The Australian Communications and Media Authority has released the Community Broadcasting Sponsorship Guidelines 2008 (the sponsorship guidelines) to replace 2003 guidelines issued by the Australian Broadcasting Authority.

‘The sponsorship guidelines will assist community broadcasting licensees to understand their obligations in relation to the restrictions on advertising and the requirements for sponsorship announcements,’ said Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman.

Under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the Act), all community broadcasting licences are subject to a licence condition that prevents them from broadcasting advertisements


However, community broadcasting licensees may broadcast a range of announcements and other promotional material which the Act does not regard as advertisements.

For example, licensees may broadcast sponsorship announcements as long as they meet requirements for ‘tagging’ and hourly sponsorship limits (five minutes for radio and seven minutes for television).

Release of the guidelines accords with a recommendation of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications, Information Technology and the Arts inquiry into community broadcasting that ACMA update the sponsorship guidelines by 30 June 2008.

The new guidelines are available [link=http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_311062#sponsorship]here[/link]