Government set to allow TV networks to broadcast their primary channels in HD
AFL and NRL fans may soon be able to watch their favourite codes in high definition on TV after the Federal Government moved to repeal a law which forces TV networks to broadcast their primary channels in standard definition.
Networks Seven, Nine and Ten all welcomed the move to amend the current laws, with a Bill to be introduced as early as tomorrow but Seven has also warned that the changes need to come with the removal of other “regulatory constraints”, specifically a reduction in licence fees.
The move is likely to appease fans who have long called for matches to be broadcast in the higher quality, with Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes yesterday noting the new $2.5bn AFL deal would have HD as a key part.
“The legislation is catching up with technology,” said Paul Anderson, CEO of Ten. “This is great news for viewers, as it will allow us to enhance our service by presenting premium content on the main TEN channel in HD – for free.”
“This move by the Government will ensure the Australian public continue to have the best quality television service live and free in their homes,” said David Gyngell CEO of Nine.
Stokes confirmed their support for HD at the AFL press conference emphasising: “Today we are really proud to be building the next foundation of our great sport.
“We will take this great game and make it the national game of choice. We have included bigger and stronger coverage and will take to the public the free-to-air component and other aspects of the game we intend to promote for AFL football.”
Seven’s Kerry Stokes says AFL will be shown in HD on free-to-air in the new broadcast rights agreement. pic.twitter.com/59IuERIyN8
— AFL (@AFL) August 18, 2015
However, a spokesman for Seven this morning clarified Stokes’s statement noting that the TV network finds: “it pleasing to see our legislation being brought in to line with technology.
“We certainly hope to bring viewers more HD content in future,” he said. “But there is still more to be done to address regulatory constraints on commercial broadcasters.
“In particular we still pay the highest licence fees in the world and are facing competition from international players who aren’t subject to the same rules and in some cases don’t even pay tax. We are looking forward to continuing to work with the Government to address these imbalances.”
In the past broadcasters have pleaded “technical difficulties” to explain why they could not run a simulcast on their respective HD channels 7Mate, Gem and One.
AFL fan Josh Rowe, who runs the website “AFL in HD please”, said he was pleased with the news: “This is critically important because the majority of people not only have digital TV but high definition capable TV in their homes.
“They have had the technology for a long time and it is expected that it will be provide for them.”
Nine said it could not comment if the 2015 NRL grand final would be broadcast in high definition, but CEO Gyngell said: ” Our team are working to ensure all the appropriate rights and technical issues are resolved so high definition on our main channel can proceed, to provide the audience with the best possible experience of all our premium content, from sport and drama to live events.”
It is hoped that by allowing the broadcast of high definition on the network’s primary channels it will encourage them to move to a platform which many sports fan have invested in for their home viewing.
“Ten Network welcomes the Government’s proposal to remove the restriction on broadcasting our main channel in high definition,” said Anderson. “It will take time to move the main channel to HD, but we are already working on the technical and rights issues.”
Nic Christensen
Update 12.00pm Industry FreeTV has today issued a statement saying:
Free TV today welcomed the introduction of legislation that will allow broadcasters to transmit inHigh Definition (HD) on their main channels.
Free TV CEO Julie Flynn said, “This is a win for viewers as it will give broadcasters the flexibility to screen more premium content in HD.
“In a digital environment, it doesn’t make sense to limit the primary service to Standard Definition. We welcome this as a first step to allowing free-to-air broadcasters to deliver more enhanced services to all Australians, for free.
“These positive changes may take some time to implement for each broadcaster, depending on the resolution of technical and rights issues.
“This is a move in the right direction. However, we still have a long way to go. The Australian television industry is facing unprecedented challenges, including some of the highest broadcaster licence fees in the world and the entry of largely unregulated global content providers.
“We commend the government and urge them to implement further deregulation measures to allow free-to-air broadcasters to remain competitive so they can continue to deliver these highly valuedservices to all Australians for free,” said Ms Flynn.
