Media reforms all but off the 2016 table

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has conceded the media reforms package probably won't be voted on in parliament before next year.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield

Media ownership reforms probably won't be voted on by parliament until next year. (AAP)

Media ownership reforms probably won't be voted on by parliament until next year, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has conceded.

Labor has vowed to oppose the package because it disagrees with the two-out-of-three rule, which prevents a proprietor from controlling more than two of three radio, TV and newspapers in one area.

"Because of the limited number of sitting days left ... it may well be and probably will be next year before we can conclude that legislation," Senator Fifield told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

The opposition agrees with scrapping the so-called reach rule, which prohibits a company from controlling commercial TV licences which reach more than 75 per cent of the population.

It has called on the government to split the bill, but Senator Fifield said it was his intention to keep the reforms in one package.


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Source: AAP


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