The Australian Senate is preparing this week to debate the Broadcasting
Services Amendment (Digital Television and Datacasting) Bill, so it may be
worth keeping a close eye on the digital television issue as to what the
government will allow regarding datacasting. The government is attempting
to stop potential datacasters from becoming de-facto broadcasters by not
allowing video and audio streaming. The three potential datacasters have
pulled out of trial testing due to the strict rules the government has
placed on it. No surprise then that the government is now reviewing the
rules and definitions to datacasting in the hope to sway back the testing.
Keep an eye on the charts of the three potential datacasters and see how
they are effected by the upcoming news announcements. They are:-
Newscorp
Telstra
The outcome of government decisions here will determine which media barons
support which political party at the next election. History repeating of
course, cause it's the exact same process that Kerry's father Frank went
through in the 1950's with the then new technology of television. (James
flew to Canberra yesterday especially to meet the Prime Minister.)
Politicians only stay in power by serving the vested interests, so this
stoush will be monumental.
Ronnie Reagan's view, of his government's view of the economy, comes to
mind for me here; " If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidise it."
Finally, to help you understand the debate; (culled form various sources)
TV versus the Net
We've been looking forward to playing with the internet on our TV for
years. We've heard about digital TV and it all makes great sense: Why not
just flick over from the sports broadcast to the player stats ? We have
the technology, so what's the hold up? Well. the existing broadcasters
think they should be the only ones who can add this sort of programming to
the new free-to-air spectrum. Under is scenario, new datacasters - likely
to include Fairfax's subsidiary F2, APN news & media, NTL/TVSN and online
media to name a few - wouldn't be allowed to play this game.
Draft legislation along these lines - called the Broadcasting services
Amendment Bill - is to be introduced into federal parliament this month.
And if it succeeds, datacasters would be blocked from becoming back door
broadcasters. They couldn't look anything like a TV station and would be
limited to 10 minutes of video per half hour. What's more, internet access
could be limited to e-mail and hosted web pages.
And where does this leave broadband cable providers such as Telstra
Advanced and Optus@Home and pay TV services such as Foxtel, Optus and
Austar? The legislation doesn't cover that as yet - so the TV (with a
set-top box) could still become your main internet access machine but you'd
have to pay for it. All the TV stations have plans to move into online
content - probably through joint ventures.
Some definitions;
Enhanced programming is additional data content sent with a TV broadcast.
It has to be directly linked to an existing TV program and only existing
free-to-air TV stations are allowed to do it.
An Internet portal is a web site which can have news, and other information
in text, pictures, video and audio. It's accessible over the regular
internet - meaning you only need a modem or a network internet connection
to see it.
Broadband is an ultra-high speed connection to the internet via cable or
satellite.
Datacasting is sending digital information - text, pictures, audio and
video - over the new free-to-air digital spectrum. Anyone can apply for a
licence, but it costs. Trials are starting this month.
Multi-channelling is simple providing more than one channel in the same
television space. Pay TV providers already do this and under the proposed
legislation, the national public free-to-air stations will be permitted to
as well.
A comment from phil
This Liberal Party legislation really shows you who runs this country, and
it aint politicians. The public simply don't understand the legislation,
nor do too many of us show much interest in wanting to. This is a great
shame. Once the legislation passes, it will most likely further retard
development of what could have been even better new technology; the
internet, and yet further entrench the monopoly power of our richest man.
How so few people see this is beyond me
Any reversal of this legislation will be known first by company insiders,
which will then show up in the relevant charts. Watch closely. Prices
will move before any announcements are made public.
