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CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Endnotes
Contact Officer & Copyright Details
Television Licence Fees Amendment Bill
1999
Date Introduced: 30 June 1999
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Communications, Information Technology and the
Arts
Commencement: Royal Assent
To impose additional licence fees on commercial
television broadcasters to help meet the costs of the Australian
Broadcasting Authority relating to the conversion of television
broadcasting from analog to digital transmission.
Under the provisions of the Television
Broadcasting Services (Digital Conversion) Act 1998 national
and commercial television services will convert from analog to
digital transmission from 1 January 2001. The Act requires the
Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) to develop conversion
schemes and to approve implementation plans for each commercial and
national broadcaster.
In the 1999-2000 Budget it was announced that
the costs associated with this activity would be recovered from
industry.(1) This Bill will give effect to that decision. The total
amount involved is $1.21 million in both 1999-00 and 2000-01 and
$0.99 million in 2001-02.
The costs will be recovered from commercial
television broadcasters by imposing an additional fee on each
commercial broadcaster in 1999, 2000 and 2001. The total cost will
be distributed amongst commercial television licensees on the basis
of the ratio between each licensee's fee and the total of
licensees' fees for the preceding year. For example, if a
licensee's fee was equivalent to 3 per cent of the total revenue
from all licence fees in 1998, then it will pay 3 per cent of $1.21
million in additional fees in 1999.
Under the Television Licence Fees Act
1964 commercial television licensees pay a fee on the 31
December of each year that is derived from the gross earnings of
the licensee for the previous financial year. In 1997-98 commercial
television licensees paid a total of $194.5 million in licence
fees. The temporary surcharge imposed by this Bill thus represents
an increase of 0.6 per cent on total licence fees.
The Government decided that a comprehensive cost
recovery scheme including the ABC and SBS was not worth
implementing, as the contributions required from these Commonwealth
Government funded organisations would have to be met from
additional budget appropriations.(2) While national and community
broadcasters will also benefit from the ABA's activities funded by
the additional payments from the commercial licensees, the extent
of this cross-subsidy will be diminished by the fee-for-service
arrangements for digital broadcasting contained in the
Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (BSA). Clause 61 of
Schedule 4 of the BSA permits the ABA to charge the national and
commercial broadcasters for expenses incurred under the digital
conversion schemes. While the national broadcasters will continue
to be subject to such charges, the commercial broadcasters will be
exempt for the period covered by the payment of the additional fees
imposed by this Bill. This exemption is the subject of the
Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill (No.2) 1999.
Item 2 of Schedule 1 inserts a new
section 6B in the Television Licence Fees Act
1964.
New subsection 6B(1) provides
that each licensee will pay a fee on 31 December 1999 equivalent
to:
- $1,210,000 multiplied by the licensee's 1998 fee divided by the
total of all licensees' 1998 fees.
New subsection 6B(2) provides
that each licensee will pay a fee on 31 December 2000 equivalent
to:
- $1,210,000 multiplied by the licensee's 1999 fee divided by the
total of all licensees' 1999 fees.
New subsection 6B(3) provides
that each licensee will pay a fee on 31 December 2001 equivalent
to:
- $990,000 multiplied by the licensee's 2000 fee divided by the
total of all licensees' 2000 fees.
-
- Budget Measures 1999-2000 (Budget Paper No.2), pp
57-8.
- Explanatory Memorandum, p 5.
Kim Jackson
9 August 1999
Bills Digest Service
Information and Research Services
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ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 1999
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Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library,
1999.
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