This weekend, a matter as profound as the GST will be decided by the Australian Democrats. The have a choice. They either agreed to give Australians an entrée into the digital world of interactive information and entertainment on demand or to leave the nation in a digital backwater.
It is an immense decision. They must gather the courage to throw out the Government’s digital broadcasting legislation when it comes before the Senate on Monday. Unlike the GST it was not taken through an election. Unlike the GST it has no redeeming features.
The choice is stark. Under the Government’s plan we use the huge resource of new digital spectrum to present precious little more than we get already except it will be delivered (for those who can afford the new television sets) in stunning cinema-quality clarity. We would get the existing five services (three commercial, SBS and the ABC) in high definition that would enable you to put the existing TV programs on at a cinema. It is really mega-high-definition.
Or the Democrats and Labor could throw out this model and instead allow the existing five services, particularly SBS and the ABC, to use the same amount of spectrum required to deliver mega-high-definition to split their signal into three or four program streams, multi-channelling. The split signal would be digital and wide format. But it would not be mega-high-definition. It would be what is mischievously referred to as mere standard definition. In fact standard definition is very, very good indeed. No ghosting or snow and so good that the average person cannot tell the difference between it and high-definition on a standard set.
Under the Government’s plan the ABC and SBS would be restricted to running much the same as they do now. Yet there would be no technological reason why they could not use the spectrum to run four different programs at the same time. We would have four ABCs: ABC Sport, ABC Drama, ABC News and ABC Education and Docos. And four SBSs: SBS News, SBS Movies, SBS Community and SBS Sport.
But no; the Government insists that, with some minor concessions, that the ABC and SBS just run mega-high-definition versions of exactly what they run now.
Not many people I talk to seem to understand the nature of this squandered opportunity. Apathetically, they are just trusting the Government to do what is best for the Australian public. Wrong. The Government is pandering to the three commercial broadcasting companies. It is an appalling sell-out of the public interest.
The commercials, too, could each have four program streams. But they don’t want it. And they certainly do not want the ABC and SBS to have it because that would result in a loss of market share.
Rather the commercials would like to keep their existing share of viewers all watching a single stream of program — captured. Each commercial puts on one program stream with one set of advertisements. That is cheaper and easier, especially if the ABC and SBS are limited by Government requirement to one program stream when the technology would permit four each.
It is to the commercial benefit of the big three to contain the advertisement-watching masses into one stream each. One soap-powder ad, one set of programs. Kerry Packer who runs the Nine Network is a powerful man. The Government does not want to get the commercial broadcasters offside so they are proposing a restrictive digital regime that does not fulfill the potential of the technology and hamstrings the ABC and SBS to the detriment of the public.
Worse, the new digital spectrum permits datacasting in addition to existing broadcasting. It would mean getting high-class internet access over the airwaves and received like television. It would also allow video on demand and news and current affairs on demand. But, no, the commercial broadcasters see this as a threat and have demanded that the Government restrict datacasting. The Government, not wanting to upset powerful television interests has complied in the legislation before the Senate on Monday.
This hypocritical Government which rabbits up and down the country about its commitment to rural and regional Australia is willing to deny rural and regional Australia the huge opportunities of digital transmission — high-quality internet with on-demand services and four ABCs. The Government is supplicant to and frightened of commercial television interests. No other industry gets this sort of protection from competition and technological change. Further hypocrisy from a government committed to competition and innovation.
The Government’s digital broadcasting legislation is a disgraceful squandering of opportunity and against the public interest. It would be better to have no digital television at all than have this model. This model is like a Rolls Royce being pulled by a donkey.