Probably the normal amount of thought to dedicate to Australian children’s television show The Ferals is the occasional reminiscence about how there was once a TV show where some horrible looking cretinous animals with a punk aesthetic mysteriously cohabitated with a pair of feckless university students. Not everyone is normal though. For instance, some of us are out there wondering how Australia’s federal broadcasting regulation body would deal with a bunch of anthropomorphic feral beasts having their own pirate TV station.
Of course, by “some of us“, I mean literally one person: internet scallywag Dan Nolan, who you might know from the browser extension that turned pictures of Tony Abbott into cat photos or that time he tricked an astounding number of people into thinking he was an Australia Post employee that was throwing away postal survey votes.
https://twitter.com/dannolan/status/907817752060059648
Clearly putting his life of infuriating credulous homophobes behind him to partake in more noble pursuits, Nolan is now bothering government bodies with nonsense questions about now-defunct children’s television shows. The following is the request he sent to the Australian Communications and Media Authority via their online form:
I have more of a broad request – depending on your familiarity with ABC TV during the 90’s you may be aware of a TV show known as “Feral TV”. The premise of the show is relatively simple, a group of feral animals take over the apparatus of a television status and begin to broadcast their own unsanctioned content.
Obviously this is a television show and thus fiction, but I am wondering, to what degree is this entire television show a farce? Surely if a group of sentient feral animals took over broadcasting equipment and began broadcasting their own pirate television station ACMA would get involved immediately? Were a group of imported feral animals to perform this dastardly deed, what kind of custodial sentence and or fines would they be looking at?
The ACMA – hardworking, tireless angels that they are – took to Twitter to answer his query:
Control of invasive species is usually a matter for the invasive species council and is outside of the ACMA’s remit. However, providing a television broadcasting service without a licence is an offence. If Kerry the Toad or the Ferals were looking to obtain a commercial television licence, they would be subject to normal rules including the requirement to notify the ACMA about a change in control. If the Ferals are foreign entities for the purposes of the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975, they would also need to apply to the Foreign Investment Review Board for approval.
Warnings of “don’t mess with the Ferals” notwithstanding, the ACMA reserves its right to take action where it suspects a breach of the law occurring.
Well, that answers that burning question you’ve always been asking yourself, and you can also use this knowledge if you too are a feral animal who wants to broadcast a TV show.
