Digital terrestrial television in Australia
Digital terrestrial television in Australia commenced on 1 January 2001 in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth using DVB-T standards.
There are a number of additional channels, datacasting, as well as high definition services, available to digital terrestrial television viewers in Australia.
The ABA Specialist Group was intended to bring together studies taking place in a number of Australian forums and investigate potential options and policies relating to digital television.
It found that premature regulation of the new platform might stifle the market-driven development of the service, that it should be based upon existing standards, and should not restrict the ability of broadcasters to tailor local content.
[4] It was too early at the time to make decisions relating to what standard should be used, when transmissions should commence, and whether analogue television should be phased out.
[6] The Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations supported this, as well as freedom for its members to launch multi-channel services.
At the same time, the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association, questioned the commercial viability of HDTV, was opposed to the idea of multi-channeling, and argued for a competitive system that would allow the entry of new players.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation stated that it wished to run up to four multichannels at different times of the day or alternatively offer an HDTV service.
[6] On 24 March 1998, Minister for Communications, the Information Economy and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston, announced the government's decisions for the introduction of digital television.
The plan allowed commercial and public broadcasters 7 MHz of spectrum free of charge for 8 years to simulcast services in both digital and analogue, after which it was to be returned to the Commonwealth.
When digital television launched on 1 January 2001, the majority of households did not know of or were unable to buy a set top box in order to receive the signal.
It included representatives from free-to-air broadcasters, manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers and was intended to provide information about commencement dates, coverage, and the functionality and availability of equipment.
Funding issues meant that in May 2003 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation closed ABC Kids and Fly TV.
[12] In the same year, Tasmanian Digital Television became the first digital-only commercial station to be launched in the country, under Section 38A of the Broadcasting Services Act.
[13] Tasmanian Digital Television, affiliated to Network Ten, was initially available only in Hobart, before expanding to Launceston and, by early 2009,[14] the remainder of the state.
The introduction of this fifth channel resulted in significantly higher digital television takeup in Tasmania than other parts of the country.
[21] Seven also ran a similar service during its coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympics showing news headlines, a medal tally, and event results.
[23] As well as this, the Nine Network and NBN Television (now Nine Northern NSW) both provided a multi-view service with additional text information during Pompeii: The Last Day.
When Australia started DVB-T in 2001 several networks broadcast high-definition in a 576p format as this could give better quality on 50 Hz scanning CRT TVs and was not as demanding on MPEG-2-bit-rate.
Quotas on high definition content – a minimum of 1040 hours per year – were imposed by the Australian government in July 2003 on broadcasters in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
Perth community station Access 31's closure was partially blamed on viewers and revenue lost to increasing digital television viewership.
[29] In addition to set top boxes, the assistance included any necessary cabling or antenna upgrades needed to achieve a reliable digital signal.
