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The convergence Review has suggested that ownership laws be replaced. Photo: Steve Christo

MEDIA cross-ownership laws in Australia would be scrapped and replaced with ''minimum number of owners'' and ''national public interest'' tests, under proposals put to the federal government yesterday.

The long-awaited Convergence Review, chaired by former local IBM boss Glen Boreham, recommended the abolition of laws that carved up the media landscape into the categories of television, radio stations and print.

The old structure should no longer apply as traditional media players move online and content is delivered in new ways, the review argues. Instead, it says: ''Ownership of local media should continue to be regulated through a 'a minimum number of owners' rule.''

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The review said a new government-funded cross-media regulator should decide the minimum number of owners and use as a starting point the current ''4/5 rule'', which calls for the existence of at least five separate media groups in a metropolitan radio licence area, and four in regional areas. The new watchdog should apply a general diversity test to prevent ''a concentration of services in the hands of a small number of operators''. But the changes would not require any forced sales by existing players, applying only to future changes, it says.

In addition to diversity tests, a ''public interest test'' should also apply to any changes in control. Such a test should consider whether the merger, sale or takeover of a media company would reduce either the number of owners in Australia or the range of content.

And the public interest should consider ''whether the person taking control would represent a significant risk that the content service enterprise would not comply with its obligations''.

But the review failed to provide enough detail on how the test would apply, critics warned, and would open the way for government interference. ''News Limited opposes the recommended so-called 'public interest' test in relation to media ownership,'' said chief executive Kim Williams said. ''This test is unnecessary, given the extensive pro-competition powers of the ACCC. It is exceedingly vague and imprecise, will increase business uncertainty and will be subject to political interference.''

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull agreed, saying the test ''would in effect mean the politicisation of decisions involving changes of control''.

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Overhaul old media laws: review