The move by the Jesuits to negotiate with the Murdoch-Telecom pay television group, Foxtel, to put 1000 hours a week of family programs is welcome and instructive. Pay television is in its infancy in Australia. It should have, of course, been on air for a long time by now, but the delay has been a consequence of government farnarkling rather than any technological short-coming. The delay, however, has given the impression, quite wrongly, that pay television is a costly thing to pipe into people’s homes. It is not. It can be done quite cheaply. The only reason it is expensive is the intangible costs. Those are twofold: the cost of obtaining a government licence to broadcast and the cost of some of the material to be broadcast. If the Government puts a very high price on the licence and if the copyright owners of various movies and sporting events put huge fees on their broadcast, then pay TV will be hugely expensive. If, however, the Government does not charge huge licence fees and the product is created cheaply, then households should receive it quite cheaply.
There is plenty of room on the pay spectrum, whether pay or satellite, for many channels. There is room for religious, cultural, community and sporting groups to put their fare to the people, provided the Government reserves some space for them or does not permit the main players to monopolise the space. It is perhaps unfortunate that the Jesuits have to pay homage to Mammon; that they have to go to Murdoch to get a piece of the broadcasting band. It would have been better if a good slice of the band had been reserved for non-profit groups.
One might even suspect Foxtel as a big player of allowing the Jesuits a run as a minimalist option: “”See, community groups do get a run” (within the limits we allow). As pay television becomes a reality, it is essential that the Government’s regulatory regime allows for a broad range of fringe broadcasters: gays and Catholics; ethnics and WASPS; amateurs and professionals; off-beat, downbeat and up-beat. It does not require money; it only requires will. The Jesuits will show it can be done; it is up to the Government to make sure that it does not require a rake-off from one of the big media groups.