Australia heads for 2010-2012 switchover
Six months after abandoning its target of switching off analogue television signals by 2008 the Australian government has published new plans to complete switchover between 2010 and 2012.
Digital television launched in Australia in 2001. Though available to around 96% of the population research conducted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority last July found that only 22% of households had purchased digital terrestrial receivers.
Communications minister Helen Coonan yesterday said the government wanted to develop a digital action plan in conjunction with stakeholders "to expedite digital conversion, bring the simulcast period to an end and achieve analogue switchover".
Coonan said the digital action plan would include:
- a roadmap and timeframe for the closure of analogue television services
- measures aimed at incentivising broadcasters and set manufacturers to move to digital
- "potential assistance" that may be required to incentivise consumers to make the transition
- roles that various stakeholders and agencies would play in achieving switchover.
"It is proposed that the Digital Action Plan aim for an analogue switchover period commencing in 2010 to 2012, consistent with the targets set in many other industrialised nations and subject to the development of the roadmap," said Coonan's consultation document.
Coonan's plans for digital television coincided with a consultation on a widespread shake-up in media ownership laws, relaxing limits on foreign media investment and the degree to which newspaper groups can also own radio and television stations.
Coonan said the changes were necessary to prevent Australia from becoming "a dinosaur of the analogue age".
Links open in a new window. The DTG is not responsible for the content of other web sites.