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Stars put rivalry on standby for digital TV launch
Stars put rivalry on standby for digital TV launch
The free-to-air television networks forgot egos and ratings to join in a rare collaboration at Parliament House last night to encourage more households to take up digital television before the analogue signal switches off in 2013.
Network stars and bosses mingled with politicians in the Mural Hall including Spicks and Specks' Myf Warhurst, All Saints' Kip Gamblin, the Bananas in Pyjamas and The Great Outdoors' Tom Williams at the official launch of Freeview, a consortium of the nation's free-to-air broadcasters working together to market digital television.
ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine, Ten, Prime, WIN and Southern Cross broadcast a 60-second promotion for Freeview at 6.29pm last night, to drive take-up of the free-to-air digital television platform in Australia.
The Federal Government has set December 31, 2013, as the deadline for Australia to switch from analogue to digital television.
Freeview is chaired by ABC director of television Kim Dalton, who said if households had not turned to digital by the analogue switch-off date they would simply have a blank screen on their televisions.
''I think Australians at the moment are quietly and comfortably unaware of the changes that are about to take place in the free-to-air space over the next few years,'' he said.
A high-definition digital set-top box, digital video recorder or integrated digital television was necessary to receive the digital signal.
Mr Dalton said there would be 15 free-to-air standard definition and high definition channels in Australia at this time next year, including three additional standard definition channels from Seven, Ten and Nine.
''Digital TV offers much better picture quality but it also offers more channels and part of Freeview's job is to explain that to our audiences,'' he said. Mr Dalton said it was up to the networks to determine if the extra channels contained new content or repeats. The ABC has already put a proposal to the Federal Government for a separate children's channel.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said last night fewer than 50per cent of Australian households had turned on to digital free-to-air TV. The Federal Government was committed to ensuring ''the smoothest possible transition to digital TV'' , including allocating funds in areas including research to measure digital take-up. He said the broadcasters also had a critical role to play to encourage the switch over.
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26-11-2008, 12:09 AM
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