Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customize your settings, hit “Customize Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences
  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.

This article is more than 1 year old

Get thee to YouTube, Turnbull tells community TV broadcasters

But will telcos want a slice in the 500 MHz band?

Australia's federal government has announced the outcome of its consultation into community broadcasters, and its decision is: give back the spectrum and learn how to post on YouTube.

While upper bands of TV spectrum are in demand among mobile carriers (something bound to increase as consumers shift to higher-capacity 4G services), the immediate future for the “sixth channel” spectrum that community broadcasters currently occupy is to give commercial networks the spectrum to test MPEG4 services.

In this speech to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) RadComms 2014 conference, communications minister Malcolm Turnbull said the “sixth channel remains substantially vacant” apart from community TV broadcasters.

None of those, however, are national operations: there's Melbourne's C31 (also reachable in Geelong), 31 in Brisbane, TVS in Sydney, 44 in Adelaide and WTV in Perth.

The community broadcasters will retain their licenses until December 2015, Turnbull said, after which they're expected to shift to the Internet, whcih the minister says is the “uber-platform to which most Australians are connected 24/7”.

Turnbull has instructed the ACMA spectrum review to replan the spectrum for non-broadcast use, “perhaps as the basis for a second digital dividend” – if, in fact, telcos (and mobile makers) decide they want spectrum in the 500 MHz band.

Commercial broadcasters, along with the ABC and the SBS, are also going to get an elbow in the ribs to get to work on spectrum-sharing “to continue our drive achieve maximum spectrum efficiency”.

Community broadcasters haven't reacted well to the instruction, with C31's general manager and secretary of the Australian Community Television Alliance Richard McLelland telling the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Turnbull “seems to have a view that community television is not worth having”.

He added that it's “ludicrous” to think the whole sector could make the shift to the Internet with a little over 12 months' notice. ®

Similar topics

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like