There’s been a lot of talk about this issue… Maybe too much talk.
Nah. There really hasn’t been enough talk at all. Firstly, I encourage everyone to have a look at the discussion paper for themselves. You can find it here on the DCITA website.
The paper talks about many aspects of the media but, as you may have guessed, I want to focus on television and two major suggestions:
1. Multichannelling
Section 2.2(b)(i) suggests that: “current restrictions on commercial television broadcaster multichannelling would be removed at the end of the simulcast period”. At present these restrictions are in place to, effectively, give subscription television a head start. Meanwhile the Government is complaining that Australia “follows other markets in terms of the range and types on consumer equipment available” stating that our smaller population is to blame.
This logic is flawed because it is based on speculation rather than historical evidence. Historically we’ve seen that when a compelling reason is present, Australians take up new technology faster than most other countries. We are ahead of many other countries in the uptake of mobile phone technologies and broadband internet use to name just two. This uptake is purely because there is compelling content within those services.
If there was compelling content within the digital television services we would see a vastly accelerated uptake of digital set-top boxes. The prohibition on Free to Air (FTA) commercial networks distributing more content through multichannelling is directly responsible for the slow uptake of these set-top boxes.
Consider a situation where Channel 7, for example, presented a time-shifted channel like Fox 8 does. If a viewer could choose to watch Desperate Housewives at 8.30 on a Monday or two hours later on the time shifted channel, this would present a much more convenient way for people to see their favourite programs. In situations where two conflicting programmes split viewers across two networks, a time-shifted network could easily capture a much greater audience–half now and half later.
This is a solution that helps both viewers and networks because, while the population of Australia remains fixed, the programmes the networks show are opened up to a greater audience (real-time and time-shifted). Viewers have the convenience of seeing a programme when it most suits them and the FTA networks can increase revenue because of the increased viewer numbers.
In this situation, everyone wins. In the Government’s proposal nobody wins.
If you want to write a submission to answer the discussion paper, you need to do so before April 18. You can send it to:
The General Manager
Digital Broadcasting and Spectrum Management
Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
GPO Box 2154
Canberra ACT 2601
One Comment
fourthof5 says:
Good read.