[press release from Australian Community Television Alliance]
A report on ABC television today highlights the dilemma facing the Community Television sector as the Government begins its campaign to get Australia ready for digital television.
The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, launched the campaign at a conference in Sydney on Monday.
"Digital television switchover is our biggest national format change since the swap to decimal currency and it is important that Australia get ready," Senator Conroy said.
Yet, as highlighted in the ABC news report, the failure of the previous Government to allocate digital spectrum has left Community Television “in limbo”.
Speaking to the ABC, the Chief Executive of TVS (Television Sydney) and Secretary of the Australian Community Television Alliance, Laurie Patton, said “The threat for us is if we’re not on digital and people start to move to digital then they will lose us…if the Government doesn’t do something now then Community Television has a bleak future”.
However, comments made by Senator Conroy at a news conference on Monday and included in the ABC news report indicate that the Government is aware of the problem and ready to act.
“We don’t want them to close because of a lack of willingness to transition them into the digital world,” Senator Conroy said, “we’re not going to leave them behind”.