Remote area viewers to access more channels
Southern Cross Media and Imparja viewers in Remote Central and Eastern Australia licence areas will soon access the same channels as metro cities.
- Published by David Knox
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A new joint venture company between Southern Cross Media and Imparja will ensure viewers in Remote Central and Eastern Australia licence areas will be able to access the same free to air services as those in metropolitan cities.
Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) will deliver Seven, Nine and TEN in standard definition plus digital channels GO!, 7TWO and ONEHD, as well as all of the ABC and SBS channels, including ABC2, ABC3 and SBS TWO. It will also provide high definition channels.
Viewers will need to purchase a new satellite set top box with an access ‘smart card’, a satellite dish and cabling.
Senator Stephen Conroy said, “This is a significant breakthrough in the provision of digital TV services to all Australians, particularly for those in remote and regional areas who for many years have had to put up with less choice than people in the cities.
“The new VAST service will for the first time make available to all parts of Australia the same number of channels as are available in the capital cities.”
A government statement says the VAST service will operate ‘in northern and southern time zones, providing standard definition services for viewers in Queensland and the Northern Territory based on Brisbane time, and standard definition services for viewers in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania based on Sydney time.
‘The high definition services will be provided in a combined zone, covering both the northern and southern zones.’
“Viewers of the satellite service will be able to watch their local news services through a dedicated news channel. State-based ABC and SBS news services would also be available on their respective channels,” Conroy said.
Technical specifications for VAST are at http://www.digitalready.gov.au/media/VAST_tech_spec.pdf
A satellite service for WA viewers is currently under negotiation with the remote area commercial TV licensees in Western Australia (Prime and WIN Television).
A subsidy of $400 will be available to eligible households in blackspot areas where self help transmitters are not being upgraded to digital standards. The average cost for households in regional areas is estimated to be $650.
Technical specifications for the new satellite service are available at http://www.digitalready.gov.au/satellite-tv.aspx
Source: dbcde.gov.au
11 Responses
if you want dtv you have to go to ceterlink they will get gov provided funds to cover costs for your installations
for digital tv this is only and soon to be avialable to only pesioners according to gov ?????
dont quote me on this
this could change as soon as gov relalises its going to cost them heeps ha ha to us hay as the norm we get a little till it stops we have cruel cruel tax pinching gov nothing last for ever
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well of all published coments on dtv satalite tv and all others, news break for you all whom purchase these so called set top boxs
these will work good up till gov switch off analog tv wich is also when they activate dtv properly the truth is digaital tv is going to be out of signal range for all current dtv settop boxs and satalite recievers and paid tv services as the signals are out the roof and way way above what every one thinks the signal rating are curently going to be we are been fooled to believe this dtv services to be good but lets put some real truth to this piont is no one company has yet to design a set top box to get the signals required to watch dtv on the new signal strengths soon to be released hay for you skeptics out there we are way behind in technolagy and this wont happen in the next three generations of our lives it proberly if at all possable this take 30 years before this will be available but we do have already high strengths signals but these will never be released to the pubplic as our own gov and defence force use these strengths for there useso if they give us this capabillity then it opens doors for hackers to invade our gov and defence’s so it will never be released
@Josh – Once-apon-a-time people could watch Optus Aurora channels through an Austar box, by manually tuning them in. Then Austar changed things so you couldn’t. I believe this could be undone with an Austar firmware update.
@Steven – “Freesat from Sky” is somewhat different to what you’re suggesting, because there is a different lineup of FTA channels on that platform than there is on UK Freeview (and Freesat). If you plug a different STB into your current Foxtel or Austar dish, you’ll be able to watch VAST (if you’re eligible for a smartcard).
@Kuttyswood – There was a nearly nine year gap between Mildura’s second and third commercial TV licences being granted. Prime came in May 1997, and Ten came in January 2006.
“If they wish to start to transmit free-to-air channels by satellite make a deal with Austar to transmit them the same way as ABC and SBS cause this idea is bullcrap!!”
I agree. I wish Foxtel would have something similar and strike a deal with all the capital-city networks to offer a “Freesat from Foxtel” service, so that people who want better reception but don’t want pay-TV can still pick up all the Freeview channels off the satellite using the Foxtel/Austar satellite equipment, for just the once-off installation cost. Apparently, Sky have a similar service available in the UK. Foxtel and Austar need to start negotiating with the ABC, SBS and commercial networks to make this possible.
thanks everyone for your comments re my post.
@ Reubot do i mean an attachment for the Austar satellite so i will be able to access the government service as well as Austar with the one satellite??
@ Clint i have contacted WIN Corp. that many times my fingers and ears are numb =p. All they “can” say is that all the additonal channels for WIN and Prime will be released by the analogue switch off. But the quality of the channels is yet to determined as currently our WIN and Prime is relayed from Wollongong and here they only remove their ad’s and add our own which makes the signal a weak second hand one resulting in us usually missing a couple of seconds of programming after every ad break as they arent smart enough to time the ad’s the same as the ones in Wollonging.
@ Kuttsywood i believe they will look into doing a WIN TEN deal as they do in regional SA. If they do it will suit the situation how they currently only relay another signal as that is what is done with WIN TEN in SA. I am currently hoping if we do get TEN that they do something like TEN Mildura or TEN Darwin…a split ownership between two companies which would be a better idea for Griffith seems though WIN would have a monolpoly if they owned every channel.
Josh: Griffith is as left out as regional SA right now, to use a similar example. At least in some parts of SA, they use a digital channel to relay 9 programs, while 10 and 7 are relayed both in analogue and in digital.
SA’s due to switch off analogue in December, and the stations are probably hoping for one extra channel, just so they can offer multichannels, and give the Nine relay it’s own spectrum.
The same could be said for Griffith, but it’s increasingly likely, that the Griffith market may need the third commercial service, (something other solus towns left out of aggregation, like Mildura have earned quite quickly after their second commercial service opened), sooner rather than later.
Josh – Prime is brought to you by Win, so you need to get on their case to get Prime HD and Seven Two.
Josh, get a motor or dual LNB holder.
Finally good news for people living in these areas, particularly those living in NT (outside Darwin) and western Queensland who had been missing Channel Ten programming since January 2008, when Imparja dropped it from the schedule.
I live in Griffith, NSW and we don’t have access to 7TWO, Prime HD, GO!, WIN HD, TEN or ONE HD and we have been guaranteed to have access the additional channels of Prime and WIN by the analogue turn-off but have only been told there may be a chance that we will also get TEN the same way as SA has WIN TEN. I refuse to get another satellite as i already have Austar! If they wish to start to transmit free-to-air channels by satellite make a deal with Austar to transmit them the same way as ABC and SBS cause this idea is bullcrap!! (i am saying and thinking many different words then “bullcrap” but that is the most respectable)