Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

(1) The Government considered a range of options to provide the full suite of digital television channels to self help viewers, including terrestrial and satellite transmissions.

(2) The Government considers that satellite is an efficient and effective means of delivering digital television to remote communities. Terrestrial self-help retransmission facilities have a number of limitations that do not apply to satellite: they impose on-going, and not always predictable, costs on local communities and councils for their operation and maintenance; they have an inflexible coverage area which cannot accommodate population shifts beyond the area served by the transmitter; and they can be subject to extended outages when there are transmitter faults if licensees have difficulty accessing spare parts and/or experienced technicians, particularly when transmitters are located in isolated or remote areas.

(3) The Government decided to fund a satellite service to provide digital television in signal deficient areas, and has implemented the Satellite Subsidy Scheme to assist people in self help communities cover the cost of moving to satellite if the self help facility is not converted to digital.

(4) The Government will subsidise a large part of the cost of installing VAST equipment by eligible households under the Satellite Subsidy Scheme. Under the Scheme, the direct cost to the household is only around $200-$350 depending on location. This includes remote households currently served by analog self-help services.

Households not eligible for the Scheme subsidy must initially purchase and install equipment, but the ongoing costs are only those arising from any repairs to or replacement of a set top box or satellite dish when and as needed. In return these households will receive 16 channels of digital television plus a news service, a significant improvement over what they would have previously received.

(5) See answer to question (2).

(6) The Government is not providing assistance for communities to upgrade their self-help retransmission towers.

(7) Under the funding arrangements agreed to by the Government for the Satellite Subsidy Scheme, it is not possible to redirect funding from the Scheme for other purposes, such as making payments to licensees to upgrade self-help facilities.

(8), (9), (10), (11) See answer to question (7)