Digital TV $600 slug
Geoff Wyhoon: the television and satellite installer is waiting to see what will happen next in South Gippsland”s digital TV revolution.
By Matt Dunn
SOUTH Gippsland residents in TV black spot areas may be forced to pay $600 for satellite dishes when the switch is made from analogue to digital next year.
Those who do not pay the fee will lose their TV signals.
The South Gippsland Shire Council region will make the switch some time between January 1 and June 30, 2011.
The Bass Coast Shire Council region will make the switch, along with Melbourne, in 2013.
The Federal Government has trumpeted that “all regional Australians will now receive the same television services as people in the cities,” but Regional Broadcasters Association chairman Doug Edwards said a $600 fee would be imposed on residents in black spot areas where so-called “self-help” transmission facilities had not been established.
“Part of the deal with the Government, for them to fund this satellite transmission, is that we’ve agreed to do a terrestrial in-fill. That means we’re trying to get to about 98 per cent of the population with the terrestrial solution,” Mr Edwards said.
“The ones that we can’t get to will have the option of getting the satellite dish and getting the satellite feed. It means that everyone in Australia now will have access.
“For those in areas where there are no self-help facilities it’s going to cost them the whole $600.”
The Federal Government will pay $300 toward the cost of having a satellite dish installed for residents in areas where self-help transmission facilities have been established.
A spokesperson for the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy said that neither South Gippsland Shire Council nor Bass Coast Shire Council has applied for a licence to establish the self-help facilities.
A spokesperson for Bass Coast Shire Council said council was waiting to find out whether self help facilities were needed.
“None of the current self help sites are in Bass Coast. If a black spot was identified in our area, the Government would contact Council, but that has not happened yet,” she said.
Like many in the industry, television and satellite installer Geoff Wyhoon, is taking a wait-and-see approach to the switch.
“It’s a bit hard to know what’s going to happen. The existing transmitter site is not going to be adequate in some of these areas when they get switched off,” he said.
“In certain areas – where the community is big enough and they don’t have reception – the local council puts together funding to retransmit the signal. A bit like what they do at Foster.
“There’s a few areas that have that type of thing. But there are a few areas that certainly haven’t got that sort of set up and people are getting reception via analogue, but when it goes digital they’re going to have all sorts of grief.”
Mr Wyhoon said there was “stuff available via satellite now, but it’s not a direct replacement for local channels”.
The satellite service referred to by Mr Wyhoon – Imparja – sources channels from the Northern Territory and is bound in red tape.
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