Media Ownership
- Opened on fileWho owns the news you think you’re reading
Three billionaires and a US conglomerate control almost everything Australians read, watch and hear. The people who wrote the media laws went to work for the media companies.
Fig. 02 / What happened
Fig. 03 / Who the record names
How we know
The exhibits sit beside the title above, each tied to the article that documented it. How evidence and sources are graded: evidence grade, source tiers.
What else is connected
Named in this case and in others. A count of where the record names them, not a finding about what they did.
From the desk
- Sky News 'News24' rebrandSky News and the regional capture · Media OwnershipNews Corp said in February 2026 that Sky News Australia would be rebranded 'News24' by the end of 2026.
Read the desk note
The brand licensing agreement with the UK Sky is expiring; News Corp announced the channel would become 'News24' by the end of 2026. Confirm the rebrand happened.
- Watch: three months after the News Bargaining Incentive commencedThe levy that was designed to raise nothing · Media OwnershipMedia Ownership
Read the desk note
Check for any platform deal or withdrawal notice announced since the 26 August 2026 assent; any ATO or ACCC guidance published on the charge; any US Trade Representative action on the 1 September 2026 congressional letter to Jamieson Greer; and whether any primary document (Budget Paper, Portfolio Budget Statement, or Parliamentary Budget Office costing) now states a revenue estimate for the scheme. Three months after the 27 August 2026 commencement is the desk's reading for when a first deal, guidance note, or trade response would plausibly surface.
- Correction published501,876 signatures and nothing happened · Media Ownership
This section said Kevin Rudd launched the petition on 12 October 2020. The Guardian reported on 11 October 2020 that it was launched on the Australian Parliament website on the Saturday, which is 10 October 2020; the section and the timeline now say 10 October. The summary point now reads “From 10 October 2020” and says the petition was the largest e-petition presented to the House, which Dr…
- Correction publishedThe mining company with a stake in your news · Media Ownership
The headline of this article said the mining company owns your news. Seven Group’s own results presentation of 11 August 2026 gives it about 20 per cent of Southern Cross Media Group, which took over Seven West Media, publisher of The West Australian, in January 2026; its ASX release of 12 August 2025 gave its holding in Seven West Media as about 40 per cent. The headline now says the mining…
- Correction publishedThe property platform that owned your property reporter · Media Ownership
This section said REA “entered the mortgage market” in 2016 through a partnership with NAB. REA Group’s 2017 Annual Report (reference 17) says that on 19 December 2016 it announced a five-year partnership with NAB to create a digital home loan experience, and that in June 2017 it announced it would buy 80.3 per cent of Smartline; REA’s own company history dates “REA enters the home loans market”…
- Correction publishedThe revolving door between politics and media · Media Ownership
This section said Peter Tonagh was chief executive of REA Group. Nine’s ASX announcement of 14 January 2025 (reference 16) says that during his time at News Corp Australia he was a director of REA Group, “where he also acted as interim CEO for six months”. It also says he was Chief Operating Officer and later Chief Executive Officer of News Corp Australia, returned to Foxtel as Chief Executive…
- Correction publishedWho owns the news you think you’re reading · Media Ownership
This section said Seven Group (or Kerry Stokes) owns Perth’s only major daily. Seven Group’s own ASX documents say it owns WesTrac, Boral and Coates, held about 40 per cent of Seven West Media until the January 2026 merger, and now holds about 20 per cent of Southern Cross Media Group (references 26, 28 and 24); it does not say it owns the newspaper. The two sentences in this section now say what…
- Correction published501,876 signatures and nothing happened · Media Ownership
This section said the Senate committee’s report was tabled on 9 December 2021 and quoted it calling News Corp “Australia’s clearest example of a troubling media monopoly”. The report was released on 9 December 2021 and tabled on 8 February 2022, according to the Government’s August 2024 response, and its words are “the clearest example of a troubling media monopoly in Australia”, from the…
- Correction publishedThe mining company with a stake in your news · Media Ownership
This section said Sky News reaches regional communities through the satellite network. The channel has since been rebranded News24 (skynews.com.au now redirects to news24.com.au), and the News24 Regional page describes its free-to-air service in Network 10’s regional licence areas in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, which does not show current carriage on this network. The sentence now…
- Correction publishedSky News and the regional capture · Media Ownership
The subtitle, the pull quote and the hero image still said, or implied, that in much of regional and rural Australia the channel is your only available news channel, which this article corrected on 7 October: the ABC’s 24-hour News channel is also free-to-air there. The subtitle now says it is the only commercial news channel broadcasting free all day, the pull quote uses the channel’s current…
- Correction publishedWho owns the news you think you’re reading · Media Ownership
This section quoted the Senate inquiry as calling News Corp “Australia’s clearest example of a troubling media monopoly”. Those are not the report’s words. The executive summary of the Senate committee’s Media diversity in Australia report (December 2021) says News Corp “is the clearest example of a troubling media monopoly in Australia”, and the quotation now reads that way.
