TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW
MEDIA REPORT
ABC RADIO NATIONAL
THURSDAY, 26 MARCH 1998SUBJECT: DIGITAL BROADCASTING
Rob Bolton:
(introductory question on whether consumers will purchase a new digital TV set within the eight year simulcast period)Alston:
Well, I think the average purchase of a new television set is probably less than half that period in the US, for example. About every four years people buy a new television set...Bolton:
Well, they say 15 years is the life of your typical analog set.Alston:
No, that's not inconsistent with what you said, I'm simply saying that people will buy additional sets for the home. It's a bit like a mobile phone, if you buy a digital phone you don't necessarily throw away the analog. You'll probably have to in most cases after 2000. But in this situation you could do both. But, more importantly, it's a minimum of ten years, if it needs to be longer then we can extend it. But we will wait and see what the take up rate is, that's why we've built flexibility into the system.Bolton:
But it's not exactly like buying a digital telephone, because in fact your talking about between $1500, $2000 for a new device.Alston:
Well, that's what you paid for a new mobile phone a few years ago, the price comes down dramatically...Bolton:
No, no, you can buy a mobile phone for $79, I mean, this is a massively more expensive proposition.Alston:
That's exactly the point. When mobile phones first came on the market you were paying $1500, now a few years later you're getting them for a give away price. You can expect that to happen with any new technology and you can expect it to happen with digital television sets.Bolton:
Senator Alston, do you think you've set things in concrete too early, that - if given all these uncertainties that you've just mentioned - that it's unwise to have stated the policy and said this is how it will be till 2008?Alston:
We've deliberately avoided being overly prescriptive. We've taken a close look at the UK and US models. Digital television is coming on whether you like it or not, there's no point in burying your head in the sand. What you try and do is set out the principles, put a framework legislation in place, but allow yourself sufficient scope for reviews to take account of changes in new technology and changes in consumer demand. So we end up having a system that will breathe, it will be organic.Bolton:
What obligation is being made of the free to airs to service the regional areas?Alston:
Well, there are separate regional free to air stations. They're very keen to get into digital as well. They'll be required to start up progressively over a three year period, but most...Bolton:
You say required to start up, but in fact there's nothing I've seen so far that indicates they will have to match the service that's going to be delivered to city consumers.Alston:
Well, in the major regional centres, I don't think there's any doubt that they'll be dead keen to match the metros, and certainly on the periphery of the metropolitan areas the same applies. In more remote areas it may take longer, but in any event we're saying that will have to be completed by 2004, so that gives them sufficient lead time, recognising the additional costs that they incur.We've said the regional are probably a special case and we'd look at whether or not they should get additional taxation concessions.
Bolton:
Now simultaneously you've said that the cross media rules are now not going to change, that you don't want to see any change in cross media. What's the landscape in the whole media ownership picture in this country now? Is it set in concrete, no more changes?Alston:
Well, there's nothing to stop fundamental changes occurring under the current regime. I mean, if Kerry Packer, for example, wanted to sell down his holding in Channel Nine to 14 per cent he could buy Fairfax tomorrow. Nothing's set in concrete, if...Bolton:
Yep, but given the realities of what the proprietors want, there isn't any scope for change now.Alston:
In the rules? Well no, we've made it clear that we're not revisiting the cross media and foreign ownership laws on media..Bolton:
Not ever?Alston:
Well you can never say never, but we've said that we don't have any plans to do that, and there's no reason why we should. We tried last time around. We were told by people such as the ABC that there was overwhelming opposition and that we shouldn't. So I don't see now why we should be doing a backflip, I presume we'd still be criticised if we did.Bolton:
So, with the possible exception of changes in telephony, the communications and media sector in this country is locked in concrete?Alston:
Well no, you keep saying locked in concrete. The fact is that datacasting services will open up a whole new raft of applications some of which we can't even anticipate at the moment, and that will be a pretty unregulated sector. There'll be, I think, a very dynamic industry evolving, with the growth of the Internet and the capacity for Web TV there's going to be enormous technology changes.Bolton:
Senator Alston, a lot of the Government's policies seem to be about maintaining the old orthodoxies, maintaining the old power structures. There's not a lot there that gives room for new blood. We still deal with Packer and Murdoch and all the existing players.Alston:
There is nothing wrong in itself with having successful business people running major media companies, I mean the notion that somehow they've been there for five or ten years and they ought to be asked to move on, or kicked offshore, is preposterous.Bolton:
No, but maybe they need to be exposed a bit more to competition.Alston:
Well, as you would know, in this country for the last 40 years, Governments of all persuasions have accepted the proposition that there should be a limit on the number of free to air licences in exchange for increasing levels of local content, and the end result of that is no accident - we have the best quality free to air commercial television in the world.ENDS
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