 pm Monday 29 November 2010. Comments marked ‘licence renewal application form B66’ are to be sent to:

Email: communitybroadcasting@acma.gov.au

Fax: 02 9334 7799 [marked ‘Attention: Community Allocations and Information Section’]

Post:

Community Allocations and Information Section
Australian Communications and Media Authority

PO Box Q500
Queen Victoria Building
Sydney NSW 1230

All members of the SCMA are encouraged to read through this draft and make either individual submissions to the ACMA or forward their thoughts to the SCMA to be added to the associations submission.

Comments to info@scma.org.au

You can download a copy of the Draft form below.

DOWNLOAD – Draft Application Form for Renewal of Community Radio Broadcasting Licence (PDF 200kb)

ACMA has released it’s Draft Community Broadcasting Not‐for‐Profit Guidelines.

Download the PDF document here, if you have anything about the draft guidelines you’d like to discuss with us please get in touch using the contact us page.

Draft Community Broadcasting Not‐for‐Profit Guidelines

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) has developed draft
Community Broadcasting Not‐for‐Profit Guidelines and the document is now being released
for industry comment.

Submissions marked ‘community broadcasting not‐for‐profit guidelines’ should be sent by 5.00 pm Monday 1 November 2010 to:

Email: communitybroadcasting@acma.gov.au

Fax: 02 9334 7799 [marked ‘Attention: Community Allocations and Information Section’]
Post: Community Allocations and Information Section
Australian Communications and Media Authority

PO Box Q500
Queen Victoria Building
Sydney NSW 1230

A Must Read For All Community Broadcasters

We all know that there is an election waiting to happen, infact by the time you read this there may already be an election underway.

Politics can be an exciting game and an election even more exciting but with that game just like all games there are rules and this article will outline what rules all community radio broadcasters need to adhere to during an election.

We have an election, we have rules and we’ve also got the Australian Communications Media Authority, who will be quite busy at the moment trying to ensure that everything runs smoothly during a very action packed peirod of Australian History in the making.

The Election is not an everyday event so understanding the rules is probably not going to be easy and that’s why ACMA has released a detailed factsheet that will really aid all of you in understanding and complying with the rules.

Now to understand what the rules mean for you as a community broadcaster you’ll need to download and read the PDF factsheet below, but first let’s sumarise the key points for reference:

The Broadcasting Services Act, Parts 1 & 2 of Schedule 2 contain definitions and rules that deal with access, timing and identification in relation to the broadcast of political and election matter.

1. Access for all parties – If you broadcast any political or election matter during any election period then you must give all parties contesting the election a reasonable oppourtunity to also broadcast election matter. You don’t have to provide access free of cost.
2. Blackout period – A broadcaster must stop broadcating election advertisement from the end of the Wednesday before the polling day until the close of the poll on polling day.
3. Announcement particulars – All radio broadcasts must include a spoken announcement (a tag containing authorisation and political party etc) of the required particulars as detailed in the downloadable factsheet (pages 1 & 2).
4. Record Keeping – Political & election material broadcast must be logged and records including the name, address & occupation or the person who requested the broadcast or the company name, address and principal office address if requested by a company. Keep these records for 6 weeks or until the close of polling on polling day whichever is longer. A Broadcast in the form of news, an address, a statement, a commentary or discussion, that relates to a political subject or current affairs, must have a record of the matter in a form approved by the ACMA. The record must be kept for six weeks, or 60 days if a complaint has been made about the matter.

The above key points require detailed understanding and the definitions of many terms are available in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.

If a licence condition in relation to political or election matter is breached, the ACMA may take enforcement action, including the issue of remedial directions, or the acceptance of enforceable undertakings.

Please donwload the ACMA’s PDF Factsheet here.

If you have any further questions about the above subject please get in touch with us using the contact page or email info [at] scma.org.au – replace [at] with @

The Australian Communications Media Austhority (ACMA) has releaseed the Community Broadcasting Participation Guidelines after the Draft Guidelines which some of our members and the SCMA made submissions towards.

The ACMA has released the final guidelines with a message:

We hope that the guidelines will facilitate community broadcasting licensees’ understanding of the licence conditions, enabling them to continue to represent the community interest.

If you have any questions about the Guidelines please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the SCMA.

>> Download The Community Broadcasting Participation Guidelines

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is launching its new reporting tool “Spam SMS” which provides Australians with a quick and easy way to report spam SMS by forwarding messages received  to 0429 999 888.

The ACMA will launch “Spam SMS” at 11 am on Wednesday 9 June at the Phoenix Youth Centre in Footscray.  The launch will feature artists from Footscray Community Arts Centre X Fear of A Brown Planet’s current project, Hip Hop Academy. Media are welcome to attend.

‘As active mobile phone users, young people are increasingly exposed to targeted SMS marketing messages but may be reluctant or indifferent to reporting spam,’ said ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman.

‘We can actually do a lot to help in this space, but we have to know about it. “Spam SMS” is a simple and convenient way to tell us about spam. All you need to do is forward the message to 0429 999 888 as soon as you receive it.’

The information received by Spam SMS assists the ACMA in its investigations into breaches of the Spam Act, and the ACMA has been very vigilant in spam regulation over the last several years.

The “Spam SMS” launch is part of the Australian Government’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Week.

“Spam SMS” is now fully operational. More information about SMS and the ACMA’s recent successful enforcement outcomes in relation to spam sent by SMS is available at www.spam.acma.gov.au For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:  Caroline Page, Anti-Spam, 0433 251 633 or Caroline.Page@acma.gov.au.