Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in writing, on 8 February 2011:

Similar to the residents in the Mildura/Sunraysia region in Victoria, will residents in remote areas of Mid-North Coast NSW be able to access digital television via Viewer Access Satellite Television while they await the digital switchover due to commence in two years; if not, why not.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

In June 2010, the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Television) Act 2010 (the Digital Television Act) amended the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the BSA) to facilitate the delivery of commercial digital television services by satellite to viewers in areas of inadequate digital terrestrial reception. The services licensed under section 38C of the BSA are collectively known as the Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) service.

To preserve the integrity of existing commercial television licence areas, access to the VAST satellite service is subject to conditional access arrangements.

The Digital Television Act introduced policy objectives for a conditional access scheme for the VAST service. The policy objectives identify several categories of access to the VAST service as follows:

Viewers in Category A can access the VAST service from its commencement. Viewers in Category B or Category C cannot be granted access to the VAST service until six months before switchover in their area.

The purpose of these timeframes is to allow commercial terrestrial broadcasters time to rollout their planned digital terrestrial infrastructure before switchover. The commercial broadcasters have agreed to upgrade a number of analog self-help retransmission sites to digital and to rollout a number of gap-fillers to improve the coverage of digital television. The commercial broadcasters will upgrade the self-help retransmission sites at Long Flat and Telegraph Point on the mid-North NSW Coast and rollout a gap-filler at Bonny Hills. The final list of sites to be converted by the broadcasters is subject to negotiation between the licensee of the site and the broadcasters, and will depend on detailed assessments of the commercial or technical viability of the sites. If, six months before switchover in a licence area, a viewer is still unable to receive adequate digital terrestrial reception, they will be eligible to apply to access the VAST service.

This means that viewers on the mid-North Coast that reside in the Remote and Central Eastern Australia licence area are able to immediately apply to the scheme administrator to access the VAST service. Viewers on the mid-North Coast that reside in the Northern New South Wales licence area will be eligible to apply for VAST service six months before switchover in their licence area which is in the second half of 2012. Viewers are able to check their eligibility for the VAST service, by visiting the mySwitch website at:

www.digitalready.gov.au/MySwitch.aspx.

As the Mildura/Sunraysia licence area switched to digital-only television signals on 30 June 2010, residents in the Mildura/Sunraysia licence area who are unable to receive adequate reception of terrestrial digital commercial television services are eligible to apply to access the VAST service now. Similarly, viewers who cannot receive adequate digital terrestrial reception in the regional South Australia licence areas and the regional Victoria licence areas, which are due to switchover on 5 May 2011, are also eligible to apply to access the VAST service.