Issues around sports rights, HD broadcasting and marketing in the space will be covered at the upcoming Sports Marketing Summit in Melbourne on September 9.
How will this work re the network brandings? The HD channels are a different frequency number than the main SD channels. For example Seven (main channel) is 7 on the remote control in line with its on-air branding, but if it switches to HD it will have to take over 7mate’s channel (73 on the remote control). If the networks are to remain with their current on-air brandings a lot of technical shuffling will have to take place.
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What sort of ridiculous legislation has restricted FTA to SD while the STV can broadcast in HD ?
You seriously have to wonder what world politicians live in.
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This will be a big blow to Foxtel…
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Sydney2010, some background.
Foxtel is privately owned cable or satellite to the home. As such it doesn’t have the same broadcast regulations to comply with.
The FTAs however ‘rent’ the bandwidth – which belongs to the people of Australia – hence the licence fee. That is, WE get something back in return for OUR bandwidth, which apparently is worth less every year according to the FTAs.
When the additional bandwidth was allocated HD televisions were scarce (yes there was such a time). Hence in order to NOT disrupt virtually every household in Australia it was decided to have a ‘no change’ situation on the traditional FTA channels and allow them to HD on the additional channels.
Moving forward a decade or more, we have shut off analogue and gone 100% digital, which meant virtually every home now was suddenly HD capable. The legislation has been slow to remove the old restriction – but it could be part of the costs of the changes to transmission.
So while it may look ridiculous in the current environment, it was a sage plan when the legislation was introduced. The model you seem to be favouring (FTA in HD from the day dot) would have been expensive chaos.
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JG, some additional background:
The only reason we can do this in 2015 is nothing to do with going 100% digital; it is that most of the SD decoders in the market have been replaced by natural attrition.
“Expensive chaos” was the reason being given by News Corp and Alex Encel in 1998-1999 when the current regime was created, because Encel claimed that HDTV would cost $20,000 to receive. This was a highly disingenuous statement because an HD receiver would cost $700 in 2001 and under $200 by the time it was mandatory to buy one when analog switched off. Meanwhile, Alex Encel only sold SDTV sets because he had distributorship for European TV brands. (See the real reason).
So, as is often the case in politics, a lot of fear-mongering was at the root of the problem that gave us primary channels in SD as much as 15 years later. As well as Alex Encel renting light aircraft with banners flying “STOP THE HDTV LIES”, News Corp was also dropping leaflets in Melbourne suburbs with an agenda to let them share the spectrum and start new channels in SD. They couldn’t achieve this if the FTA networks had enough spectrum for HD, but it was very hard to discover this truth. The ABC was complicit because it had an agenda of running multichannels like the BBC, and could only achieve this with SD technology.
Turnbull’s claims in parliament that the old legislation ensured people could view their channels misses the point that it was the old legislation that enabled retailers to sell cheaper SD decoders in the first place. By the time analog was switched off you couldn’t find any for sale, but the damage was done; Seven, Nine and Ten were unwilling to broadcast in HD if it meant losing 5% or 10% of their audience reach.
CK.
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Well no.
At first, the analogue channels were simulcast on HD. This was done so that the FTA netwroks could take over all the spectrum and there wouldn’t be any room for a new network.
Then, Ten started to multi-channel and the others were forced to follow suit. The HD channels they reserved for movies and sport, but they have evolved over the years.
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The fact you have a pic of the 2005 or 2006 AFL Grand Final at the top speaks volumes for how far behind TV is in this country, considering how many free kicks they get from Fed Govt.
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The Magus some background…. As these posts all seem to start with. Digital TV is not like the old VHF days of old. Digital uses LCNs or Logical Channel Numbers and allocate what they need. All the networks need to do is change their main channel to HD and their existing HD channel to SD behind the scenes and you will not notice any difference with the channel number. Hence 7 will still be 7… 9 will still be 9… 7mate will still be on 73 etc.
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