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Ian Carroll

Ian Carroll, ABC

As a public broadcaster the ABC’s primary interest with the change over to digital is to ensure that the free-to-air broadcast platform remains strong, viable, up-to-date and continues to be easily accessible to all Australians.

If there is a concern in Australia’s transfer to digital it is that as a nation we are so protective of the successes of the existing broadcast systems that we fail to make the changes to broadcasting that will bring the benefits that digital technology offers. Digital terrestrial television can offer audiences better quality pictures and sound, far greater choice and interactivity. he industry is offering noticeably better picture quality and reception. To date extra choice has been severely curtailed by the legislative restrictions and the future of interactivity on digital terrestrial appears uncertain.

The ABC is offering two new specialist services, ABCKids and FLY. They are already being used by large audiences on two of the three payTV platforms. However, the lack of funding will, for the time being, confine their ultimate contribution.

Interactive television at this early stage at least, is likely to be severely constrained by a reticence to make the difficult structural and financial changes that will be necessary for interactivity to become a useful addition to free-to-air television. The concern for a public broadcaster is the medium to longer term possibility that free-to-air falls significantly behind other platforms in the choices available to audiences. Australia also risks having a television production sector that has not kept pace with the international market, a market that is beginning to ask for an interactive component for the programming they purchase. And Australia also loses any opportunity of being at the forefront of a range of interactive industry sectors.

What conclusions can we draw from international experience?

  • Most of the successful program applications require a lot of bandwidth – more than will be available to individual FTA channels. Some require that bandwidth on an on-going basis, but most require the bandwidth for short and often irregular intervals.
  • Most require well developed and thoroughly tested back channel arrangements via platform controlled set top boxes that have been supplied by the platform operators rather than purchased at a retail outlet by the consumer.
  • The backchannels and the set top boxes require well-run, expensive telephone call centres and customer relations.
  • To date all of them have been on proprietary middle ware.
  • And most of the interactive success stories are heavily linked to a program stream or channel.
  • The crucial EPG is also run by the platform operator not multiple EPG’s run by individual channels.

Digital terrestrial television in Australia is not well positioned to meet most of these entry conditions. Doing a checklist what do we find?

  • Most of the necessary bandwidth is being locked into High Definition by legislation, although some sports iTV programming may be possible.
  • There is no digital terrestrial platform operator proposed whether it be to manage and sell extra bandwidth, run the call centres and customer relations or run the set top boxes and back channels.
  • So far the only models for the provision of set top boxes has been via retail.
  • The industry has decided to wait for the non-proprietary middleware MHP. All the indications are it will be a long wait.
  • The legislative model for interactivity currently envisages new datacasters being run independently of the main broadcast channels.
  • And there is no agreement to offer a common platform EPG.

There is probably no better example of this than the issue of waiting for MHP. Waiting for MHP has become, in effect, part of an environment that says ‘we don’t have to do anything yet. We’re not under any competitive position to have to do anything yet, so we can afford to wait for MHP’. I would suggest that we are years away yet from any realistic proposition, except of a minor nature.

The cost to the nation so far of this digital go slow is a bit like the cost of high tariffs. The existing broadcast system and players are well protected. So are the content rules and guarantees of good quality local programs. But as the digital market outside Australia moves on, we are in danger of missing the boat. There is no vibrant new interactive production and technology sector. There is not a flourishing of interactive program ideas. Both the free-to-air and the pay operators can afford to wait for more certain times and avoid risks in the marketplace.

Given this less than optimistic outlook for interactive, what are the ABC’s current objectives?

  1. Position the public broadcaster for the inevitable multi-choice digital world. (ABCKids and FLY).
  2. Ensure the ABC is well positioned on all significant platforms to ensure the public broadcaster can be viewed by all Australians whatever outlet they choose to use in the future.
  3. Build the iTV capabilities, models, skills and cultures that will enable us to participate in interactive on any platform. (e.g. partner in the Optus interactive trial).

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