ITWire

The new body would have responsibility for regulating all providers of media content. A key finding of the Review was that "the community expects significant enterprises controlling professional media content to have some obligations, no matter how they deliver their services."

It proposes a policy framework that will regulate these enterprises based on their size and scope, rather than how they deliver their content. It recommends that significant media enterprises be defined as 'content service enterprises' and be subject to regulation.

"Organisations would be defined as content service enterprises if they: have control over the professional content they deliver; have a large number of Australian users of that content; have a high level of revenue derived from supplying that professional content to Australians."

The thresholds envisaged by the Review would see only the largest media organisations caught in the content regulation net. Modelling conducted for the Review indicates that currently around 15 media operators would be classified as content service enterprises.

However what these organisations would lose on the swings, should the recommendations of the review be implemented, they would gain on the roundabouts. The Review has concluded that a range of existing regulations no longer serve their policy purpose, can be difficult for government to administer and constitute an unnecessary burden on industry and should be abolished.

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