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Save our community TV

Pressure is mounting on the federal government to assist community television shift from analogue to digital television.

Following news that Perth’s Access 31 could go under, opposition communications spokesman Bruce Billson said the government had failed to provide adequate support to help community television stations make the switch.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy (pictured) has given television stations until 2013 to make the switch.

“In what appeared to be a naive, political chest-beating exercise, Senator Conroy recklessly set a 2013 digital television switchover deadline back in December, before doing anything to ensure community television’s digital future was assured,” Mr Billson said.

“This was one of the reasons why the previous government did not set a firm switchover date and instead was working to implement a digital action plan to ensure critical issues were addressed, including the shoring-up of community television’s digital future.”

Conroy has committed to helping Access 31 make the switch to digital but had failed to clarify details of his plan, or whether other stations around the country would receive similar assistance.

“Senator Conroy must explain just what this bail out entails and whether he will bail out all community television across the country that are also being adversely affected by his mixed messages and digital bumbling.”

Source: The Age

3 Responses

  1. TelevisionAU is right on the mark, and “bumbling” perfectly describes how the former government handled the introduction of digital TV in Australia.

    It’s way past time the government gave access to the community channels to digital TV. Whether by granting them a whole channel, or by forcing a datacaster (I’m thinking D44 Sydney, or whoever wins what was previously referred to as “Channel A”) to transmit them, it doesn’t matter. Right now, the community channels are losing out more and more as people switch to digital TV.

  2. the opposition are the last ones that can criticise the government’s handling of the community TV stations’ conversion to digital – they are the ones that created the mess!

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