Probably sensing outrage from the populace, most of whom have no wish to either throw out their existing TV, or buy one of those fiddly set-top boxes (which rarely fit on top of the telly anyway), the Australian federal government committee overseeing such things has had a change of heart, and postponed turning off analogue TV until 2010, instead of the previous planned 2008.
Digital transmissions now reach 95% of households, but only 12% use them. To try and encourage people onto digital, they’re looking at letting commercial networks multicast from 2007. That’s what should get the punters enthused, after all, for most people a clear stereo PAL signal is all they want — give them the option of extra channels (more than ABC-2, that is) and they might start to shell out for STBs in bigger numbers.
(It’s not a done deal yet — it’s up to the Communications Minister to actually act on the committee’s recommendations.)
Remove the Watermark from digital and watch the stampede.
(Watched a US News show on SBS. The show was rebroadcasting footage from another US network. THREE Watermarks on top of each other, mooshed into some unholy hybrid! Wheee~!)
Yeah, just what I wanted, Seven-2 running reruns of Home&Away and Blue Heelers, Nine old eps of Who Wants To Be A Millionare and Here’s Humphrey, and Ten showing the OC – season 1. They’re hard-pressed to fill one channel, how are they going to do with 4?
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People won’t move until TVs come with built-in digital tuners. With set top boxes retailing for less than $100 it shouldn’t cost any more to manufacture a TV with a digital tuner instead of an analog tuner. Is there any reason why TVs aren’t being shipped with digital tuners?