The possibility of A-SPAN on free-to-air digital television is interesting. Would the ABC or SBS be interested in using it as one of their multichannels? Would NIne as part owner through it's 25% of Foxtel and as part operator with it's 33% of Sky News use it as their digital multichannel - boring but cheap. Or could the government issue narrowcast licences to A-SPAN and give them some of the spectrum that has been reserved for Channels A and B.
The promo on the A-SPAN website says "and will be made available for inclusion on digital free to air television". That seems to say they want it be on digital television - but currently there is no outlet.
A-PAC
Started by
newtaste
, 12 Dec 2008 - 06:59 PM
146 replies to this topic
OFFLINE #2
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Posted 12 December 2008 - 07:06 PM
Foxtel and Nine are no longer linked by ownership IIRC. I would doubt that ABC would be interested in carrying it, they were planning to launch a channel that was more or less the same.
Seven, Nine, or Ten may be interested in carrying it if we don't see it on something like Digital 44 nationally.
Seven, Nine, or Ten may be interested in carrying it if we don't see it on something like Digital 44 nationally.
OFFLINE #3
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Posted 12 December 2008 - 07:19 PM
Well Digital 44 is the only confirmed FTA outlet as present.
OFFLINE #4
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 04:12 PM
A-SPAN promo from Sky News' YouTube channel:
Edited by 600watch, 13 December 2008 - 04:14 PM.
OFFLINE #5
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 06:16 PM
An independent voice for democracy? Run by a consortium of PBL, Telstra, and News Limited...?
Stuff from the IPA should be a laugh, though - overall it sounds pretty good!
Stuff from the IPA should be a laugh, though - overall it sounds pretty good!
OFFLINE #6
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 06:24 PM
"For all Australians" - with Foxtel of course!
OFFLINE #7
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 06:26 PM
Watching that promo, it's almost as though they're trying to directly appeal to Kevin Rudd..they use all of his terminology and I can't think of anything he'd like more than a 'forum for public discourse'. 
OFFLINE #8
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 06:57 PM
QUOTE (Splashmo @ Dec 13 2008, 07:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
"For all Australians" - with Foxtel of course!
and Austar, and the Internet and Digital 44 which would mean most Australians.
OFFLINE #9
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 07:30 PM
Which would mean 25% with pay TV, plus Sydney..which is about 45% of people at a most optimistic estimate.
Have they said they will stream online?
Have they said they will stream online?
OFFLINE #10
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 08:23 PM
QUOTE (TGIF @ Dec 13 2008, 08:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Which would mean 25% with pay TV, plus Sydney..which is about 45% of people at a most optimistic estimate.
Have they said they will stream online?
Have they said they will stream online?
Yes, so therefore most Australians. Pay+Online+Mobile+D44.
OFFLINE #11
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 08:33 PM
Still not all!
Look at yourself, Tim, look at yourself.. I think it would be better if we ended this
Look at yourself, Tim, look at yourself.. I think it would be better if we ended this
OFFLINE #12
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 09:04 PM
So? I don't get your point. A pay company is offering a channel for free, they just can't broadcast digitally they don't have any space to do it on. They said they would offer it if someone who have space wanted to air it.
OFFLINE #13
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 09:11 PM
My point is that they're claiming to be all altruistic and accessible, when in reality they have no means to deliver on this promise apart from online -which is still a pretty niche means of accessing it.
They're a pay network, and unless they can negotiate carriage with a commercial station at the moment their chances to be on FTA at launch are pretty bleak.
The fact that we're getting this worked up over a bit of spin in a five minute PR video is a bit worrying, though.
They're a pay network, and unless they can negotiate carriage with a commercial station at the moment their chances to be on FTA at launch are pretty bleak.
The fact that we're getting this worked up over a bit of spin in a five minute PR video is a bit worrying, though.
OFFLINE #14
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 09:17 PM
QUOTE (TGIF @ Dec 13 2008, 09:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
My point is that they're claiming to be all altruistic and accessible, when in reality they have no means to deliver on this promise apart from online -which is still a pretty niche means of accessing it.
They're a pay network, and unless they can negotiate carriage with a commercial station at the moment their chances to be on FTA at launch are pretty bleak.
The fact that we're getting this worked up over a bit of spin in a five minute PR video is a bit worrying, though.
They're a pay network, and unless they can negotiate carriage with a commercial station at the moment their chances to be on FTA at launch are pretty bleak.
The fact that we're getting this worked up over a bit of spin in a five minute PR video is a bit worrying, though.
Huh? You're the only one getting worked up about it. Mike is just pointing out the platforms it'll be available on, you're trying to make out those facts aren't true, when they clearly are. For a start, if Telstra NextG is one of those, that's 99% of Australians covered anyway. The fact is, it'll be accessible if people really want to watch it. Throw in Digital 44 in Sydney, online and Fox, and it's hard to not get access to it.
Edited by rusty, 13 December 2008 - 09:24 PM.
OFFLINE #15
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 09:26 PM
I think it's a bit disingenuous is all - and liked I noted before, my pedanticism frightens me at times. Besides which, I think it'd be naive to take any advertising as gospel.
