Network Insight Institute

Mark Armstrong

Preface

This publication contains the full record of our seminar held in Sydney on 16 October 2001. Digital TV and interactive TV (iTV) are both growing, but they are still very small; much smaller than would have been predicted three years ago. The seminar which led to this volume was to track progress, identify the obstacles, and work out how to build up the new services. It crossed the boundaries between engineers, content developers and TV networks. Some of the key issues are:

• What services will appeal to the audience, and how soon will they break even?
• What is technically possible?
• What are other people planning and trialling, in Australia and the rest of the world?
• What do the current laws and standards already allow?

From day to day, most of the experts are locked into their own parts of the challenge. This volume gives a deeper understanding, because it presents the different kinds of expertise together, and because it is interactive, in the sense of reporting the dialogue between the experts. Out of that, some conclusions flow. One is the lack of real convergence in planning and policy. For example, iTV will thrive when many more households have digital TV, pay TV or broadband internet. But those three channels are usually installed separately, and the cost and trouble of a truck-roll and installation are helping to hold back all the new services. Take-up would be faster if there was more co-operation at the installation level. The same is true for the platform to deliver the new services. Everybody faces the cost of re-purposing and conversion for the different delivery systems. It would be cheaper to share some kind of clearing-house for distribution, so that content providers could concentrate on producing in the format which is most effective for them. Distribution of set-top boxes to households is another area for growing the market through co-operation.

Until recently, the idea of co-operation has been anathema to the policy-makers and regulators. Wherever competition is technically possible, it seems to be mandated. That might work in the United States, where the economy is so large that it can afford a high level of redundancy and systems which failed; but Australia has a much smaller economy, with an economic imperative to marshal all the available revenue. It is often said that if ever Australian players tried to build an internationally competitive system, the ACCC would block it on principle. That may be untrue in literal terms, but that street wisdom does reflect the reality that the last 10 years of policy seem to have been occupied with how to curb and contain new media. In this century, we have a new situation. Incremental growth, of the kind reported in these pages, will never gain enough momentum for Australia to catch up with the developed world in areas such as broadband internet or interactive TV. The move to new generation services needs a different policy environment, which gives priority to investment.

Unlike the commercial seminars, ours are followed by an edited, published volume such as this. The following pages include the edited transcript of what speakers said, and the slides they used; as well as the full record of the discussion in each session. We sent the draft transcript to each of the main speakers for additions and corrections, and most responded. However, it was not feasible to have the speakers from the floor check their remarks. Apologies to any speakers or participants whose exact words may have been mistaken, for transcription reasons.

We would like to thank the speakers, who went to so much trouble to offer fresh ideas and solutions; which we now share with the readers of this volume. Thanks also to Sarah Barns for her excellent editorial work, to Jacinta Vanderpuije for typing the transcript, and to Cris Abad for bringing this volume into print.

Mark Armstrong
Director, Network Insight
March 2002

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