- Correction publishedThe levy that was designed to raise nothing · Media Ownership
The summary of this article said that by Royal Assent the rate had risen from 2.25 per cent to 2.75 per cent of Australian digital advertising revenue above A$250 million, and the key facts panel set the two rates side by side. That compared two different bases. Treasury’s November 2025 consultation paper set the 2.25 per cent rate assuming “total gross Australian group revenues” as the charge…
- Correction publishedThe mining company with a stake in your news · Media Ownership
The subtitle of this article and the second paragraph of this section said Seven Group Holdings held the largest stake in an oil and gas company, and the largest single stake in a gas producer. We have no source for “largest”: Seven Group states only that it holds a 30% interest in Beach Energy on its own Beach Energy page, so both lines now say a 30% stake.
- Correction publishedThe property platform that owned your property reporter · Media Ownership
This section and the summary said the A$165 billion analysis found 56 per cent of the benefit goes to the top 10 per cent of earners. The source gives 67 per cent to the top 20 per cent and no top 10 per cent share; both now give that figure.
- Correction publishedThe revolving door between politics and media · Media Ownership
This section said the 2006 law scrapped foreign ownership limits entirely. It removed the media-specific foreign ownership limits, but foreign investment in media remained subject to the Treasurer's approval under general foreign investment policy. The paragraph and the timeline now say so.
- Correction publishedWho owns the news you think you’re reading · Media Ownership
The opening paragraph of this section said the concentration was the result of deliberate regulatory changes, lobbied for by the people who benefited from them and implemented by politicians those people supported. No source we hold carries that, and the lobbying claim was already withdrawn on 7 October, so the paragraph now states only what the laws below show and labels the conclusion as this…
- Correction published501,876 signatures and nothing happened · Media Ownership
This timeline listed the August 2024 government response before the August and June 2022 entries. The entries are now in date order; their wording is unchanged.
- Correction publishedThe property platform that owned your property reporter · Media Ownership
This section said negative gearing and the capital gains discount cost A$21.8 billion a year, of which the richest 1 per cent received A$12.9 billion. The Parliamentary Budget Office costing this article cites does not give a A$21.8 billion annual figure; it puts the cost at A$181.2 billion over the decade to 2034-35. The section now uses that figure, and the A$12.9 billion figure, which was…
- Correction publishedSky News and the regional capture · Media Ownership
This article said that in many regional areas Sky News Regional is the only dedicated 24-hour news channel on free-to-air television, and "not one of several news options". That was wrong: the ABC's 24-hour News channel is also free-to-air across regional Australia. Sky News Regional is the only commercial one. The opening and this section now say so. The opening also said access to Sky News…
- Correction publishedWho owns the news you think you’re reading · Media Ownership
This section said Rupert Murdoch had lobbied directly for exactly these changes and that his papers had given consistent editorial support to the Howard government. We could not find a reliable source for either statement, so both have been removed.
- Record: the News Bargaining Incentive written as a postscript to the media ownership series, re-angled from an unverifiable revenue figure to the scheme's own moving settingsThe levy that was designed to raise nothing · Media OwnershipMedia Ownership · attended 9 September 2026
Read the desk note
ATTENDED 9 September 2026 (audit item: media bargaining incentive, no date).
FINDING. The desk's original brief framed this article around a $500 million Treasury revenue figure and a $200 to $250 million estimate of what would reach media outlets under the final scheme. Neither figure could be verified in any primary document opened during research: not the Treasury Ministers' 13 August 2026 media release, not the Exposure Draft Explanatory Memorandum, and not Budget Paper No. 2 2026-27 itself, which could not be searched down to the relevant measure. The only primary-sourced $200 to $250 million figure describes the historical annual value of pre-existing 2021-code deals, not a forward estimate under the new charge, and it is dated to Treasury's November 2025 consultation paper. Both figures were dropped from the article. What is confirmed instead is a real, sourced paradox: the scheme's own design intent, stated by Treasury in November 2025, was for the government to collect no net revenue at all; the government's own introduction-day framing on 13 August 2026 was that any revenue collected would be returned in full to the news sector; and by early August, reporting on the government's position had the revised levy still expected to raise a similar amount to the original design, without giving a figure. The rate itself took three values on two different bases (corrected 15 October 2026: the base changed from total Australian revenue to digital advertising revenue; see the correction in the section “The rate that climbed twice, and the base that narrowed”) (2.25 per cent in the November 2025 design, 2.5 per cent as introduced on 13 August 2026, 2.75 per cent by a House amendment on or about 19 August 2026), the number of publisher deals needed for a full offset also took three values, four, then six, then eight, and the cap on any one deal's share of the offset was cut to 16 per cent and then restored to 25 per cent after News Corp and Nine Entertainment Co warned the tighter design would cut payments to larger newsrooms.
ARTICLE CHANGES. Article 7 of the media ownership series, 'The levy that was designed to raise nothing', published as a postscript, not a renumbering of the closed series. Three entities added to the registry: Meta, Google, and the News Bargaining Incentive itself as a mechanism.
STILL OPEN: the Act numbers for any of the five statutes; the identity of the MP who moved the 19 August 2026 House amendment and any recorded division; a primary-sourced Budget revenue estimate for the charge; any commercial deal or withdrawal notice since the 26 August 2026 assent; and any US Trade Representative response to the 1 September 2026 congressional letter.
NEXT DATE: 30 November 2026, three months after commencement.