ABSTRACT
Australia's national broadcasters and its commercial stations are different from their British and United States (US) counterparts. US and Australian commercial television regulations governing ownership and control have mostly borne a distinct family resemblance to each other. Station independence has been the norm for most of Australian television history. Stations in Australia never surrendered their control over advertising to networks or to advertisers. Australia's mixed public and commercial broadcasting arrangements also differed from those obtaining in Britain. Like the French and British, Australian and Canadian lobbyists invoke national and cultural traditions to legitimate local content rules. Australia's broad reliance upon imports across its schedule sees it pay more for imported programming per viewer than do larger television markets. The accusation that Australian television is derivative means only that local programs can be viewed as similar to other US and British programs. Australian-made programs are also important to ethnic communities as an informational and entertainment resource.
