The federal government of Australia is planning to relax a wide range of media and digital broadcasting regulations, and is also planning to delay analogue switch-off.

Speaking at the Committee of Economic Development of Australia, Sen. Helen Coonan - Australia's communications minister - said that unless the country changes its laws, "there is a genuine risk that Australia will become a dinosaur of the analogue age."

"Traditional media services are being challenged by new digital technologies and this is resulting in the emergence of new players, new content, new services and new platforms," she said, adding that "...the impact of digital technologies means the current regulatory settings, which are largely designed for an analogue world, risk becoming outdated."

The government's proposals call for moving analogue switch-off from its current 2008 target to a two-year period between 2010 and 2012.

Also, a moratorium on a fourth commercial terrestrial network would not be extended beyond its current expiration date, December 31 2006, although any new licenses will be digital-only and awarded by the government itself instead of the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

In terms of its plans for digital terrestrial services, the government plans to make available two reserved channels of digital spectrum for subscription TV or datacasting services beginning on January 1, 2007. Once analogue switch-off has been achieved and the analogue-digital simulcast period has concluded, genre restrictions on the multicast output of the commercial networks (Seven, Nine and Ten) will be rescinded.

In other regulatory changes, current restrictions on foreign ownership of Australian media will be rescinded but direct investment from overseas into the country's media sector will have to go through approval by the Treasurer. Also, current restrictions on cross-media ownership will be relaxed in favour of a minimum standard: there will be a minimum of four commercial media groups in regional markets and five in the capital cities. Existing limits on the number of outlets one group may own will be retained, with one company being allowed to own a maximum of two radio stations per market, one TV station per licence area, and to not exceed 75% national TV reach.