Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Good evening and welcome to television.
I can remember actually going to a twenty first birthday party
where we all sat on the floor and watched a little tiny screen
because someone in our street had got the first black and white TV.
And then came home from soccer one day, with my eight year old son,
and there was a colour TV.
We couldn't believe colour instead of black and white, and look what we've got now.
Digital switchover has brought us this new process, this new TV experience.
Isn't it an amazing world that we live in?
It's been a long time coming. Richard Alston was the Minister
that got it going and then Helen Coonan and Stephen Conroy, and for a brief while Anthony Albanese.
And now I am the Minister under whom it will come, analogue will come to an end.
So it's a big day. What a dynamic industry. What a dynamic medium.
In the early years, take up was not as quick as we would have liked.
And so when I was Minister, I understood that there needed to be some significant
drivers, and there was legislation to introduce multi-channelling
which gave consumers more choice, and a number of other measures including putting in place Digital Australia.
The prospect of touching eight million Australians' homes, and even more
importantly touching their ability to watch the footy, watch the cricket, watch their favourite Home and Away episodes,
it was one of those Yes Minister shudder, shiver down the spine moments.
We were, I must confess, a little daunted at the beginning,
because in a country the size of Australia to switch all those areas off,
to sequence it properly, to make sure viewers didn't lose out in the process.
I spent a lot of time saying, "if viewers don't get a service that's equally as good as the one they've got now
there's not going to be any digital dividend for them."
To start off with digital, we had to convert all of our studios from analogue to digital,
and that was the first task. The second task was the rollout of transmitters.
So in the conversion process of converting the studios we had to get the digital signals from the studios to the transmitter sites,
so that meant we had to have a distribution network. The task was massive. Massive.
The key challenges we faced in getting digital TV working in the country,
was to basically develop the sites, understand what was going on with the analog,
seeing if that was compatible with the new digital system, keeping in mind that there's been population changes
and areas that needed a different way of doing the coverage.
440-plus digital transmitters around the country.
Er, 60 studio locations. A dozen large OB trucks.
Electronic news-gathering. It was a huge transformation.
It was genuinely massive. It was an undertaking that was probably over
ten years in the making from the ACMA's perspective.
At various times throughout the process we probably would have had
close to 100 people working on it in some capacity, whether full-time or part-time.
From a technical perspective, it involved the channel planning,
the detailed work for over 600 sites across the country, which is a massive amount of work.
We worked with Government to make it all happen, because the broadcasters have the on-the- ground experience,
they knew what needed to be done and where it needed to be done.
So it was a very cooperative process, working with the Minister's Office,
the Department, the Digital Switchover Taskforce, and the ACMA, and because of the contribution from all players,
I think that contributed a lot to the success of the whole program.
Because WIN had the majority of the responsibility and the interest,
we just erm, I guess, took over a bit.
But it had to happen, it had to have deadlines,
and we all had to know where we were going, and we all had to work with the Government.
There's no point in one broadcaster heading off on one tangent, and the others going in a different direction,
because, at the end of the day, the coverage needs to be very similar.
And so that basically locks you into being a part of a bigger picture.
I think we cooperated where we needed to really well.
And I think that competitive nature and competitive spirit of television really shone through for the best outcome for everybody.
The result of the cooperation is that you've got the platform that you've got now that's very stable.
If we didn't have the cooperation between the broadcasters,
the Minister, the Department, and ACMA, it wouldn't have happened.
By around about 2009, only 47 per cent of people had made the conversion to digital television.
So to really ramp up that process and to deliver in the timeframe we needed to,
we needed many more programs, much more information flow,
and an enormous amount of coordination between us and the broadcasters, and local communities, as well.
The Multicultural Ambassadors served a pivotal role
in ensuring we were a bridge between the technology to come and the people we wanted to make sure came with us.
So we needed to speak in whichever language people were comfortable with
to ensure that they were aware this switch was going to be taking place
and that they were fully prepared so that they did not wake up on third December and suddenly the television isn't working.
Well providing the Switchover program I guess what we've found is that the best type of outreach
has been face-to-face outreach where we've engaged the community.
We've held stalls, we've held markets.
You know, people out in the bush can be a bit, you know, at first, they don't know who you are, where you come from,
and you just kind of have to give it a go and try and relate on their level.
And, you know, you find that pretty soon they're asking all kinds of questions and you're able to help them out.
The IAG and the CEG were really important to the Taskforce because they could give us advice
about how they wanted things rolled out, and particularly the CEG about how consumers want things done.
Consumers were more interested in the flat panels than the digital technology.
So the challenge became, how could we build in the
requirements for the Australian standard into flat panel television sets, and how could we
make a story to educate the consumers on exactly what was taking place?
