The Australian Television Industry
Essay Preview: The Australian Television Industry
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Introduction:
The Television Industry has been running now for the last 49 years, it consists of 5 free-to-air television stations (ABC, Seven Network, Nine Network, Ten Network and SBS) and 3 pay-tv stations. Two of the five free-to-air networks are government funded (ABC and SBS). All free-to-air stations are based in every capital city in Australia. All free-to-air stations cover all of Australia, some rural areas have local television stations as well as nation wide stations. This report will cover the television industry of both Free-to-air and Pay TV.
Market Structure:
The Television Industry is a large industry in Australia. It has contributed $1.2 Billion to the Australian economy and employed more than 20,000 people. (
Free-to-air stations:
ABC – Government Funded
Seven Network
Nine Network
Ten Network
SBS – Government Funded
Briz 31 – Local Television station
Pay TV stations:
Foxtel
Optus TV
Austar
In total there are 24 separate commercial television markets in Australia in 2002/04, and 48 individual television stations. Most Australian commercial television stations are owned by public companies listed on the ASX. The Australian Government is the owner of the ABC and SBS television services.
Free-to-air television
2002/03: Markets and ownership as of June 2003
Ad. revenues ($m)
Population (000s)
Ad. revenue
per capita ($)
Ownership1 based on
network affiliation
Seven
Metropolitan markets (5 markets and 15 stations)
Sydney
4,310
Melbourne
4,009
Brisbane
2,482
Perth
1,546
Adelaide
1,309
Total metropolitan
2,268
13,656
Aggregated regional markets (5 markets and 14 stations)
Northern NSW
1,870
Queensland
1,457
Southern NSW
1,333
Victoria
1,084
Tasmania
Total aggregrated regional
6,221
Other regional markets (14 markets and 19 stations)
Total other regional
1,438
All markets
2,934
21,315
Source: Australian Broadcasting Authority, ACNielsen & ATR Australia
Free-to-air television is coming second to newspapers in terms of share of total advertising expenditure in Australia. It is the preferred media in terms of national advertisers, accounting for 53 per cent of all such advertising. Only recently in 2002 did figures for advertising in pay TV was released, accounting for $67 million that year and $93 million in 2003. (
Televisions share of total advertising expenditure compared to other media, 1965-2003
Value ($m)
Free-to-air TV
Pay TV
Total TV
Newspapers
Radio
Magazines
Outdoor
Cinema
1,128
1,128
1,344
1,768
1,768
2,001
2,022
2,022
2,560
20005
2,746
2,746
3,359
2,490
2,490
3,131
2,592
2,666
3,045
2,381
2,924
3,251
Share (%)
Free-to-air