Notice of draft exemption order for
Transact Broadcasting Pty Ltd (Transact)
(Application Ref. 93)

This notice sets out the draft exemption order for Transact’s Al Jazeera and invites persons to make submissions to the ACMA within 30 days of 24 January 2013 as per section 130ZY(6) of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.

Transact (recently acquired by iiNet Pty Ltd) provide a subscription television service of 36 channels over the internet and via set top box to its customers located in the ACT, Australia.

Al Jazeerais a pass through channel. Transact has no ability to compile channels itself or carry out post or pre-production on content.

Al Jazeera is a 24 hour English language news and current affairs channel reporting on global news.

Summary of reasons – unjustifiable hardship

It is the ACMA’s preliminary assessment that a refusal to make the exemption order would impose an unjustifiable hardship on the Applicant. The ACMA notes that the Applicant currently has no infrastructure in place to live caption programs, and that the provision of captioning would impose significant financial costs and would likely result in the removal of the Service. The ACMA also notes the likely low impact on the deaf or hearing impaired viewers, or potential viewers, in making the exemption order, having regard to the subscription numbers for the Service and that it is broadcast only in the ACT. The hardship that would be imposed on the Applicant would therefore not be justifiable in these circumstances.

For further detail please refer to ‘Preliminary Statement of Reasons for Application #93’ document.

To view the draft exemption order please refer to ‘Draft Order for Application # 93’ document.

All submissions received up to and including 22 February 2013, will be considered in making the ACMA’s final assessment. Submissions received after that date will not be considered.

Publication of submissions

In general, the ACMA publishes all submissions it receives. The ACMA prefers to receive submissions that are not claimed to be confidential. However, the ACMA accepts that a submitter may sometimes wish to provide information in confidence. In these circumstances, submitters are asked to identify the material over which confidentiality is claimed and provide a written explanation for the claim.

The ACMA will consider each confidentiality claim on a case-by-case basis. If the ACMA accepts a claim, it will not publish the confidential information unless authorised or required by law to do so.

Please note that the ACMA does not acknowledge receipt of submissions.

Effective consultation

The ACMA is working to enhance the effectiveness of its stakeholder consultation processes, which are an important source of evidence for its regulatory development activities. To assist stakeholders in formulating submissions to its formal, written consultation processes, it has developed a guide called Effective consultation: A guide to making a submission. This guide provides information about the ACMA’s formal, written, public consultation processes and practical guidance on how to make a submission.

Please forward submissions quoting Application Reference # 93 to

Email:

Post:
Submissions to Order Applications
Content Monitoring and Review Section
PO Box Q500
QVB NSW 1230