Vision Australia was really pleased to be part of the Customer Expert Group.
And we saw it as a really important element of the whole Switchover.
The talking set-top-box meant that people who are blind
had access to all of the features of digital TV.
It was very valuable to be a part of the Consumer Expert Group
because it gave us the chance to actually say what was worrying us about our members.
It was wonderful, we could voice or issues, our opinions,
others would make comments and we would come up with something that was really worthwhile.
Switchover was challenging because people were going to switchover at any time
between 2010 through 2013, and every house had a different environment.
So the Taskforce developed the mySwitch tool.
It was designed to consolidate all the information that
all of the industry had about digital television and deliver that in a way that that the consumers in households across Australia
could make their own decisions about how and when to get ready for Switchover.
The two subsidy schemes, the Household Assistance Scheme
and the Satellite Subsidy Scheme, were really important to make sure that nobody got left behind in the conversion process,
be they people who are on maximum-rate pensions, or people who living in remote and rural parts of Australia.
The fact that a pensioner was able to get real assistance
so they would make sure that they had digital TV, was excellent.
There are many households that simply didn't have the capacity
to switch to digital TV themselves without the Household Assistance Scheme.
And then once the talking set-top boxes were introduced into the HAS,
it meant a real boost for people who are blind and have low vision.
The ASAP funding was vital because regional broadcasters, as we went through this exercise,
we were only required to roll out one digital channel in regional South Australia, regional West Australia.
So all of a sudden, then, it was thought with Government, we could add the additional channels.
The addition of those multi channels for those markets is one of the major outcomes of this exercise.
We switched to digital TV because of the advantages that digital TV gave us in extra features that we could add.
The most obvious feature initially was the HDTV feature
and the wide-screen feature and the surround-sound features.
The digital switchover has really extended and expanded the SBS network.
If I could point to one specific example where it's really been, you know, something to celebrate and warming
is the National Indigenous Television Channel. And because of the Digital Switchover it is now available Free to Air,
and that's really important, an important historic moment in Australian Broadcasting.
Viewer Access Satellite Television really has been a great change for regional and remote viewers.
Firstly, remote viewers, who previously only had access to two commercial channels and two national channels,
now have access to a full suite of services, exactly the same programming that their
metropolitan cousins get access to, and that's a great thing.
To have delivered VAST out to Australians who never imagined that they could ever get
equal television channels access, is just a great achievement.
We go out to communities and they say, "Oh, look, it works in town, it works up Darwin, it works in these places."
And we say, "Look, there's this service, you can get satellite TV you can get the channels,
you can get everything everyone else in town is getting." And they were stoked. They love it.
And, you know, that's the first time a lot of these people have had the chance to get that variety of content.
It's a big connection, too, in remote areas to be able to stay connected to the rest of Australia, and receive what they're getting.
And I know TV is a big part of our culture. To be able to provide that, it is a big deal.
It was a big deal for the people who are getting the service now, and it is a big deal across the nation.
The feedback I have had from some of those 300,000 plus Australians who have accessed HAS has been wonderful.
And I am proud of that fact that we weren't prepared to leave anybody behind.
So what Free-to-Air television represents, and the Digital Switchover's success represents,
is another step emphasising the great egalitarian tradition of Australia.
Really people got their hands dirty, they got in and they made it happen at every stage,
from the planning stage to the implementation stage to the delivery stage.
And yes, I think we are all very proud of the achievement.
We all know that this has been a huge task. We have learnt enormous amounts of things along the way.
I keep saying to my staff: "Next time we do one of these, we'll have it perfect."
Digital is multifaceted. And I think that, going forward, that's going to be seen as
the most significant step in the evolution of television.
You just look in awe at what the technology can do and what it can deliver.
So, um, it's bigger than going from black-and-white to colour. No doubt.
The future of digital is never-ending. It is just a platform that is going to grow and grow and grow.
Where we are at now, I think we have just scratched the surface.
Favourite TV show, take one
My all-time favourite TV show.
That's a bit of a... I've just got to think about that.
I hate this question.
My favourite TV show I'd have to say would be MythBusters.
Downton Abbey
I was a big TV enthusiast when I was growing up. I loved it.
I'd probably say Dr Who, I think.
Hmm.
My all-time favourite TV show has to be Mad Men.
I'm a bit of a MASH tragic.
You never pick a favourite child
Close second, The Wire.
It'd have to be a toss-up between A-Team and ... Redfern Now.
Any football grand final.
My show was MASH
SeaChange
Go Back To Where To Where You Came From
I like Breaking Bad
Yeah, OK
Monty Python's Flying Circus
It's got to be Dr Who
I'd have to say Four Corners
I can't just say Skippy on its own, I reckon an equal first would have to be the A-Team.