Australian-Media.com.au News

• Community radio station breached licence conditions

  May 16 2008 11:58am (UTC+8)  -  Article by Kevin

  The ACMA has found that Curtin University of Technology, the licensee of Perth community radio station 6NR, breached the conditions of its licence that prohibit the broadcasting of advertisements and the broadcasting of sponsorship announcements that run in excess of five minutes per hour.
  
  6NR is provided under a community broadcasting licence, the conditions of which impose tight restrictions on advertising and paid promotional content.
  
  The licensee failed to include appropriate acknowledgements of financial support ("tags") in relation to live chats with financial supporters. Under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (BSA), sponsorship announcements on community radio which do not carry tags are considered to be advertisements. Where they are appropriately tagged, the BSA allocates a time limit of five minutes per hour for the broadcast of sponsorship announcements. On two occasions, ACMA found that the broadcast of announcements by the licensee ran in excess of this time limit.
  
  In response to these breaches, the licensee has ceased all live chats with financial supporters and will now pre-record these segments to allow for a calculation of accurate timing and the placement of appropriate tags.
  
  While this is the second time that the licensee has been found to be in breach of these licence conditions, ACMA considers the decisive actions taken should assist 6NR to comply with its obligations and will not take any further action at this time.
  
  Additionally, all community radio stations are now on notice through this release (and other recent releases) that the ACMA will have little tolerance of future breaches of this licence condition.
  
  A copy of investigation report 1929 is available on the ACMA website.
  
  ACMA Media Release

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