HANSARD EXTRACT
|
Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
Committee Report |
| 12 February 2007 |
Mr HAYES
(Werriwa) (4.00 p.m.)—I was
very honoured to participate in this House of Representatives
Standing Committee on Communications, Information Technology and the
Arts inquiry into community broadcasting. This Community
television: options for digital broadcasting report is a
significant piece of work. In 2005 an inquiry into the take-up of
digital TV was undertaken by this same committee. During that
inquiry the committee learnt of the plight, quite frankly, that
community television was in at that stage and how it would be
impacted by the digitisation of free-to-air television transmission.
In
2006 an inquiry was launched by this committee into community
broadcasting issues. It was decided during that inquiry that a
report be produced by the committee that addressed the issues
confronting community television in respect of the use of spectrum
and the impact on their businesses. The recent announcement by the
government concerning the proposed use of previously unused digital
channels has concerned the community television sector about the
options they will have as they move into digital transmission. This
committee attempted to drill into that with a view to establishing
the most realistic options that could be reasonably expected by
government for community television. The government has on a number
of occasions announced its commitment to community television.
A division having been called in the House of Representatives—
Sitting suspended from 4.03 pm to
4.16 pm
Continue
Mr HAYES—Just
before the sitting was suspended I was indicating that the
government has for some time stated that it had an ongoing
commitment to community television. As a matter of fact, former
Senator Alston, in his second reading speech on the Television
Broadcasting Services (Digital Conversion) Bill 1998, indicated:
The
government will also continue to support community broadcasters and
will facilitate the transmission of community television broadcast
services, free of charge, in ... datacasting services.
With time, and also with the government’s production in March 2006
of the digital action plan, time is now rapidly running out for the
digitising of broadcast services for community television. During
the inquiry the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia
indicated that, without making provision for community television
here and now, the financial viability of ensuring digitised access
for community television will be threatened. Therefore, it should be
a matter of some priority for the government.
At
this stage community television is only broadcasting by way of
analog signal, even though 23 per cent of Australian households
currently have already converted to digital transmission. According
to the Community Broadcasting Association, there are now in the
vicinity of 40,000 set-top boxes being sold per month, which is
further enhancing people’s move to digitisation. It is community
television’s on-air time which allows it to attract sponsorship.
Therefore, if it is, in effect, losing its audience reach during
this simulcast period while commercial television has already been
transmitting, and the audience is moving to digital television, it
is fair to conclude that community television will increasingly be
missing out on its audience share.
That
is why it is so crucial for this committee to look specifically at
the issues facing community broadcasters. As I say, there is a need
to keep them viable so that they can keep fulfilling a need within
society, and to be able to do so on the basis that they are not
commercial stations and do not have the ability to fairly make the
same adjustment that commercial television can make.
A set
of recommendations is made in this report. The committee is very
much of the opinion that simply to maintain access for community
television to a reserve channel of a licensee might be appropriate
for the purpose of simulcast. Unless community TV has the same
ability as free-to-air commercials—that is, the ability to
simulcast—they will continue to lose their share of audience. That
is why the committee took the view that the government’s digital
action plan, which suggests that a long-term commercial arrangement
should be entered into with the purchaser of the reserve licence,
would be detrimental to the long-term future of community
television. The committee was very strong in this view and
recommended that the Australian government sell the unreserved
channel which is now known as channel A, with an obligation on the
new licensee to carry commercial television during the simulcast
period. Such carriage should be at no cost to the community TV
sector during the period of that simulcast period.
Any
significant delays that will occur in the sale of that channel A
would again amount to a loss of audience and therefore revenue for
the community TV sector. The committee therefore recommends that a
sale of licence A should be completed by no later than 1 January
2008; otherwise, penalties should apply to the new licensee in their
ability to carry community TV.
However, in the event that the government is not able to sell
licence A and therefore not able to accommodate the community TV
sector in terms of broadcasting, the committee is of the view that a
temporary arrangement should be made for the use of that spectrum
within the licence A to be carried by a national broadcaster for the
specific purpose of broadcasting community TV only during the period
of simulcast. This is an attempt by the committee to make sure that
community television has a future in this country and it is to
ensure that they can participate and properly be able to join
digital transmission without losing audience share. I would suggest
that this is in everybody’s interest. It certainly accommodates what
the government has, since 1998, been saying it is committed to.
I say
in concluding that this is a unanimous report by the committee. It
has taken the committee into various aspects of community
television. It is one which genuinely recognises the need for and
future of community television in this country. I commend the chair,
the member for Lindsay, and the committee. The staff of the
committee I think have put together a report which truly reflects a
bipartisan position in this matter.
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