Inquiry into the competitive neutrality of the national broadcasters

The panel provided its report to the Minister for Communications and the Arts on 28 September 2018. The Minister released the panel’s report on 12 December 2018.

The panel found the national broadcasters are applying ‘best endeavours’ to meet competitive neutrality requirements but recommended they improve their transparency, reporting and other processes relating to their competitive activities and Charter performance.

The panel also noted the ABC and SBS Boards should give greater guidance on how they take account of other media market participants.

It is up to the national broadcasters to act on these recommendations.

The Government is considering how it might implement other panel recommendations.

Report attachments

The following attachments to the report have also been released:

• Attachment B: Ernst & Young's Economic advice on cost allocation and pricing practices of the national broadcasters. This document has not been produced by us and may not meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA requirements. Please contact us at competitiveneutralityinquiry1 [at] communications.gov.au to obtain alternative copies. 
• Attachment C: The Bureau of Communications and Arts Research's Estimates of labour productivity trends in Australian public and private broadcasting

PwC's Australian Broadcast Media Landscape 2018-2022 (Attachment A) has not been released as it contains proprietary information. However, the panel's report includes relevant extracts from PwC's report.