Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak in support of the report entitled Digital television: who’s buying it?, a very timely inquiry into the uptake of digital television in Australia. It is some five years now into the planned eight-year changeover from analog to digital television legislated by the Howard government back in 1998, and only around 10 per cent of households have converted to digital at this time. Given that many households with a digital television in the lounge room have an old analog one out the back, that 10 per cent of households accounts for around only five per cent of televisions in Australia—and with less than three years to go to the planned analog switch-off.

Television around the world is undergoing a revolution but seemingly without the knowledge of many Australian television consumers or, in some cases, with their complete indifference. The overwhelming input from consumer advocates was, ‘So what? Let the market decide,’ and there is some merit in that. Many of the recommendations would see consumers given greater power to determine the direction of Australian television through the lifting of restrictions. But television is not a free market; it is highly regulated and limited by scarcity of spectrum. It fills an essential cultural function and there is a role for government in ensuring a structure that encourages diversity and supports the development of the Australian creative sector.

For the future of our cultural industries and consumer choice, we must go digital and we must do so with the rest of the world. Seventy per cent of US prime time TV is now in high-definition TV and the world is moving there. In order to have a competitive film and television production industry in Australia, we must keep up with the digital capture, production and transmission trends exhibited by the rest of the world. Digital allows for much better pictures but, more importantly, requires less spectrum to broadcast and so potentially offers opportunities for many more channels and additional features, such as interactivity and datacasting. With good policy making, it allows government and industry to improve the range of services to consumers, to increase diversity and choice and to build an industry conducive to growth of Australian content, with all the benefits of export. Labor members working on this committee kept those basic principles of diversity and development of the Australian creative sector firmly in mind.

The current lack of movement in the roll-out demonstrates a lack of preparation on the part of the government for the changeover and the necessity for significant adjustment, if take-up is to approach levels anywhere near required for analog shutdown. One of the problems identified over and over was a lack of additional content. In spite of all the promises that digital will provide greater choice and range, to date there is little evidence of any improvement for consumers in anything other than picture quality. There is very little additional content, although arguably that was as much about the government imposed restrictions on the industry as about consumer or industry choice.

The committee clearly came to the view that closing down the options of the industry as we moved to digital was no longer working and that we must remove those unnecessary constrictions on business. The committee has been sitting at a time when the minister has yet to make her policy position clear. This report provides a bipartisan signpost as to where she might go.

Read as a whole, the recommendations advocate a significant freeing up of restrictions. They cover three main areas. The first area concerns driving the switch-off by extending the switch-off date for analog from the end of 2008 to 1 January 2010. This also provides support to regional broadcasters who are having particular difficulties in their small markets in maintaining the simulcasts. Given that their switch-off times were later than 2008, this recommendation does not impose an additional burden. That recommendation and the one that follows, suggesting an independent inquiry into spectrum allocation following the return of the analog spectrum, send a clear message to free-to-air broadcasters that the additional spectrum they currently control during the transition period will be returned, and we understand the commercial imperative for them to retain control of that spectrum.

The bulk of recommendations 3 to 8 are concerned with content and will significantly free up broadcasters to pursue their own business models. They will also provide for consumers, through their choices, to have a stronger say about the direction that Australian television takes. We recommend the removal of program restrictions on multichannelling for ABC and SBS as soon as possible. Our national broadcasters have been given the right to broadcast a single digital channel but not allowed to broadcast news, current affairs or sports on their digital channel. We on this side of the House, in particular, believe strongly that the ABC and SBS have significant roles to play in expanding the range of digital content, both imported and home grown. It is a role they are unable to fill on current funding levels, but removing the genre restrictions will improve things a little, and we were delighted to see unanimous agreement on that recommendation. We also recommend the removal of multichannelling restriction on free-to-airs but retain a prohibition on subscription multichannelling. We know in advance that this report will not satisfy all stakeholders. (Time expired)

See this speech in context