• Sydney Morning Herald, Friday, June 16, 2006 11:32 AM

Australia's media conglomerates are backing big changes to the country's restrictions on foreign and cross-media ownership, but their hoped-for overhaul could be halted by demands for more commercial TV, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. And one of the biggest of them all--Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd.--will not support the changes unless the government supports at least one free TV license. Under the "reform blueprint" released in March, cross-media ownership limits would be lifted, but existing limits on broadcast licenses would stay. But the government has thus far ruled out any more competition in the free TV sector, currently controlled by three companies. News Ltd. says it can't "support the proposed changes to cross and foreign ownership unless the discriminatory deregulation proposals are changed. In particular, these changes should not occur until the government allocates new free to air licenses."

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