The "2 out of 3" rule prevents a a single person/company from controlling more than two out of three media platforms – commercial radio, commercial television and newspaper – in the same area. This is intended to promote media diversity and reduce concentration into the hands of a few. Parliament is currently considering scrapping the law.

The problem: Australia's media ownership rules have become link since the 1980s and media ownership has become increasingly concentrated. Newspaper circulation is among the link in the democratic world, much more so than the US or UK. Murdoch-owned newspapers account for close to 70% of the metropolitan market. He also owns the largest free-to-air TV station, and all of pay TV. This becomes more of a problem considering that he is politically outspoken and that his politics manifestly influence the media he owns (link). Labor and the Greens are thus opposed to repealing the law. Conversely, the LNP government favour doing so, arguing that it is outdated and stifles ability to access capital. link that the Labor/Greens position relies too much on evidence from academics and the 'Media Watch' program rather than evidence from the industry.

This is exactly why America's economy is fucked up. We have three big banks that are too big to fail and it's causing a lot of issues because they own pretty much everything. I would imagine that the media works pretty similar.

If I'm correct American media (TV especially) has this problem too. Why do we have so many cop/medical shows that are all pretty much the same save for location? Because it's all owned by like two or three companies and none of them want to take any risks. It majorly takes away from creativity and captivating new content.

*Hopes I didn't miss the point of the question*

That's a very good point too. Having basically media monopolies reduces competition. Which might in turn affect quality and diversity of content. And it's not like the law is onerous. Media diversity laws have been progressively dismantled since 1980s (deregulation being the flavour of the times) and this was the weak replacement enacted after doing so. And now they wanna get rid this of this too? It's literally the only thing left, and one of the only measures preventing a single company from having a extremely massive share of the market.

And lol I'm honestly jealous of American media. Americans be like "our media is so biased" and I'm like LOL have you seen ours? We have one small progressive-leaning newspaper in the entire country (The Guardian), one neutral and unbiased TV station (the ABC, which must be unbiased because it's the public broadcaster, and it's under constant threat of being defunded anyway). Literally all the other newspapers and TV stations (which are consumed by the significant majority of the population) are in line with Murdoch's brand of populist conservatism and full of bashing immigrants and Muslims / downplaying climate change / lying about welfare recipients / continual bad press on the Labor Party and good press on the LNP. America legit has it lucky. I'm pretty you're better than the UK as well. Though I hear that Anglophone media in general is pretty shoddy - apparently Francophone media as a whole has a culture of being far less sensationalist and biased.

My biggest concern about media concentration is the power that one person/company will wield over public opinions and thus the country itself. Media is pretty much a pillar of democracy in allowing the people to make informed decisions about government and keeping those in power accountable. To have one dude control the info that the vast majority of the population accesses? A dude with strong political views and long history of putting his biases into the outlets he owns? Legit affects how truly democratic we are IMO. A bit horrifying.

Oh it has. Shows like Emerald City (creative, fresh, unique, and with captivating characters) get cancelled while we have like 3 more cop shows in the making. God help you guys, I hope they don't get rid of it. That sounds like a bad idea.

Yeah I think our media is pretty bad but I can imagine that there is worse out there; I just haven't seen it because I don't have the money to travel and watch it.

My biggest concern about media concentration is the power that one person/company will wield over public opinions and thus the country itself.
I can see that. If the media is so heavily biased and in the hands of one person it can be detrimental. Like this person can feed everyone whatever they want with little interference. At least in America we can compare and contrast the two radical groups and find our own middle ground or piece together the truth between the two stories. If we only get one side, that's just shady to say the least.

Creative shows get cancelled "while we have like 3 more cop shows in the making" lmao I feel that (painfully) xD

I think 'Merica has an eclectic mix of the ridiculously biased and the quite reasonable. So the media is sort of what you make of it. And like you said, you can contrast the two radical groups and find your own middle ground. Australia tips the scales much more in favour of 'ridiculously biased', lol.

Oh Murdoch does feed everyone whatever he wants with little interference, so yeah that's a pretty accurate assessment. It's likely the main reason for Australia's stupidly low rate of climate change acceptance - only 46% of people accept climate climate. In the demographic more likely to consume Murdoch media (LNP voters), this number falls to 28%. These figures are amongst the lowest in the developed world. I'm quite certain it's due to Murdoch having fed the majority of the population a diet of bullshit 'climate sceptic' stories over many years.

Also, welp, they did it: the gov link it. In the worst way possible. They made a deal with One Nation, our Trump-lites, to conduct an 'investigation' into the ABC (basically the only completely non-biased outlet in the country) with their ultimate intention being to defund it. They accuse it of being 'biased' because it covers climate change without bullshit false equivalency between the sides, it reports on immigrants accurately and without the 'holy shit we're being invaded by brown boat people' thing, and doesn't give anti-vaxxers equal airtime when talking about vaccination (which is literally what One Nationlink).This is despite the ABC being found to have no bias in its last three independent audits. And most of all, One Nation are angry that the broadcaster recently conducted a bit of investigative journalism into their party which uncovered corruption and law-breaking. Such charming chaps, these One Nation fellas.

So yeah basically I suppose you could hypothetically own 100% of Australian media without ramification now lol.

Oh also Murdoch actually attempted to force a change in the law, and our wonderfully-obliging government complied. I'll put a link up about that.

Oh lord Jesus, not the climate change deniers. Does he tell you that the world is flat too? xD

But they really did end up repealing it? Is it as bad as you thought it'd be?