Digital television services

In May 2008, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy announced that the launch of new digital television services would be delayed until a detailed technical and policy review was undertaken.

These digital television services will be provided under two licences, referred to as ‘channel A’ and ‘channel B’. To be eligible to participate in the allocation process for channel B, parties must lodge an access undertaking that has been accepted by the ACCC. 

The ACCC will be responsible for assessing access undertakings submitted by potential bidders for channel B. Following the allocation of the licence to the successful bidder, the ACCC will have an ongoing role in overseeing the access regime, including any subsequent variations of the access undertaking.

The ACCC issued a discussion paper on 15 December 2006 seeking stakeholders’ views on the access regime that will apply to channel B. Interested stakeholders were requested to make submissions to the ACCC by 5 February 2007.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will be responsible for allocating the licences for the channels. ACMA has released a separate discussion paper on the allocation process, which is available on ACMA’s website (www.acma.gov.au).