AUSTRALIA: Foreign Owners of Media Assets Required to Notify ACMA by Feb 2019

Thursday December 6 2018

The Australian Government has established a public Register of Foreign Owners of Media Assets.

Foreign persons with interests of 2.5% or more in Australian media companies are required to notify the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) of those interests.

An Australian media company is a company that is:

1. the licensee of a commercial television or radio broadcasting licence, or
2. the publisher of a newspaper associated with a commercial broadcasting licence area.

Any foreign person (as defined by the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975) with company interests of 2.5% or more in an Australian media company (a ‘foreign stakeholder’) is required to notify the ACMA.

Notification is required in the following circumstances:

1. Initial disclosure – a person who was a foreign stakeholder as at 1 September 2018 has until 28 February 2019 to make this initial notification;
2. Changes of foreign stakeholder status – foreign persons who acquire, or cease to hold, company interests of 2.5 per cent or more in an Australian media company must notify the ACMA within 30 days of this occurring; and
3. Annual reporting—all foreign persons holding company interests of 2.5 per cent or more in an Australian media company as at 30 June must notify the ACMA within 30 days of the end of that financial year.

Notifications can be made via the ACMA website “acma.gov.au” and search “Lodgement – notification of foreign ownership of media assets’.

Click on the link above for more information.