Australia to relax rules on media ownership

AUSTRALIA TO RELAX RULES ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Virginia Marsh]
The Australian cabinet is to proceed with radical plans for the deregulation of the country’s media sector that could unleash a wave of consolidation and takeover activity. The changes, announced on Thursday, would scrap most restrictions on foreign investment in the sector as well as lift limits on cross-media ownership which at present prevent investors owning newspapers and television stations in the same city. This would enable Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which has substantial local print media operations, to buy a television station for the first time, while James Packer’s Publishing & Broadcasting, which owns the broadcaster Nine, would be allowed to buy a newspaper group such as John Fairfax. However, while the cabinet has endorsed the plans, the center-right coalition still has the difficult task of guiding the package through the Senate where it has a majority of one. Barnaby Joyce, a renegade government senator, has not ruled out voting with opposition parties against some of the proposals.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/dc3d9f86-125d-11db-aecf-0000779e2340.html
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