649 replies to this topic

[DrP]

Digital TV boost for rural Australia

Posted Tue Jan 5, 2010 3:38pm AEDT

The Federal Government has announced measures which will give all Australians access to every free-to-air digital television channel.  The Government says it will pay for and build a digital satellite broadcast service for regional viewers.  It has also reached an agreement with broadcasters to upgrade more than 100 regional analogue facilities.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says the Government has allocated $40 million a year over four years to the project.

"This is a fantastic outcome for people in regional Australia, many of whom are in blackspot areas and have received limited television services for many years," he said.  "For the first time all free-to-air television services will be available to all Australians."

The measures will mean every Australian will be able to watch the 16 available channels.





_{To people commenting in this thread, please keep it restricted to the topic at hand.  I don't want yet another MPEG-4 AVC 'debate' here.}

Edited by DrP, 05 January 2010 - 02:59 PM.

[M'bozo]

Fleshed out somewhat more here.

Can't wait.

Expect Tasmania will be last cab off the rank.

(as usual)

[alanh]

DrP,
Since this is a new service what's the bet that the transmission standard is DVB-S2 which includes HD MPEG-4 compression to keep the satellite costs down!
Now they can have the same transmission system as Foxtel

AlanH

[alanh]

MBozo,
You are unlikely to be last as usual.
SW WA has a population greater than Hobart it is yet to get commercial DTV.

AlanH

[DrP]

alanh, on Jan 5 2010, 03:26 PM, said:

blah blah blah

Perhaps you'd like to STFU and discuss this in one of your seemingly endless supply of threads that you have already clogged up with 'MPEG-4 AVC debates'.

[Gray Connolly]

Im confused
Are they saying that, even though I live 800 ks from my capital city and can only currently get gwn win abc, and sbs analogue. I will be able to get the city channels>>
or am I wrong???

[DrP]

M'bozo, on Jan 5 2010, 03:13 PM, said:

Can't wait.

I wonder if the satellite carriage side of the equation will  be encrypted (ie, people watching direct require a smartcard etc).

[DrP]

WileECoyote, on Jan 5 2010, 03:30 PM, said:

Im confused
Are they saying that, even though I live 800 ks from my capital city and can only currently get gwn win abc, and sbs analogue. I will be able to get the city channels>>
or am I wrong???

You will be able to get a 'generic' edition of the commercial networks, whatever that actually means.

[M'bozo]

DrP, on Jan 5 2010, 04:33 PM, said:

I wonder if the satellite carriage side of the equation will  be encrypted (ie, people watching direct require a smartcard etc).

And since ONE HD is only available on TDT HD here, will it mean HD satellite receivers might be required?

[DrP]

Hopefully the governments plans include terrestrial carriage for more concentrated populations (ie those that are already covered by analogue tranmission) with direct satellite reception only being employed for those that are 'out in the sticks' or in so called black spots.

Edited by DrP, 05 January 2010 - 04:00 PM.

[digitalj]

A satellite service will not guarantee tv for everyone.

I know a person who has difficulty accessing the DTV services in the area and can't use satellite because there are trees taller than their house that block the satellite signal.

They'd be able to access DTV if either:

1. a translator was installed
2. a cable network installed, or
3. local networks got rebroadcast via the internet.

[alanh]

Wildekyote,
You will get
20, 21, 22, 23, 2, 3, 30, 32, 33, 5 TEN, 50 ONE HD, 51 ONE, 6 GWN, 60 GWN HD, 62 SEVEN2, 8 WIN, 80 WIN HD, 88 GO!

AlanH

[GoForMoe]

DrP, on Jan 5 2010, 04:34 PM, said:

You will be able to get a 'generic' edition of the commercial networks, whatever that actually means.

This raises a lot of huge issues to overcome,

- South Australia. A non-aggregated market where depending on location you get WIN Seven and WIN Ten with a digital Nine, Southern Cross GTS/BKN and Southern Cross Ten with no Nine or Imparja and Southern Cross Central with no Ten. Now this service is proposing all the digital multichannels, yet current restrictions prevent the terrestrial broadcasters carrying all of the proposed offerings. Does this mean that these satellite viewers will get more services than terrestrial ones? (and if so will viewers be able to opt in to Satellite?)

