Broadcast Australia lobbies to keep broadcast TV off the NBN.

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 11 February 2010 19:27

IT Industry - Strategy

It has been suggested that a wavelength of light on NBN's proposed FTTH network could be dedicated as an 'RF channel' and used to carry all the broadcast TV services presently delivered over the airwaves. Broadcast Australia says this is not a good idea.

It has issued a white paper which estimates the cost of a national RF overlay on the NBN at $900m-$1b and which concludes that "On balance there does not appear to be any desire or justification on the part of either broadcasters or consumers to pay new costs for a blanket NBN-delivered broadcast service, particularly given the existing infrastructure and 'free' viewing status.

"Moreover, the fastest area of broadband growth is currently wireless broadband, suggesting that users value portability, mobility and general flexibility."

However advocates for an RF channel cite the rapid growth of mobile broadband as one of the most compelling reasons for an RF channel because it could free up huge amounts of broadcast spectrum for mobile broadband in the long term.

Broadcast Australia claims that video over the NBN will be complementary to free to air and pay TV broadcasts and says that demand for video over the NBN "is more likely to come from complementary IP-based 'new media' services - such as catch-up TV, video-on-demand, and subscription IPTV - which can provide much-needed on-demand niche content."

Broadcast Australia maintains that broadcast technology represent "a highly cost effective mechanism (with a total of over 100Mbps of high quality video capacity already available today) for distributing free to air content to market sectors and geographies within those areas covered by the NBN fibre and those that will remain beyond the reach and capabilities of the NBN's FTTH footprint.

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