AAP
The competition watchdog has better ways of assessing the pros and cons of any merger between two companies than the measures proposed under the federal government's public interest test, Nine Network's managing director Jeffrey Browne says.
Mr Browne was speaking to a Senate committee inquiry into Labor's package of six media reform bills, which the federal government wants parliament to pass this week.
He said there were safeguards under the Broadcasting Services Act as well as the powers of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to ensure there was no need for a public interest test in relation to mergers of media companies.
"The ACCC controls mergers, to the extent they prohibit mergers, if there is a substantial lessening of competition, where they have exercised that power very effectively," he told the committee in Canberra on Monday.
He said the advantage of using the ACCC's current provisions was that there were some clearly defined indicators such as jobs, innovation and exports.
"The existence of those economic principles make that test or their considerations more objective than what is being proposed," Mr Browne said.
He also said there was a sufficient spread of voices in the media landscape where his network competed strongly with the Seven and Ten Networks.
There were more programs on the internet every day, he said.
The proposed increase to a quota for Australian programs would be easily accommodated by the Nine Network, Mr Browne said.
His network was broadcasting around 70 per cent Australian shows, compared with the 55 per cent share for commercial television overall, as part of an agreement to cut the licences rebate for the networks.
Audiences had demanded more local shows with 20 of the top 20 programs produced in Australia in 2012, and 47 out of the top 50, compared with most being from the US five years ago.
"We comfortably exceed that quota because those shows rate and that is what our audiences want and need," he said.
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