Section 38A

Section 38A refers to a specific license which can be issued to an operator of a television station in the Australian television industry. This is generally granted to stations that operate in a solus market, that is, they are the only commercial television station operating in that area, provided no objections are found in the issuing of such a license. The name "Section 38A" refers to the applicable section of the "Broadcasting Services Act 1992" which grants such rights to solus operators [ [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/bsa1992214/s38a.html Broadcasting Services Act 1992: Sect 38A Additional commercial television licences in single markets] . Retrieved from [http://www.austlii.edu.au/ AustLII] on 2007-09-11.] .

The new license category came in existing in the mid 1990s when residents of smaller country regions, who were excluded from aggreation, began to protest about the lack of choice in their area. In these areas, viewers had only two choices: the existing station or the ABC (SBS wasn't widespread at time).

The first 38A license was granted to Griffith station MTN-9, who were previously part of the Midstate and Prime networks of stations serving central and southern New South Wales. This was allocated on 1996-07-18 [Australian Communications and Media Authority. [http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_90040 Section 38A of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 - Allocation of additional commercial television licences in single markets] . Retrieved on 2007-09-11.] , and went to air in 1997, after being initially rejected by the Australian Broadcasting Authority. It is a feed of the Central West NSW version of Prime Television, and is licensed as "AMN", broadcasting on UHF 31.

Since then, the solus operators in the regional licence areas of South Australia have been granted an 38A license, being allocated on 2002-04-24. These were:

*Spencer Gulf/Broken Hill: Central GTS/BKN, owned by Southern Cross Broadcasting. Station was granted callsigns "SGS" and "SCN", and branded as Southern Cross Ten, carrying Ten Network programming.
*Renmark/Loxton and Mount Gambier: WIN Television South Australia, owners of existing stations SES-8 and RTS-5A. Granted callsigns "LRS" and "MGS", branded as "WIN Ten", carrying Ten Network programming.

In more recent years, the premise has been extended to allow for two station markets where there are two different owners to apply, either separately or jointly, to operate a digital-only third station. These are known as "Section 38B" licences [ [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/bsa1992214/s38b.html Broadcasting Services Act 1992: Sect 38B Additional commercial television licences in 2-station markets] . Retrieved from [http://www.austlii.edu.au/ AustLII] on 2007-09-11.] , and were created by the "Broadcasting Services Amendment (Digital Television and Datacasting) Act 2000" [ [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/num_act/bsatada2000573/ Broadcasting Services Amendment (Digital Television and Datacasting) Act 2000] . Retrieved from [http://www.austlii.edu.au/ AustLII] on 2007-09-11.] .

Section 38B allows current operators to apply for the additional licence either as a joint venture company, or separately; in the case where both operators apply separately to ACMA, the licence is to be allocated via auction. However, as of 2007 all of the licences so far granted under section 38B have been to joint ventures between existing operators. These licenses were awarded to Tasmania (Tasmanian Digital Television, owned by WIN and Southern Cross) and Mildura (Mildura Digital Television, owned by WIN and Prime). A license is expected to be granted in Darwin.

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