Have you ever wondered why all the mainstream media outlets in Australia seem to repeat the same messages over and over?
Have you been noticing lately, that whenever you change the channel between let's say Channel 9, ABC, Channel 10, Channel 7 etc, there are only slight variation between what all the channels are reporting and messaging?
Do you feel that you no longer hear more than 1 point of view?
If you answered YES to any of the above questions, we think you might be onto something...
The Australian Government has provided Media outlets across Australia with $96M in grants and tax cuts since Feb 2020
Tax relief
Commercial television and radio broadcasters will receive a 100% rebate on their Commercial Broadcasting Tax for 12 months. The rebate will provide the commercial broadcasting sector with $41 million in tax relief for the use of broadcasting spectrum, backdated to start from 14 February 2020
Public Interest News Gathering Fund
The $50 million Public Interest News Gathering (PING) program will support public interest journalism delivered by commercial television, newspaper, and radio businesses in regional Australia. On 29 June 2020, Minister Fletcher announced that 107 regional publishers and broadcasters who applied under the PING Program, were found successful to receive a share of $50 million funding committed to support news services who provide public interest journalism to regional communities.
Regional and Small Publishers Innovation Fund 2020 Round
In 2020, the Government brought forward the release of $5 million from its Regional and Small Publishers Innovation Fund. 41 small and regional publishers will share in the $5 million available in the 2020 Round to help them address some of the significant challenges facing the news industry.
ALL UP, THAT'S 96 MILLION DOLLARS IN GRANT FUNDING AND 100% TAX CUTS FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR!!
That's a lot of money, and a very big encouragement to align to the government narrative
So...who got the $$$
Here are the top 20
A deep dive on the top 5
1.AAP - $20M
Influencing the agenda every day, AAP’s wire stories and images are fed into most Australian newsrooms around the clock and are ready to publish on all platforms and channels. AAP delivers over 1,500 original stories per week as they happen. Our coverage spans breaking news, national and international sport, finance, courts, politics and world news.
2. Rural Press - $10.4M
A subsidiary of Fairfax Media , Rural Press Limited (RPL) publishes more than 160 regional newspapers and magazines throughout Australia.
3. Southern Cross Austereo -$10.3M
Southern Cross Austereo is Australia's pre-eminent and most diverse entertainment company, with audio and visual brands and content reaching 95% of Australians
4. PRIME MEDIA GROUP - $4.7M
Reaching a potential audience of over 5.5 million people, PRIME’s viewing area covers regional northern and southern New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, the Gold Coast area of south eastern Queensland and all of regional Western Australia.
5. WIN CORPORATION - $4.46M
WIN Television carries programming of all three commercial television stations in Australia. It is a sole Nine Network affiliate in all broadcast areas, but also carries Seven Network and the Network 10 affiliated channels in Griffith, New South Wales, Northern New South Wales and eastern South Australia.
And let's not forget our beloved ABC
In 2019–20, the federal budget forecast funding of $3.2 billion over three years ($1.06 billion per year) for the ABC.
SO, WITH THE INTERCONNECTED, INTERDEPENDENT RELATIONSHIPS FORGED OVER DECADES BETWEEN AUSTRALIA'S MAINSTREAN MEDIA GIANTS...
DOES IT SURPRISE YOU AT ALL THAT
EVERY radio station we hear,
EVERY TV channel we watch,
EVERY news reporter we watch, &
EVERY newspaper we read is