The expectation that commercial radio presenters will disclose agreements with sponsors is firmly entrenched in Australian broadcasting regulation. There has been a program standard covering current affairs programs on commercial radio for more than 20 years. Interest in that standard has been reignited in the past couple of weeks by reports in The Australian that the media regulator, the ACMA, is looking into arrangements at various Nine Radio stations about commercial agreements held by presenters at 4BC in Brisbane, 2GB in Sydney and 3AW in Melbourne.
In 1999, ‘cash for comment’ exploded as a media standards issue when the former Australian Broadcasting Authority launched its Commercial Radio Inquiry. The inquiry resulted in program standards that required the distinguishing of advertisements from editorial, on-air disclosure by presenters of commercial agreements and the publication by licensees of a register of agreements as well as other compliance activities. After a review of these standards in 2012, only the Disclosure Standard was retained in this form. ACMA remade this standard again last year, just before it was due to expire.
There hasn’t been a long list of investigations over the life of the standard, but ACMA has taken enforcement action, including in 2021 when it issued a remedial direction to the licensee of 2GB (owned by Nine Radio) over a commercial agreement that the licensee had with the Star Entertainment Group for Alan Jones to promote a proposed hotel development.
Back to the current issue, and the media writer at The Australian, Sophie Elsworth, has been digging into the Nine licensees’ registers of commercial agreements, starting last week with the agreements held by Jacqui Felgate. Felgate has been filling in but is set to take over as Drive host at 3AW from the start of 2024. The Australian reported that 12 commercial agreements, said to be worth $300,000 in total per year, were only disclosed after its first report on the matter.
This week, The Australian revealed that 4BC is also in ACMA’s spotlight, again for possible omissions from its register of commercial agreements. Finally, 2GB is apparently the subject of additional ACMA inquiries, this time in relation to an alleged failure by Ben Fordham – when discussing Uber – to make an on-air disclosure that he has a commercial agreement with Uber. That agreement is listed on the 2GB website. As the circumstances are yet to be investigated, it’s not clear whether the way in which the topic was discussed would trigger the obligation under the standard to make a disclosure statement.
The Australian also reported that an internal reminder went around at Nine Radio after the events last week that resulted in 20 commercial agreements appearing on the various licensee registers.
So far, we don’t have the benefit of any factual findings from ACMA or an explanation from Nine, although ACMA has responded to inquiries from Elsworth to say that it is looking into all three matters. It would be both surprising and disappointing if Nine had overlooked its obligation to make the existence of the agreements public. This rule is well known and it’s only two years since a Nine licensee was issued with a remedial direction for breaches of the same standard. And while the most important aspect is the on-air declaration at the time the sponsor is mentioned, an incomplete register makes it impossible to know whether the disclosure should be made. This, in turn, defeats the purpose of the scheme: to give listeners information that allows them to assess whether presenters’ comments are, at least in part, motivated by a commercial influence.
In our submission to the remaking of the Disclosure Standard last year, we said there might be a need to reintroduce rules that require licensees to periodically report to ACMA on commercial agreements, instead of relying solely on licensees to take the initiative and update their own websites. If ACMA investigates these latest reports and finds breaches of the standard, the case for periodic reporting will be strengthened.
Derek Wilding, CMT Co-Director