Contents - Connect-World

National Development
least two additional television channels
in each area to be used for data
broadcasting, called datacasting. The
Broadcasting Services Act defines datacasting
as a special category of service.
Datacasting content is subject to
restrictions designed to encourage
datacasting licensees to provide a
range of innovative services, different
than traditional broadcasting services.
These include information-only programmes,
educational programmes,
interactive computer games, text or
still images, parliamentary broadcasts,
electronic mail and Internet content.
A datacasting trial is underway in
Sydney; it aims to help the industry
develop technical and business models
for potential new and innovative
services.
Mobile TV
Over and above the more obvious benefits
for the viewer — interactivity, better
picture and sound, — the introduction
of digital television has the potential
to free up spectrum currently
required for analogue television coverage.
Analogue switch-off will provide a
spectrum dividend: in other words, it
will free up spectrum for alternative
uses, both broadcasting and nonbroadcasting
of the broadcast bands.
Australia is well positioned to take
advantage of technological developments
even before the spectrum dividend
is realised, as the two digital television
channels originally planned
for datacasting can be used for other
purposes as well.
The spectrum made available when
the analogue system closes will also
become available for new services and
features for the consumer, should
providers be willing and able.
The ABA will continue to engage in the
international planning decision making
processes, such as the
International Telecommunications
Union forum, to ensure it stays well
informed about international
approaches to possible uses for spectrum
in these bands.
Many believe that mobile television
will be the latest addition to the five
waves of media: printing, radio, television,
recording, Internet and (now)
mobile television. It has also been
tagged the fourth screen, following
“Datacasting content is
subject to restrictions
designed to encourage
datacasting licensees to
provide a range of
innovative services, different
than traditional
broadcasting services. ”
after cinema, television and computers.
Over the years there has been a trend
for fixed devices to evolve into mobile
devices. For example, families used to
gather around radio in the evenings to
be informed and entertained, until the
transistor made it possible for radio to
become truly a mobile medium and
move with the listener.
The same route has been followed by
the telephone, strictly a fixed device
until relatively recently. The desktop
computer was chained to the office
desk and later to the home office desk,
until laptops made the computer a
portable, increasingly mobile device.
Television is apparently moving along
the same path; in the future we might
never need be without it.
Government reviews
The Department of Communications,
Information Technology and the Arts
is reviewing several aspects of digital
television. These reviews will provide
information for the Australian
Government to consider before deciding
when to switch-off the analogue
system.
The reviews will consider:
ˆ Whether the requirement that programmes
must be broadcast in both
analogue and digital modes during the
simulcast period should be amended
or repealed—thereby allowing, for
example, the provision of multi-channelling,
or additional analogue and
digital programming;
ˆ Whether the prohibition on provision
of subscription television services
by broadcasters and other kinds of
broadcasting services currently not
permitted, should be amended or
repealed;
ˆ Whether all parts of the broadcasting
services bands available for allocation
for broadcasting or datacasting
services have been identified and efficiently
structured;
ˆ Whether provisions of the
Broadcasting Services Act relating to
additional commercial television
broadcasting licences in underserved
areas — including the exemptions from
HDTV requirements for multi-channelled
services — should be amended
or repealed;
ˆ Whether the HDTV quotas should
be amended;
ˆ The competitive and regulatory
arrangements that should apply to
datacasting transmission licensees, on
or after 1 January 2007, when providing
licensed broadcasting services, as
well as the revenues to be raised therefrom
by the Australian Government;
ˆ The conditions that should apply to
commercial television broadcasting
licences on or after 1 January 2007 for
the provision of commercial television
broadcasting services;
ˆ The viability of creating an indigenous
television broadcasting service
and the regulatory arrangements that
should apply to the digital transmission
of such a service using spectrum
in the broadcasting services bands;
ˆ The regulatory arrangements for
HDTV transmissions in remote areas
that should apply to commercial and
national broadcasters;
ˆ The duration of the simulcast period.
Conclusion
The roll out of free-to-air digital television
services in Australia has progressed
remarkably well. Many difficult
issues such as interference management
have been effectively dealt
with.
The ABA continues to work with the
Government, broadcasters and the
industry in general, to ensure a
smooth transition to the era of digital
television.
The benefits of digital television
broadcasting in Australia include a
range of new and different services
that broadcasters can offer to viewers.
Viewers are responding in increasingly
larger numbers; they can see the
benefits — to them, the future of digital
broadcasting is clear.
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