|
|
Print this Article
ABC TV on the border (Senate Estimates Thu 26th May)
07-July-2011
Senator FISHER: Transmission of TV into regional New South Wales; in particular, the service at Albury, has been raised with me by my colleague in the other place, Sussan Ley. I understand that the ABC has indicated that you are keen to get a solution for New South Wales residents just over the border because they currently receive a fair bit of Victorian content.
Mr Scott: Yes.
Senator FISHER: You have also said you will not take any action until you can get funding. Is that correct? How much is it going to cost? I understand you have also said that you need clear impetus or direction from the community before you will proceed. What will it take for you to give the New South Wales residents immediately over the border New South Wales content, and how are you going to do it and when?
Mr Pendleton: Senator, I would have to take on notice the question about how much it would cost. It would be substantial. The issue there is to do with the terrestrial transmission of television. Albury/Wodonga is serviced from transmitters that are located in the Victorian catchment area. As a result the Albury residents receive the Victorian news. So in order to achieve the distribution of New South Wales news television services into Albury you would be required to put in an additional transmission service and you would have to acquire sufficient spectrum within that footprint to achieve that. There are substantial planning issues involved in achieving that, and then substantial cost issues in establishing new terrestrial transmission services.
Senator FISHER: Are you going to do it?
Mr Pendleton: It is probably not an issue for the ABC to pursue in its own right. It is a spectrum planning issue in relation to ACMA. Those services are available through other means—online.
Mr Scott: It probably is a question for ACMA whether the spectrum is available. Then the question for government broadly will be whether the cost of distributing it using terrestrial transmission is worth it, particularly if we are moving to the era of fast broadband that will allow, say, New South Wales services to be streamed via fast broadband to households and then households to be able to take those services and show them on their television sets. That will be a cost-benefit analysis that then needs to be done on the back of the spectrum question.
Senator FISHER: Is it correct that the ABC has said that you are keen to pursue a solution? Thursday, 26 May 2011 Senate Page 17 ENVIRONMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Mr Scott: What we would like to do, ideally, is for residents of New South Wales to be able to see the New South Wales news. We would like them to be able to see the New South Wales 7.30 Report and any other breakout local New South Wales programming. That would be ideal.
Senator FISHER: Jolly good start, yes.
Mr Scott: We would like to see that happening and delivered free-to-air terrestrially. The questions for us are: is the spectrum available, is the money available to make that commitment to that transmission and where does that come from? The first question around the spectrum availability is one for ACMA, and the second question about the cost of delivering is one for government.
Senator FISHER: You will, on notice, provide an estimate of how much?
Mr Scott: Yes, we will.
Senator FISHER: Is it correct that you have also said that you want clear impetus from the community for that to happen, or are you disowning that statement?
Mr Scott: We understand the community would like us to be able to deliver that, if we can.
Senator FISHER: So you do not need any more from the community.
Mr Scott: No more correspondence is required. We would like to be able to do it. It is a general principle that we want to be able to, as best we can, deliver the state- or territory-based coverage to that audience.
Mr Pendleton: It would be a similar issue that we see in any of the border towns. Obviously, the transmission footprints for terrestrial television do not necessarily line up with state-based borders. Our transmissions are required to remain on that basis.
Senator FISHER: Of course. Nonetheless, as you clearly recognise, it remains an issue for those people affected.
Mr Scott: Yes.
Senator FISHER: Is the reference in your charter that talks about taking into account services provided by commercial TVs in the various regions a factor for you as well, given that some of the commercial channels, for example, provide news and sports from Melbourne? In this area there is arguably—
Mr Scott: If they are delivered locally into New South Wales towns—that would certainly be something that we would take into account.
Senator FISHER: So that is an added impetus—
Mr Scott: It is an added argument.
Senator FISHER: if you ever use that word. So you obviously accept that the 70,000 people living in the area will want to get their news and sport from—
Mr Scott: There was an issue for us that we had to work hard to resolve during the New South Wales election campaign. For that important part of the state, we wanted to be able to give them the New South Wales news. In doing so we flicked the switch for the Victorians at that time, who then received the New South Wales coverage.
Senator FISHER: Earlier you said they can access it online. Can they access it on iView?
Mr Scott: Not live. What they can access on iView is News 24 live.
Senator FISHER: Why do you not make it—
Mr Scott: It is a possibility. Let's investigate it, Senator.
Senator FISHER: Why do you not do that for those residents—
Mr Scott: I think the state-based 7.30 for would be available and maybe the Sydney-based news. I could check that for you, Senator.