Commercial TV Australia (CTVA) has renamed itself ‘Free TV Australia’ and finalized new codes of practice with the ABA.

The FTVA name more properly reflects the organisation’s role in representing Australia’s three major free to air commercial networks. ASTRA represents commercial subscription (pay) tv and radio.

Free TV Australia has just finalized its codes of practice with the ABA, which tightens up areas such as the loudness of tv ads; food and beverage advertising to children; protection of children’s privacy; PG timezones; broadcast of emergency information and disclosure of commercial agreements in factual programs.

The commercial agreements code brings tv into closer alignment with radio’s tightened rules on disclosure of third party agreements in current affairs programming, but still does not require programs to acknowledge the sponsorship every time a commercial agreement company is mentioned, as required for John Laws. Tv’s requirements are more general:

“A disclosure required by this clause must be made either during the program or in the
credits of the program and should adequately bring the existence of any such commercial
arrangement to the attention of viewers in a way that is readily understandable to a
reasonable person.”

Meanwhile, ASTRA is likely to cut its subscription radio stations adrift as it focuses more on its pay tv priorities, which provide by far the biggest proportion of its work and its budgets.

Narrowcast and subscription radio stations are expected to form a smaller association with a secretariat which will look after their own interests.