9 December 1999

GWN analog to digital conversion in remote Western Australia

The ABA believes it is undesirable for any free-to-air television broadcaster to be able to choose a means of transmission that requires a large investment by views and that does not allow viewers to access other services licensed to serve their area.

This is the ABA's conclusionfollowing the completion of its investigation into whether the legitimate needs of viewser were addressed during the transition of the Golden West Network television service WAW Remote Western Australia from an anlog to a digital satellite delivered signal last year.

"While this kind of strategy may be legitimate in the case of pay TV, it should not be part of the free-to-air system. Free-to-air broadcasters have unique obligations to the community and as a result enjpy special dispensation, including a degree of protection from competition," said Professor David Flint, ABA Chairman.

There are various ways in which assess to the fill suite of services could be achieved, depending on the circumstances. These include: (i) that all free-to-air broadcasters could use the one satellite; or (ii) that each satellite could carry the full range of free-to-air services for that area; or (iii) that all service providers could ensure, in some other way, that reception equipment is able to receive all services.

At present there is no person or federal government agency with the power to ensure this outcome. This is because there is no single regulatory body to regulate all the broadcasters, satellite service providers and intermediaries involved, including the commercial and national broadcasters, telecommunications carriers and sateklkute service providers.

The ABA believes that it is in the long term public interest of viewers that such power should reside in a single regulatory body and will be referring this matter to the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts pursuant to its function to report on the operation of the Act.

In the ABA's view, there are three major factors which influenced whter or not GWN viewers in regional and remote Western Australia made the transition from the analog signal delivered by the Optus satellite to the digital signal delivered by the Telstra satellite during the period when the services were simulcast.

The first was the length of time set a side for simulcasting and the specific timing of that simulcasting. The second was the belief among many viewers that Optus would continue to provide the WAW service in analog until Optus also converted to digital. The third and most important reason is that most direct-to-home viewers and self-help viewers wanted to be able to receive all available broadcasting services with the purchase of one decoder.

Go to the ABA report: download as RTF (164k/38p), view as PDF (135k/38p).

What we do l What's new l Search l Publications l Contact us l Home