Australia proposes scrapping media ownership restraints

Sydney

AUSTRALIA proposed scrapping media ownership restraints on Saturday which could raise huge interest among moguls looking for acquisitions, especially in its ailing, third largest free-to-air television network, Ten Network Holdings.

Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield told reporters that restraints on media asset ownership would go under the new proposals that have to be approved by parliament.

The decades-old 75 per cent reach rule and the two-out-of-three laws prohibiting a media proprietor from reaching more than 75 per cent of a free-to-air broadcast audience in …