Axing reach rule to hit cricket, says WIN - Sydney Morning Herald

AAP

Abolishing the 75 per cent reach rule which prevents major metropolitan stations buying out regional broadcasters would impact cricket coverage in South Australia and Western Australia, the head of WIN Television has told a parliamentary inquiry.

Giving evidence to a joint select committee in Canberra on Monday, chief executive of WIN, Andrew Lancaster, said axing the reach rule would signal the end of regional television.

He warned against the proposed merger between rival Southern Cross Media and Nine Entertainment.

The committee is examining the reach rule, and whether to include laws to scrap it in the suite of media reforms being considered by parliament this week.

Mr Lancaster told the inquiry he was concerned about the impact the Nine-Southern Cross merger would have on cricket coverage, which WIN now broadcasts into regional areas.

"I'm not entirely sure we would be inclined to run a competitor's product across states where Southern Cross might not have a signal or a licence," he said.

"This gives great fears to those in Perth and Adelaide, and regional South Australia, regional Western Australia."

Mr Lancaster said an end to the reach rule would impact WIN's commitment to local news coverage in regional Australia, while it would also hit regional advertisers who he predicted would be overlooked by the city-centric major networks.

"It would be the end of regional television, to be perfectly honest, because there would be no differentiation between what comes out of Sydney and what is aired in Victoria," he said.

Southern Cross chief Rhys Holleran dismissed claims that abolishing the reach rule, which he supported, would affect cricket coverage.

"We don't broadcast in Western Australia, and there are pockets of the eastern seaboard that we do not broadcast to as well," he told the inquiry.

The reach rule was not relevant to whether people received their cricket, Mr Holleran said.

"I think if other people make commercial decisions there is no reason why everyone in Australia can't continue to enjoy cricket."

Prime Media boss Ian Audsley backed the abolition of the 75 per cent reach rule, telling the committee it would not impact on his company's provision of regional news.

"The 75 per cent reach rule is not a trigger to downsizing local news operations," he told the inquiry, adding it was commercially important.

"It is important to us because it gives us extraordinary audience shares in the markets to which we put half hour news."