The ancestral Act was restrictive to the content and ownership of commercial radio and thus was successively amended to accommodate for the introduction of privately owned television networks.
The ad hoc approach to legislating broadcasting regulations was reviewed by parliament in 1988 leading to the drafting of the current Act.
[5] The legislation aims to regulate the availability and content of Australian broadcasting services including television, radio, and online platforms.
‘Material of local significance’ includes content on individuals, places, organisations, events, and issues pertaining to respective communities.
A person who has at least 15% company ownership through interests, stocks or partnerships is considered in "control" of the company.
[13][11] The resulting merger of the companies was scrutinised for its damage to media diversity and independent investigative journalism in Australia.
This involves the regulation of Internet service providers and a mechanism in which content can be reported for breaching established codes of practice.
The amendment introduces a new role for the classification board to assist in classifying age restrictions for online content.
[17] Schedule 8 was passed through the Communications Legislation Amendment (Online Content Services and Other Measures) Bill 2017.
This legislation operates parallel to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 with the commissioner’s role involving establishing internet industry codes of practice.
[19] In 2004, a report into the operation of schedule 5 (the regulation of online broadcasting services) observed several recommendations to be considered by parliament.
The Commission recommended that the key objectives of the act be modified to include ‘the promotion of freedom of expression'.
The review warned of a "concentrated" traditional media within Australia, pointing out News Limited in newspaper, Nine Network in Television and Village Roadshow in radio as companies holding majority of their fields potential audience.
[22] The current cross-media ownership regulations have been criticised for not being able to adopt to the evolving capabilities of broadcasting technologies.