There's been a lot of talk throughout the sector about the legislative framework in which we operate. About whether the licence renewal process is too onerous. About whether the regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), is taking away licences en masse. About the difficulty of complying with sponsorship regulations.

It seems that we may be due for some legislative change to enable us to operate effectively and without fear of breaking the rules unwittingly.

But before we go down that path it's important to clarify the current situation, and most important to clear up a few myths.

The licence renewal process has certainly been a hotly debated topic - Is it too much work? Is it fair? Is ACMA ruthlessly taking away licences? The last question in particular is one of great concern to many in the sector.

So how many stations have not had their licence renewed since the new regime started in 2002?

a) 5
b) 12
c) 23

The answer is 5

Out of a total of 215 stations to go through the renewal process so far, only 5 have not been renewed. No matter how you look at it, it would be hard to mount an argument that ACMA are ruthlessly pillaging the sector and taking away licences. It's simply not the case.

Beyond the 5 licences that have not been renewed, there are other licences that have been 'lost' and it's interesting to look at how and why these licences have disappeared. Below is a table showing the total licences lost over the past 6 years (note that the current renewal process has only been in effect for 5 years)

It’s well worth noting that in 9 cases out of the above 13, the service has been continued under a Temporary Community Broadcasting Licence (TCBL). A further 1 permanent licence has been allocated in a service area which lost a licence.

So while 13 licences in total have been lost, this translates to only 3 actual community broadcasting services that have been lost.

Obviously the CBAA is concerned about any station that loses its licence for whatever reason, but the bottom line is that the sky’s not falling, the sector is not collapsing, licences are not being taken away and there is no conspiracy by ACMA or the Federal Government to take away community licences for commercial or any other purposes.

What has happened, however, is that a number of stations have been renewed with 'voluntary undertakings'. What this means is that ACMA has identified issues with the operation of these stations and the station has agreed to take some action to remedy the issue. Some have viewed this as ACMA bullying stations into submission. Others view it as a more flexible and friendly approach by the regulator – guiding stations towards compliance rather than beating them into shape.

The CBAA tends to be of the second view. But no matter which way you view it, what is far more important is that we as a sector maintain a close scrutiny of these decisions – firstly, to ensure that standards and decisions are applied consistently across the sector. Secondly, to learn from them.

Both of these objectives will become easier in the future as ACMA has now agreed to publish online all applications for licence renewals and any conditions imposed.

Something we have seen used a number of times recently is the placing of licence conditions on a service. Licence conditions are as binding as the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the Act) itself and non-compliance could certainly result in the cancellation of a licence (as it has in 1 case). The conditions are generally specific tasks or objectives which are designed to correct a serious issue with the service. They can be placed after an investigation outcome or in conjunction with a licence renewal. So far there are only 2 cases of a station having additional licence conditions placed on them at the time of renewal.

The most important thing to bear in mind with discussion of investigations is that they are initiated only after a complaint is received by ACMA. So if the number of investigations is increasing, it's because more people are complaining. This is precisely what happened in 2005/06. In that year the number of complaints suddenly spiked leading to a total of 37 investigations, as opposed to 22 the year prior.

With such an increase in the number of investigations combined with the still relatively recent introduction of the more intense renewal regime, it’s easy to get the impression that the sector has become the target of gross over regulation.

However, moving on to 2006/07 the number of investigations dropped right back down again to 22 again with only 13 breaches as opposed to the previous year’s 18.

Ultimately, there is little point in blaming the regulator for investigations happening, but again we must continue to closely scrutinise the decisions made to ensure consistency and transparency.

Examination of both licence renewals and investigations reveals a number of clear trends, or problem areas:

• community participation
  
• management (both governance and administration)
  
• sponsorship / advertising
  
• conflict resolution and complaints handling

Of these four issues, sponsorship is perhaps the most difficult. While the other three issues largely come down to station policies and procedures, sponsorship is clearly governed by the Act. Although ‘clearly’ is not such an accurate description since it seems the more we examine the issues related to sponsorship and advertising, the less clear it becomes.

Following representations from the CBAA, ACMA agreed to update its guidelines on sponsorship and advertising for community broadcasters. From a CBAA perspective this exercise served two purposes. Firstly, to provide the sector with clear guidance on sponsorship issues so as to enable all stations to operate without fear of inadvertently advertising and being found in breach of the the Act. The second purpose was clarify elements of the the Act as well as ACMA's interpretation to enable a clear look at the current structure with an outlook to changing the Act to make it more user friendly.

The draft revised guidelines were released last November for comment. It is important to note that the guidelines do not represent a change in legislation, or regulation of the sector. They simply provide documentation of how ACMA interprets the Act and how they view particular circumstances. This is largely based on prior investigation outcomes.

The simple lesson we learn from the sponsorship guidelines is that the Act as it relates to sponsorship is in dire need of an overhaul. As such, the CBAA is now developing a proposal for legislative change in the area of sponsorship.

The changes we will be moving towards are not about ‘wholesale deregulation’, or simply throwing out the notion of sponsorship all together. It is about developing a new framework which embraces our core values as an independent, not for profit, community focused broadcasting sector, but allows us the clarity and the flexibility to operate within the realities of the new media environment.

Legislative change of course is rarely a quick process and as such the revised sponsorship guidelines remain an important document for the community broadcasting sector as they will guide our actions under the current legislation while we are moving forward on the changes.

The CBAA has submitted further feedback to ACMA on the draft guidelines to highlight a number of outstanding concerns. ACMA are currently redrafting the document taking into account all of the submissions they received during the consultation period. The final guidelines are expected to be released mid year.

Have your say in the discussion forums.