Moreover, the sattelite channels you get surely would be limited based on location, however it seems very inefficient to broadcast a Southern Cross operated Go! and a WIN one to the SA market. If this wasn't the proposal, would this mean that there would be sharing of these multichannels, and varying ownership structures? Can there be a joint venture company for a digital multichannel that is not licensed directly?

- Remote areas within states. Will this mean that regional viewers outside of NT and far-regional Queensland (the 'aggregated' QQQ/IMP market) will get their closest stations, or will you have two classes of 'remote', where if you are within a licence area but can't receive a signal you'll get your local station on Satellite, but if you are outside any licence area you will get an irrelevant one from a different timezone?

If it did mean a reduction in the size of the QQQ/IMP coverage areas, as would be logical, would they still be viable? Would they also be carrying multichannels they never took terrestrially?

- The sheer number of channels needed. Without extensive joint ventures, you will need three sets of channels in Victoria, four in SA, five in NSW and Qld and two elsewhere. That is over 300 channels to provide the quoted 16 per market (and supposedly some HD in that mix). To do those joint ventures means very complex discussions to work out just who is paying for things and who is getting the revenue (if that exists on niche regional satellite channels), and issues over broadcasters exceeding their market areas.

- The 'local news' channels. So basically you'll just get a loop of WIN news and some noodle updates so they can avoid having to have per sub-region variations, this is hardly going to be of benefit, as you'd need to know exactly when to tune in to see your local news.

- I won't dare to ask whether you'll get things like NITV on this service, let alone the community stations for metro viewers who can't get a signal.

That said the extra conversions of transmitters is good, hopefully they will use flash cuts rather than burden the community with the costs of simulcasting. I also wonder what satellite they will use for this, will it be open such that Austar or Foxtel Sat viewers will get their local stations?

[Harry]

M'bozo, on Jan 5 2010, 01:13 PM, said:

Fleshed out somewhat more here.

Can't wait.

Expect Tasmania will be last cab off the rank.

(as usual)

Well Tassie got the NBN first so I do not know what you are on about

[M'bozo]

Harry, on Jan 5 2010, 05:43 PM, said:

Well Tassie got the NBN first so I do not know what you are on about

It is not operational yet, so I don't consider that it is here yet.

Just like this proposed satellite service.

Tasmania was also the last state to be aggregated (30 April 1994). Don't start me on that.


I don't know what you are on.  

Edited by M'bozo, 05 January 2010 - 05:02 PM.

[Smacca]

alanh, on Jan 5 2010, 04:08 PM, said:

Wildekyote,
You will get
20, 21, 22, 23, 2, 3, 30, 32, 33, 5 TEN, 50 ONE HD, 51 ONE, 6 GWN, 60 GWN HD, 62 SEVEN2, 8 WIN, 80 WIN HD, 88 GO!

AlanH

Woah, woah, woah. Who said anything about GWN, WIN, etc being broadcast on this service? As far as we know, it's a generic satellite service with specific channels for local news. That tells me that GWN and WIN won't be on there, and that they'll no doubt be generic services perhaps resembling Sydney Freeview.

While I'm impressed with the news of the satellite service, I'm a little worried as to where this leaves network-owned transmitters in regional WA. So far, the local networks have only promised one shared frequency for all channels (as you know) .. From what I can gather with all the current information on hand, viewers in Widgiemooltha will have more channels available to them than Bunbury viewers. That is until we hear anything from GWN and WIN.

[Chopsus]

Opium for EVERYONE!

The Government knows exactly how to keep Average Joe voteing for them.

[jrickta]

So no more tropospheric ducting...

['ct']

jrickta, on Jan 5 2010, 07:04 PM, said:

So no more tropospheric ducting...

This is getting off topic...Used to love when growing up during the 1980's summer troposheric ducting perioids when tuning around channels 0,1,2,3,4,5,5a, and sometimes as high as 6 on a Saturday morning seeing all the various ABC transmitter test patterns when the test patterns had the actual transmitter callsign on them. The longest hops I recall from when I was living in Brisbane was seeing ABTQ3 from Townsville and GTS4 Port Pirie. On a couple of occassion I did see a channel between 0 and 1 from New Zealand, but with no audio. We mostly used to see Victorian and Tasmanian ABC test patterns, ABV2, ABAV1, and ABEV3 were usually the strongest. Very hard to tell where stations are now coming from as transmitter test patterns are long gone.

