The deals between the NBN and Telstra and Optus lock in the NBN and make life immensely difficult for the Liberals in communications.
Stephen Conroy
Follow Crikey’s latest coverage of Stephen Conroy. Crikey’s Stephen Conroy coverage includes independent news, blogs and commentary.
James Packer shows off his Labor Right pulling power
The James Packer ALP advisory team of Graham Richardson, Karl Bitar and former Kim Beazley chief-of-staff Gary O’Neill, today have played one of their trump cards in the campaign to head off Andrew Wilkie’s pokies reform agenda.
Mitchell and The Oz (part II): ‘it’s now war’ with the government
Several people close to The Australian say the paper is looking strident on many fronts. And as government tensions escalate one declares “it’s now war”. Crikey continues its profile of the national broadsheet under editor Chris Mitchell.
Mitchell’s ‘magnificent obsession’: the man behind The Oz
As editor-in-chief since 2003, Chris Mitchell has used The Australian like a weapon to fight what often appears to be personal battles on a great many fronts.
NBN and crossing the digital health divide
With 22,600,000-plus Australians, even a conservative estimate of 15% digitally deprived residents means that almost 3.4 million Australians will fall on the other side of the digital divide, writes Don Perlgut, CEO of the Rural Health Education Foundation.
Conroy’s blueprint for a digital economy … that doesn’t need an NBN
The National Digital Economy Strategy positions Australia as a “leading digital economy” by 2020. Or is it “Conroy’s Digital Economy Con”? Either way it doesn’t need a National Broadband Network.
Conroy’s new tactic for dealing with News Limited
Stephen Conroy has drawn the ire of News Limited papers due to a novel media management strategy in which he will issue general press releases whenever he responds to their questions in order to limit the chances of being misrepresented, writes Dave Gaukroger.
Exclusivity, glass jaws and media business models
Media whingeing about exclusivity contradicts its incessant clamour for greater transparency from governments.
Five reasons why the govt should be wary about set-top boxes
Is the federal government’s $308 million plan to provide pensioners with digital set-top boxes really a vital service for vulnerable Australians?
My Cup Of Tea: Government converges on growing cultural reality
With the federal government’s Convergence Review under way, Catherine Lumby and Kate Crawford have set forward some new principles for regulatory reform. The current landscape is not a pretty picture.
The ‘hysteria’ around NBN cost blowouts
So far April hasn’t been a great month for the National Broadband Network. But communications minister Stephen Conroy isn’t worried — he says it’s all “hysteria”.
The growing cost of the gift to TV networks
The government’s gift last year to the free-to-air TV networks is costing us tens of millions more than forecast.
Telstra deal puts more momentum behind the NBN
The Telstra-NBN deal announced this morning puts more weight behind the broadband network, leaving the Coalition ever further behind.
Seven permitted multichanneling of sports and news
Stephen Conroy has announced that Channel Seven are permitted to multichannel the tennis on 7Two. With the event on the anti-siphoning list, broadcasters are restricted from scheduling sports like this away from their primary analogue channel, writes Dan Barrett.
At last, the NBN Business Plan
The government has finally released the NBN Corporate Plan that caused so much fuss while Parliament was sitting. It unveils a 7% rate of return and lower-than-expected wholesale prices as part of a set of conservative projections over the next 30 years.
Conroy’s convergence review must surrender control
The challenge for the government’s review of convergence is to let go of the idea that we can control the media like we could before digital.
Conroy’s coup in the weird world of anti-siphoning
Stephen Conroy has proposed a substantial overhaul of anti-siphoning — exploiting the fact that the current list doesn’t serve viewers.
Conroy adjusts anti-siphoning to reflect reality
Stephen Conroy has announced a significant overhaul of the anti-siphoning scheme, designed to free up aspects of the list intended to keep major sporting events on free-to-air television whilst maintaining approximately current levels of sporting coverage, writes Bernard Keane.
NBN business case: curiouser and curiouser
If the government secures passage of its bill to separate Telstra, it will have achieved an historic telecommunications reform. Typically, everyone’s talking about something else.
NBN Co business case — truly a curiously inadequate document
“It is a curiously inadequate document,” wrote Malcolm Turnbull of the NBN Co Business Case Summary. He’s right. A business case that doesn’t, y’know, present a case for the business, supported by proper numbers? WTF?
Xenophon extracts NBN plan from govt
Crikey Media Wrap: Despite the government previously insisting that its NBN business plan could not be released, Julia Gillard and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy finally coughed it up yesterday after pressure from independent senator Nick Xenophon.
Anti-siphoning isn’t new paradigm-friendly
All the huffing and puffing on anti-siphoning doesn’t change that the opposition and minor parties have virtually no options if they don’t like what the government offers.
Conroy confirms: soccer punished with a return to anti-siphoning
While speculation has centred on what will be removed from the anti-siphoning list, we now know soccer will be punished by being put back on.
Benson: Hockey is arguing like Labor a decade ago
Joe Hockey might not have perfectly articulated his attack on the banks last week, but Labor has no reason not to agree with him. Nearly ten years ago Stephen Conroy and Wayne Swan were arguing for the same thing - but more so, writes Simon Bensen.
