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Opinion
Digital terrestrial television services in Australia
The Australian television market has some similarities with that in the United Kingdom, but despite being an earlier adopter of high-definition services has yet to emulate its success in digital terrestrial television, as Natalie Mouyal reports.
The launch of DTT services in January 2001 provided viewers in the five largest cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth) with access to high-definition television (HDTV) using the DVB-T standard. Since then, DTT coverage has increased to 96% of the population and several new television programme services have been launched.
Yet, despite the widespread availability of DTT services, the take up of services by the public had only reached 20% of all television households by the end of June 2006. Compared with European markets, this is relatively low especially since the DTT platform has been available for 6 years. In addition, the platform has a large market potential given that over 70% of the population relies on the terrestrial platform for their main television reception.
The relatively low penetration level may suggest that viewers do not find the DTT service proposition sufficiently appealing to justify its cost.
Unique viewer proposition
The DTT platform provides viewers with access to the same services as are available on the free-to-air analogue terrestrial platform. However, the digital services are distinguished by being broadcast in high definition (with a standard definition simulcast) using the MPEG-2 video compression standard.
The government allocated to each of the five national broadcasters on the terrestrial platform (ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten) one frequency channel on which they are required to provide the simulcast of their analogue service in SD and HD with at least 20 hours per week of HD content.
Yet by choosing this approach, the government has effectively prevented new broadcasters from entering the DTT platform or allowing existing broadcasters to offer a wide variety of television programme services. This had been the intention of the government moratorium which prevented the launch of new television programme services (multi-channelling) until this year. With the moratorium, the government wanted to allow existing broadcasters to recoup their DTT investment and the help boost the nascent pay-TV sector.
Only the public service broadcasters ABC and SBS have been allowed to offer new services and have launched ABC2, SBS Essential and the World News Channel. Datacasting had been heralded as a means to provide new services although, at this stage, services are only available in Sydney.
This service proposition contrasts with European DTT service model where viewers have been offered access to many new television programme services in standard definition. Instead, the Australian model more closely resembles the one used in the United States where DTT services have been launched in order to offer viewers access to high quality sound and video services.
However, because the quality difference between PAL and HDTV in Australia is not as significant as between many of the analogue NTSC services and the HD service which use the ATSC standard in the United States, viewers may not find the quality increase sufficient to merit the purchase of a new DTT receiver. And with the need to simulcast services in SD, the amount of capacity available in each frequency channel for HDTV services is reduced.
Viewers have been reluctant to purchase DTT receivers given the high cost of the equipment. The price for HD set-top boxes begins at AUS$299 (approximately £177) while integrated television sets while the cost for a flat panel display with an integrated HD tuner begins at AUS$2799 (£1660). In contrast, a DTT set-top box in Europe can be purchased for as little as €50 and is therefore made affordable to a much greater number of viewers.
New Media Framework
Given the low penetration up of DTT services, the government suggested changes to the existing media regime in July 2006. Under the proposed New Media Framework, commercial broadcasters would be able to provide one additional standard definition service from the beginning of 2009. In addition, broadcasters would no longer need to simulcast existing services in HD but rather could offer a separate high-definition service.
To provide viewers with access to a wider choice of services, the government has also proposed that two unassigned frequency channels be made available for the provision of more standard definition programming or mobility using the DVB-H standard. Already, a year-long commercial DVB-H trial had taken place in Sydney with 375 participants.
The New Media Framework also calls for a delay in the date for analogue switch-off. Rather than as originally planned at the end of 2008, analogue switch-off would be postponed to 2010-2012. This revised date is more realistic given the current DTT penetration level.
As a next step, the Senate will need to approve the government’s proposed media regime, which could happen before the end of the year.
Favouring traditional broadcasters
In the planning stages which led to the launch of the DTT platform in 2001, the government did not have many helpful examples to follow. The pay DTT model attempted in Spain and the United Kingdom had proved unsuccessful and the Freeview model had not yet been launched. With a nascent pay television platform and the broadcasters on the analogue platform heavily investing in DTT services, the moratorium on new services seemed fair.
However, following the success of multi-channel services on the DTT platform in Europe, it might be expected that the Australian government may reconsider the moratorium and satisfy the market demand, as demonstrated in several countries, for a wider range of services on the DTT platform.
Natalie Mouyal writes on behalf of DigiTAG, the Digital terrestrial Television Action Group, which seeks to promote the widespread introduction of digital terrestrial television and receivers based on open standards.
Copyright © 2006 DigiTAG. Reproduced with permission.
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