Jackie Kelly (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, I present the committee’s report entitled Community television: options for digital broadcasting, together with the minutes of proceedings and evidence received by the committee.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, I am pleased to present this report on the options for digital broadcasting for community television in Australia. This is the first report for the inquiry into community broadcasting.

The last decade has seen tremendous growth in the community television sector. If this growth is repeated in the next decade then enormous diversity will be added to Australia’s media. There is no doubt that the community television sector is extremely valuable in our media landscape. The sector is the incubator of diverse and innovative programming and is essentially the training ground for the commercial and national broadcasters.

The sector faces a significant hurdle, and that is access to digital broadcasting. Community television currently only broadcasts in analog and so cannot be seen by those 20 per cent of Australians who have purchased digital television receivers. The logical conclusion of this scenario is that by the time 90 per cent of Australians have bought digital receivers and are watching only through digital spectrum, and analog is switched off, no-one will be watching community television. Without the opportunity to simulcast, the sector will have to start its growth again sometime after 2012.

This report has examined the options for ensuring the transition to digital for community television in Australia, including the opportunity to simulcast, and takes into account the financial burden of conversion and simulcast for community television broadcasters. I would like to thank the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts and her office for their close communication with our committee. They have signalled their intention to sell the remaining spectrum soon and indicated that it would be very helpful for this report to be brought forward at this time rather than later in the year, as the committee was intending to do, with the report on the rest of the inquiry.

The report makes five recommendations to government which encapsulate the only way community television will survive the transition to digital without having to grow from scratch after the analog switch-off. The committee recommends that the Australian government sell the unreserved channel known as licence A, with an obligation to be placed on the new licensee to carry community television during the simulcast period. Carriage during the simulcast period would be at no cost to the community television broadcast sector.

The committee understands the urgent need for a simulcast arrangement and that any significant delays will lead to loss of audience and revenue for the community sector. To avoid further loss of audience the committee recommends that the terms of sale for licence A include the condition to simulcast community television by 1 January 2008, otherwise penalties on the new licensee will apply. Should licence A not sell before the end of 2007, the committee recommends that licence A be loaned to a national broadcaster for carriage of community television during the simulcast period. As part of this arrangement the committee recommends that sufficient funding should be allocated to that national broadcaster to cover the costs of digital community television transmission during the simulcast period. To ensure that community television has a secure long-term future, the committee recommends that the Australian government, at analog switch-off, convert the spectrum band known as Channel 31 to digital and permanently allocate that channel to current and future community broadcasters.

The report makes some important funding recommendations. The community television sector will have difficulty in financing the conversion to digital and also face financial hardship having to pay for additional broadcasts during the simulcast period. The committee believes that the estimated costs for conversion of community television to digital are comparatively small compared to the substantial financial support given to the national broadcasters and regional commercial networks and the support given to the metropolitan commercial broadcasters through the loan of spectrum in the simulcast period. The committee therefore recommends that the Australian government provide funding of $6 million to the community television sector for the conversion of broadcast equipment to digital and recommends the provision of $1.7 million per year to the sector for each year of simulcast.

The recommendations outlined in the report are designed to ensure that community television is able to participate in Australia’s digital media landscape. I thank the members of the committee for their dedication to the inquiry. The members of the committee showed unified support for the report. I also thank the committee secretariat for their counsel, assistance and patience throughout the inquiry process.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the many individuals and organisations who provided evidence to this inquiry through submissions or by appearing before the committee. This report addresses only one aspect of the committee’s broader inquiry into community broadcasting. A detailed report covering the full range of issues for the entire sector will be released later this year. I commend this report to the House.

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

The Standing Committee on Communications, Information Technology and the Arts believes that the plight of community television in gaining access to digital spectrum is now dire; hence the bringing forward of this section of the report into options for digital broadcasting for community television ahead of the full report into community broadcasting, which will be delivered later this year.

The size and importance of the community television sector is currently greater than most people realise. There are currently four full-time community television licences—Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne—with trial services in Adelaide, Lismore and Mount Gambier. Arguably the most successful is Channel 31 in Melbourne, which has 40 affiliated member groups representing a variety of communities, and has 1.3 million viewers tuning in every month. Community television also provides extensive training opportunities for people wishing to enter the television field. That factor is well recognised within the commercial television industry.

The single biggest issue facing the vibrant community media is the switch to digital. Community television does not have sufficient spectrum to simulcast. It is analog only. As people switch to digital in their homes, they effectively lose easy access to the community television channel. If they know their way around the equipment they can do a special set-up that will allow them to switch back and forwards between digital and analog, but we all know that that does not happen and the reality is that for the community television sector the gradual switch to digital is eroding its market. The idea that community television could have an instant switch from analog to digital on the switch-off date is clearly absurd, as it would mean that community television effectively goes down towards zero at switch-off and then must start again to build its market. The committee supports the community television sector’s view that, without the ability to simulcast in both analog and digital during this transition period, community television is unlikely to survive the switch-off.

I am pleased to say that there was unanimous committee support for the recommendations that, if adopted by government, will provide a pathway for community television to take its rightful place in the new digital landscape. We on this side of the House urge the government to adopt the recommendations and act quickly, and I am pleased to hear the chair, the member for Lindsay, say that the minister has indicated a willingness to support these recommendations. I would like to say—although I will not dwell on it too much at this time—that the government’s history of making commitments to community radio has far outstripped its record in acting on those commitments.

The knowledge that community television would have to switch from analog to digital has been around for at least as long as the Howard government. The Australian government announced a commitment to community television in 1998, guaranteeing the community television sector that it would have the access to the spectrum needed to broadcast one standard definition channel in digital. The minister assured community television that it would have access to digital spectrum by 2001. Then, in 2001, the minister announced the cancellation of the datacasting spectrum due to inadequate competition and effectively left the future of digital community television in limbo. In that year the government made an election commitment, just as it had in 1998, that it would provide access to spectrum for digital transmission.

Then in 2002 the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts conducted a review of the regulatory arrangements for community television and how access to spectrum could be provided free of charge. It recommended that consideration should be given to providing an environment in which the sector would have greater regulatory certainty. The Community Broadcasting Association kept making submissions and time passed. Then, in 2004, another election year, the government, which still had not delivered on the 1998 commitment or the 2001 commitment, made the same election commitment again—that the coalition remained committed to the inclusion of community broadcasting in the digital environment.

Then there was the digital television review of 2004-05, a discussion paper in 2005 and then Ready, get set, go digital—a digital action plan for Australia in November 2006, which suggested that the sector explore options for simulcast arrangements on its own. Now it is 2007 and community television has just one shot left. The recommendations made by this committee are the only options that remain for community television. If they are not given through a ‘must carry provision’ on licence A there is really no future for community television beyond the switch-off date.

I thank my colleagues on the other side of the House for clearly providing such incredible support for the future of community television. The recommendations that we have made go further than the government has in the past. (Time expired)

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for statements on this report has expired. Does the member for Lindsay wish to move a motion in connection with the report to enable it to be debated on a later occasion?

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

In accordance with standing order 39 the debate is adjourned. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for a later hour this day.