Back on topic...I am sure it wont take long for people to work out how to get all of these services for each state/region whether they live in a black spot area or not.

[jrickta]

I wonder which satellite they are going to broadcast the downlink from?

[alanh]

Before everyone goes into euphoria, lets look at the system more closely
1. The present Aurora free to air satellite service is only available to viewers out of range of terrestrial services. To get connected an antenna installer has to prove that the signal field strength is insufficient by submitting the actual signal levels from a 10 m above the ground antenna. This is unlikely to change because of the licence area system which is preserving local news and advertising.
2. Aurora has essentially 2 satellite footprints;

Eastern /Central which currently has Impaja and Macquarie as licence holders. I would assume that they will form a joint company to transmit the third commercial network. The coverage area is as above with some company owned transmitters such as Alice Springs and Mt Isa, many community purchased transmitters in remote  eastern and central Australia. It also includes the following;

NSW
Urbanville, Lord Howe Island, Deepwater, Emmaville, Glen Davis and 17 inland towns such as Bourke, Cobar and Walgett.

Victoria
Bremm River, Buchan, Swift's Creek, Hazeldene, Apollo Bay, Blackwood, Murrayville

Queensland
Somerset Dam, Clairview, Dingo Beach, St Lawrence, Stanage Bay, Yuleba, & 108 transmitter sites in inland Queensland

South Australia 47 remote sites

Tasmania.
No current sites.

Western Footprint
Outside of Perth, East Perth, Rolystone, Seabird, Toodjay, Lancelin and Marysville (The Perth Licence area) there is the South West licence area (includes the Great Southern, Central Agricultural and Mandurah) (56 tx sites), Eastern Goldfields (7 Tx sites) and the Geralton (33 Tx sites) areas the rest are considered remote (89 tx sites). Since GWN (Prime WA) and WIN already own the licences for all these areas, and have formed a company to transmit TEN network programs, there should be minimal problems of competition between licence areas. For example will Bunbury have different advertising to the remote areas etc.

Almost all other blackspot areas will be government funded off air translators from main transmitters in the licence area as they are now in analog.
In this way News and advertising remains relevant to as many viewers as possible for example I would not think the viewers in Apollo Bay would think that the programming is relevant to them. This is why there is a single ABC DTV transmitter in Apollo Bay fed with Victorian programs.

AlanH

[alanh]

jrickta,
Only the Optus ones are in the correct position to cover all of Australia with a sufficient signal strength. I assume it will be the one launched late last year.
For the same reasons that the current "Aurora" services are encrypted I would expect this to continue to the new services. This makes viewers stick to licence areas which preserves the little local programming but also controls the price each network has to pay for programs ($/viewer)

AlanH

[Smacca]

GoForMoe, on Jan 5 2010, 04:37 PM, said:

This raises a lot of huge issues to overcome,

Great post and exactly the same concerns I have with this new service. It'll basically superseed existing analog and existing/future digital services. You'd wanna hope there's no restrictions on using satellite, because at this stage it seems people in the bush are better off TV-wise than people living in major regional cities.

[Smacca]

alanh, on Jan 5 2010, 07:30 PM, said:

Before everyone goes into euphoria, lets look at the system more closely
1. The present Aurora free to air satellite service is only available to viewers out of range of terrestrial services. To get connected an antenna installer has to prove that the signal field strength is insufficient by submitting the actual signal levels from a 10 m above the ground antenna. This is unlikely to change because of the licence area system which is preserving local news and advertising.

...

AlanH

Quite an informative post there, AlanH. But it still doesn't address the issues with multi-channels. Also, WA residents do not require authorisation to receive satellite signal, unlike the Central market. For example, GWN and WIN permit viewers in the centre of Bunbury to pick up WAW and WOW via Aurora, no questions asked. Will they be as lenient with Freeview Satellite?

Edited by Smacca, 05 January 2010 - 07:51 PM.

[alanh]

Smacca,
It will not exceed that of city dwellers it will give the same range.
The only thing not included in the announcement is the fate of community TV which only exists in Mainland capital cities and Lismore NSW.
Nothing is also mentioned about the current Indigenous satellite network. I assume it will continue on as at present because the signals are already digital like all other satellite transmissions.

AlanH