OFFLINE #16
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 09:59 PM
QUOTE (TGIF @ Dec 13 2008, 10:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
My point is that they're claiming to be all altruistic and accessible, when in reality they have no means to deliver on this promise apart from online -which is still a pretty niche means of accessing it.
They're a pay network, and unless they can negotiate carriage with a commercial station at the moment their chances to be on FTA at launch are pretty bleak.
The fact that we're getting this worked up over a bit of spin in a five minute PR video is a bit worrying, though.
They're a pay network, and unless they can negotiate carriage with a commercial station at the moment their chances to be on FTA at launch are pretty bleak.
The fact that we're getting this worked up over a bit of spin in a five minute PR video is a bit worrying, though.
Why wlould you want to negotiate "carriage with a commercial station" to be on FTA?
Do you not realise FTA belongs to the past?
It is a dying technology and source of both information and entertainment. FTA is the past!!
The only thing that has held back pay-tv and other technologies in this country is the totally inappropriate and unhealthy hold that FTA has over politicians who been sucked in by rubbish like the anti-siphoning legislation. FTA is a business - and it's a failing model. Let it go to the wall.
OFFLINE #17
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 10:04 PM
FTA is obselete?
Perhaps that's why 42% of households have digital FTA. Foxtel hasn't got any particular "killer features" not already available (or eventually coming to) free-to-air apart from interactive stuff and lots of channels - most of which are showing shows you can download online in a few hours.
They have a lot to offer that FTA doesn't, but none of that is especially unique so I fail to see how it is going to eclipse it.
Perhaps that's why 42% of households have digital FTA. Foxtel hasn't got any particular "killer features" not already available (or eventually coming to) free-to-air apart from interactive stuff and lots of channels - most of which are showing shows you can download online in a few hours.
They have a lot to offer that FTA doesn't, but none of that is especially unique so I fail to see how it is going to eclipse it.
OFFLINE #18
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Posted 13 December 2008 - 10:07 PM
QUOTE (Dorcas @ Dec 14 2008, 12:59 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Why wlould you want to negotiate "carriage with a commercial station" to be on FTA?
Do you not realise FTA belongs to the past?
It is a dying technology and source of both information and entertainment. FTA is the past!!
The only thing that has held back pay-tv and other technologies in this country is the totally inappropriate and unhealthy hold that FTA has over politicians who been sucked in by rubbish like the anti-siphoning legislation. FTA is a business - and it's a failing model. Let it go to the wall.
Do you not realise FTA belongs to the past?
It is a dying technology and source of both information and entertainment. FTA is the past!!
The only thing that has held back pay-tv and other technologies in this country is the totally inappropriate and unhealthy hold that FTA has over politicians who been sucked in by rubbish like the anti-siphoning legislation. FTA is a business - and it's a failing model. Let it go to the wall.
Is there an English translation of that available online?
OFFLINE #20
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Posted 14 December 2008 - 09:40 PM
I'm abit of a political tragic. I would much rather watch Question Time over Days of Our Lives. It's always disappointing that the ABC leave Question Time just as any fire is starting to burn. I'm rather disappointed that A-SPAN free to air is limited to Sydney on a trialled channel that has been trialling for years after the original deadline passed. Expand the service already. Watching it on the phone or web is sort of out of the question as I'm committed enough to watch what goes on for hours, which will eat up my bandwidth limits and cost me $$$. I also find it rather amusing some people believe Free to Air is dead or is dieing. Sure there is a migration trend to other media, however doomsayers have been saying FTA will die in 5 years and all of these new IPTV and cable technolgy will finish it off. Just like the prediction of flying cars made decades ago, I have yet to see a prototype that has gone past the one off news story. 75% can't be wrong about Free to Air being dead. Pay TV is unlikely to have the same uptake as it does in the US because we aren't a culture based around the telly and that people don't want to pay for a service for the sake of using one or two channels or can't afford it.
Anyway, A-SPAN will make a good addition to the channels that are going to get offered on Freeview. For those who say that politicians are lying and secretive, well you can watch them in full flight for hours at a time and know what your representative is up to. For those such as myself who see an entertainment value in seeing grown men and women behaving like school children as the other team wheel out the cardboard cutout, I can see myself arch welding the remote to the channel. It'll also give those who study politics free access to without the crap of download limits or costing x amount on the mobiles. Though I wonder how we are going to get coverage of Parliament from both state and federal levels as well as crossing to various places overseas without clashing? Will they do what they do in D44 where they have one channel for the HoR and one for the Senate? Anyway, I'll be looking forward to seeing this channel...one way or another.
Anyway, A-SPAN will make a good addition to the channels that are going to get offered on Freeview. For those who say that politicians are lying and secretive, well you can watch them in full flight for hours at a time and know what your representative is up to. For those such as myself who see an entertainment value in seeing grown men and women behaving like school children as the other team wheel out the cardboard cutout, I can see myself arch welding the remote to the channel. It'll also give those who study politics free access to without the crap of download limits or costing x amount on the mobiles. Though I wonder how we are going to get coverage of Parliament from both state and federal levels as well as crossing to various places overseas without clashing? Will they do what they do in D44 where they have one channel for the HoR and one for the Senate? Anyway, I'll be looking forward to seeing this channel...one way or another.
