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 Digital television: who’s buying it?, 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 uptake of digital television in Australia. In presenting the report, I must say that its tabling occurs at a time of discussion on changes in the broadcasting industry, particularly concerning the uptake of digital television. The committee trusts that its report will provide significant discussion and direction for the Australian government’s policies.

This report has examined the options for ensuring the smooth transition to digital television in Australia, taking into account the cost of continued simulcast and, in particular, the impost this places on regional broadcasters. The report has considered the financial burden that conversion to digital may place on the community, from the purchase of set-top boxes and ancillary equipment, such as updating antennae, to how to minimise the cost over an appropriate time frame. The report has also considered the needs and responsibilities of manufacturers and retailers in providing appropriate lead times and adequate product information.

To date, few Australians have bought into digital television technology. A low market base has limited the features and programming that are offered on digital television stations, which in turn has reduced its appeal for many viewers. A lack of consumer awareness has compounded the problem. The committee believes that the lack of certainty regarding analog switch-off is a key failure in the drive to take up digital television and recommends a nationwide analog switch-off on 1 January 2010.

Such a strategy will provide certainty for consumers, broadcasters, manufacturers and retailers. With switch-off certainty, manufacturers and retailers can begin awareness campaigns and will be able to plan production of digital reception equipment. Providing a certain analog switch-off date will ensure that the most competitive prices for digital equipment are offered to all consumers, regional as well as metropolitan. While the committee’s recommended switch-off date extends the scheduled switch-off date in some metropolitan areas by up to two years, it does not pose extended financial burdens on regional broadcasters to continue simulcasting for a prolonged period.

A key driver for the uptake of digital television is the availability of additional content to consumers. The committee believes that broadcasters should have the opportunity to make commercial decisions and offer a wider range of digital television services. These options have been tightly regulated until now. In line with the move to digital, the report makes a number of recommendations to lift restrictions on multichannelling. Ultimately, programming and broadcasting choices will be determined by market demand. The committee recommends that programming restrictions on multichannelling for national free-to-air broadcasters be lifted as soon as possible. A substantial investment has been made by the ABC and SBS to establish digital channels, yet programming restrictions severely hamper their viability. The restrictions also prevent utilisation of much of the archived ABC and SBS material.

The committee also recommends that commercial free-to-air networks be permitted to multichannel, if they choose to do so, from 1 January 2008. We believe that lifting multichannelling restrictions, and the subsequent provision of extra channels and services, will assist in driving the take-up of digital television, prior to our recommended 2010 analog switch-off.

The report makes several other key recommendations. The committee is of the opinion that high-definition broadcasting will drive digital television take-up amongst certain sectors of the population; therefore, the committee recommends that the current minimum high-definition broadcasting quota for free-to-air networks remain in place until 1 January 2011. Continued quota levels should be reviewed before that date. Maintaining high-definition quotas for the time being will ensure that Australian consumers have access to both standard-definition and high-definition broadcasting and that that choice exists in the marketplace as they make their consumer choices in the lead-up to analog switch-off.

The committee has also recommended that a testing and conformance centre for digital television equipment be established, with the Australian government to provide $1 million in seed funding in the first year. The committee urges the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts to continue to work with industry and stakeholders to develop an appropriate model and set of objectives on how a new testing and conformance centre will be based. The committee is aware that there is a great deal of confusion amongst consumers concerning digital television equipment. The committee noted that energy rating and water rating label schemes are very useful guides for consumers in assessing and analysing products in the market. (Time expired)

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

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 sessional 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. Does the member for Lindsay wish to move a motion to refer the matter to the Main Committee?

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

I do, given the shortness of time for both the member for Parramatta and me to discuss this. I am delighted that House procedures have changed so that I can move the following motion. I move:

That the order of the day be referred to the Main Committee for debate.

Question agreed to.