Digital television uptake has increased, according to Senator Stephen Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy; as new figures show that 54 percent of all Australian households are now using digital television, up from 47 percent from last year.
BUDGET 2009 : The digital switchover in Australia has been given a boost by the budget, with the Government announcing that it will provide $183.7 million of taxpayers dollars over three years to help the switchover from analogue to digital television in regional areas.
The House has voted in favour of pushing back the digital television transition, originally pencilled in on February 17, to now happen during June 12 when all stations must broadcast in digital, ditching analogue television in the country, and giving the free airwaves to other companies.
In a surprising move, the House of Representatives have not passed the bill that would see the digital television transition from February 17 to June 12 after worries that the poor, elderly and rural households were not ready with the transition.
The United States Senate has voted unanimously to delay the digital television transition, which was supposed to happen on February 17, for four months to June 12. The vote, which came after the NTIA’s coupon program announced that it ran out of money, is seen as a huge victory to the Obama administration.
When the clock struck midnight on New Years Day, it didn’t mean the start of a brand new year, but the start of Australia’s own digital television revolution where the commercial channels were permitted to broadcast a single, standard definition multichannel; to complement the main feed and their own high definition feed.
Stephen Conroy announced on Sunday that the Digital Television Transition will begin in 2010, after releasing the timetable for which broadcast areas will be shutting off their analogue systems and switching over to the new Digital stations. The broadcast area of Mildura will lead the pack switching off their signal in the first half of 2010, or between the 1st of January and the 30th of June 2010.
A new amendment bill introduced in the Senate by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy will see, if it passes, all analogue broadcasts to be switched off – giving a firm timetable for the switchover to digital television. Australia previously had that all broadcasters must switch off their analogue systems either on March 31 or December 31 next year.
All of Australia’s broadcasting corporations, including the public broadcasters and the regional affiliates, have announced a new initiative to follow the footsteps of similar plans in New Zealand and the UK, Freeview.
Only 2 in 5 households have now switched over to digital, that’s about 42 percent of the country, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA); with one quarter that haven’t switch won’t switch in the long run.