TV broadcasters should favour, not fear the NBN

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 18 October 2009 07:27

Opinion and Analysis

And he's on a mission to educate the broadcast industry as to what Alcatel-Lucent sees as the real potential of the NBN for broadcasters. "I am starting to talk to [broadcasters] about it because I worry that, through a lack of understanding, we are setting up an inappropriate argument where the broadcasters will be frightened of the NBN because it is perceived to be a place where you do video over the Internet and put them out of business.

"It is far more complementary and inclusive, but they are not aware of it...I am trying to help the media industry understand that there are true broadcasting models that the NBN could be used for as well as IPTV and as well as video over the Internet. And they could be using all of those vehicles to deliver all of their various content forms. They should be seen the NBN as a massive plus not a scary frightening competitor."

Having the broadcast and pay TV operators using the NBN from day one, he points out, would greatly assist its commercial viability. "If we have the broadcast sector fighting with the telco sector then we will fragment the NBN too much. It won't deliver the full value and we will have to pay too much for it."

Technically the key to all this is that the NBN can be more than just a fat Internet pipe carrying IP packets. The technology is available, and already being used in Australia, to dedicate one wavelength of the optical signal on the fibre as a "radiofrequency channel".

This signal would be 'broadcast' throughout the network (or at least to every home connected to a particular exchange) and would carry multiple TV channels by modulating the intensity of the optical signal.

Such is the capacity of this channel that, according to an Alcatel-Lucent white paper, one wavelength could carry all of Australia's free-to-air TV channels and all its pay TV channels and still have capacity to spare.

There is still some debate around whether the NBN will include this channel. NBN Co executive chair Mike Quigley, has indicated it will. Another vendor, Ericsson has argued against it. http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27793/127/

CONTINUED