The brawl is expected to move out of the shadows this week as broadcasters Prime7, WIN and Southern Cross Ten launch a public campaign against "antiquated laws" they say are killing regional news services.

It has also squeezed Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull into a corner with the Prime Minister, stirred accusations that Mr Abbott is licking the boots of major media players Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes, and has regional MPs nervous about the impending political backlash from their communities.

"It's the bloody-minded nature of the Prime Minister's 'captain's pick' which looked after some media but abandoned regional Australia," Prime Media Group chairman John Hartigan said.

"The current legislation was introduced by Hawke in the late '80s. There happens to have been a communications revolution since then but the laws haven't changed.

"We are now living in an era of the internet, high speed broadband, catch-up TV services and online streaming which all bring significant competition to our broadcasting services."

At the centre of the skirmish are "reach rules" which restrict any media player from owning radio, print and television in the same market.

The rules prevent network operators from broadcasting to more than 75 per cent of the population, thereby restricting mergers between regional print, radio and television media companies.

Television broadcasters pay heavily for government licences to transmit in areas such as Wollongong, Newcastle, Tamworth and other regional centres, but in the new digital world, national and even international news services are increasing their market share in those areas without the need to pay any licence fees.

With market share dwindling, regional broadcasters say they are left with no choice but to slash or close newsrooms.

WIN has already closed two at Mildura and Mackay and, while none of the regional broadcasters would confirm which ones, others will certainly follow. It also comes against a backdrop of changes by the ABC and Fairfax Media to streamline operations in regional areas.

"The Coalition government's reluctance to remove the reach rule is forcing us to review how and if we deliver local news going forward," WIN chief executive Andrew Lancaster said.

"Unlike when the reach rule was introduced 23 years ago, there are now a number of streaming and online businesses that are accessing regional viewers including Seven, Nine and Ten.

"These businesses are seemingly free to come into regional markets and to take regional revenue and audiences while others such as WIN are constrained."

"We're operating with one arm tied behind our backs," Prime's Mr Hartigan added. "We'd just like to compete on even terms."

Under pressure from regional broadcasters and his own regional MPs, Mr Turnbull flagged industry reforms in March but his moves were later shelved by the Prime Minister. "We were told the government didn't have the appetite for another fight in the Senate," Mr Hartigan said.

But that fight was not about the welfare of regional centres, but about protecting the Prime Minister's "media mates", he said.

Mr Turnbull's push for reform of regional broadcast rules was countered by pressure on Mr Abbott from Murdoch and Stokes who, wanting a trade-off, lobbied for the scrapping of laws which keep sport on free-to-air television - a move which would meet strong opposition in the Senate.

Asked if he had been lobbied by Murdoch or Stokes to drop his regional reforms, Mr Turnbull would only say that Mr Stokes' views "were very well known".

"The television industry is under a lot of pressure because of the internet, and these media ownership rules were written before the internet, so they are very old," Mr Turnbull said.

"Regional broadcasters ... pay a big chunk of their revenues to the metros for most of their programming content. As they're squeezed, inevitably, the only part of their cost base that they can control is local news and content.

"And that is why, sadly, you are seeing local news services in the bush by regional television stations being cut back and in some cases closed."

WIN, Prime7 and Southern Cross Ten will launch a media campaign this week, heaping more pressure on regional MPs.

"I'm sure [those MPs] are keen to ensure that regional communities continue to have a voice but very few seem to be doing anything about it in Canberra," Mr Lancaster said.

"What these regional politicians need to understand is that this is not a future issue, it's a now issue."

Newcastle Herald