The media in Australia is an important component of the economy. Australian media is widely available and serves a wide range of audiences – 99% of Australian households have a television, all families have at least one radio.

Public media Two media companies in Australia are publicly funded: the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Special Broadcast Service (SBS). Both provide free broadcasting on terrestrial television, radio and the Internet. Both are owned by the Australian government. Television For the first time television in Australia appeared in 1956, the pioneers were the states of New South Wales and Victoria. The last state where TV appeared in 1971 was the Northern Territory. Color television appeared in 1975. In addition to public television, which is available to almost the entire population of Australia, there are three main commercial television channels: Nine Network, Seven Network and Network Ten, they cover most of the country's densely populated cities. In the province, the choice is more limited, often local news comes out in the form of short issues on one of the major networks. An example of such a regional network is Imparja. Digital broadcasting began on January 1, 2001. Analogue broadcasting was originally planned to be switched off by 2008, but the task was postponed to 2013. After a heated debate in the early 2000s, a 1992 bill that banned foreign firms from buying more than 20 percent of local broadcasters was retained. Pay TV Around 25% of Australian households had access to pay-TV services at the end of 2005. The main operators are Foxtel and Optus in urban areas, as well as Austar in regional and rural areas. Smaller operators are Selectv and UBI World TV. [2] Radio The first radio broadcast in the country began on 13 November 1923 at the 2SB (later 2BL) station in Sydney. ABC began broadcasting in 1932. Currently, there are 274 commercial radio stations (through advertising) and 341 public (state-funded). There is also a 2.368 MHz HF radio station called Symban/La Manamea Samo, broadcast 7 days a week. Press Among the daily newspapers are 2 national, 10 state/territory newspapers, 37 regional and 470 other local and suburban newspapers. All major newspapers are owned by either News Limited, a subsidiary of News Corporation, or Fairfax Media. Notable newspapers include the Sydney Morning Herald, the Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun (Melbourne) and the most influential financial newspaper, The Australian Financial Review. There are several popular independent news sources, including the online magazine Crikey. Of the 1600 magazines published in Australia, 30 have a circulation of more than 80,000.