Changing the licence area is just the start. SCA (or any other interested parties) still has to pay for a licence to broadcast into the region.
Enlarging the Western Victoria TV1 licence area makes it easier for other measures to take place (e.g. self-help transmitter) so that Mildura residents can continue to watch 10 via their TV antennas.
As a ratepayer this wouldnât sit right with me some councils across Australia do operate re-transmission sites but In the MDV coverage area transmitters at Ouyen, Robinvale & Underbool are operated by RBA Holdings.
https://www.acma.gov.au/digital-self-help-transmission-licensees
VEW8 Kalgoorlie and the station at Geraldton GTW were run as a pair by one lot of owners - because the Telecom brearers westbound to Perth were permanently in use by 7/9/10 it wasnât possible to playout GTW Geraldton TV from Kalgoorlie. The fix was a small TV playout system at a radio terminal(R/T) site east of Perth were the microwave Tee-ed off north to Geraldton and you could also access the bearer east to Kalgoorlie . A hut was built at the R/T site with Sony BVU cassette players and the programming and commercials were copied onto tapes and driven up the hill for the afternoon and nights programming. The staff lived in a house in the nearby town and did their tape prep there prior to driving up the hill to a glorified shed where their playout system lived. Doesnât sound like it would have been much of a lifestyle. To do all that there must have been some money in it for the owners though.
âIf FTA wants to survive they all need to work together and stop fighting.â
This would be the TV equivalent of Coles, Woolworths and Aldi all working together with grocery supplies.
Except groceries arenât a declining market like free to air TV is. Until someone invents a magic pill!
The Commonwealth will not be crying if 10 and its regional transmissions ever went dark: Australia has yet to tackle a 600Mhz restack like the USA has via a spectrum buy back to repurpose for 600Mhz 5G. A bust TV broadcaster would give them a chance to ask for the licence back and get 7Mhz for the restack for free.
Seven and WIN getting divorced in Mildura is the latest step in Seven decoupling itself from WIN - when Seven bought Prime it pulled its playout from Mediahub(JV between WIN and ABC), pulled its links from DDA(owned by WIN) and moved its RF maintenance from BTS Networks(JV between WIN and Prime) to BAI.
Next on the chopping block is possibly going to be TDT in Tasmania and the 10 stations in regional SA and WA. My view it has more to do with a divorce between 7 and WIN rather than $$$$. WIN are hard work
Would not the most sensible solution for a small market like Mildura be a similar situation as like parts of SA, where SCA or WIN own the lot, and the viewer is given a smaller channel offering?
TDT in Tasmania is different I would argue, as TDT is not owned by 7WM/part of Prime. Itâs an SCA and WIN JV. Its a bare bones operation and I suspect is profitable or at least paying its way as it was setup utilising lots of "gentlemanâs agreementsâ from my understanding between WIN and SCA.
Would need to be Australia wide, to push all TV channels below Channel 38 (599 mhz).
Mildura like most metros are VHF 6 to 12 (177-226 mhz) so this would not benefit telcos as VHF is too low down the spectrum to be of use to them.
When SCA recently tried to sell off its TV you would imagine Seven would have looked at SCA TV in Tasmania, given its the market leader and Seven affiliate there? The fact that it never changed hands would likely be that SCA wanted too much for it. Really itâs the only part of SCA TV that would be worth anything. If Seven did get SCA TV Tasmania the downside for Seven would be they may end up with another WIN JV. I feel sorry for all the 10 and SCA staff that are going to get caught up in all this nationally.
There is a knock on effect from a VHF high power site because all the surrounding translators are often on 600Mhz TV channels - The VHF is no use for 5G but the translator output frequencies definitely are.
SCA might fight any move to do that. Theyâre not exactly looking to add to their network and such a change would compel them to add a link/relay to Mildura, and adopt the costs in running that. And as already mentioned, Seven/WIN have clearly identified that there isnât room for a 3rd commercial network. SCA would therefore have to subsidise Mildura from other areas and I canât see them having any appetite for that.
That does not mean people living in Sunraysia region should be robbed of the right to see 10 and its multichannels on terrestrial signals. This is called choice.
I think everything must be done to keep 10âs signal on air beyond June 30. Forcing people to 10Play should be done as the last resort. Even then 10Play does not solve all problems. As mentioned previously, 10 does not have digital rights to some of its acquired shows, such as Law & Order: SVU.
(I reckon the issue facing MDT is just part of the long-term trend which sees Channel 10 programming being discriminated against by regional broadcasters, going back to pre-aggregation days in 1980s, when 10âs shows were not shown in parts of NSW and Victoria, unless it was live sports like NSW Rugby League or Olympic Games. Then there was NTD Darwinâs decision to drop 10âs general programming on January 1, 2003, which saw shows like Neighbours going off air in the Top End until DTD began in April 2008)
I donât know about a ârightâ. There is still a choice of four other networks to choose from, plus streaming, in which 10Play is a free option.
This comes down to economics and is a sign of things to come in a sector in decline.
Having access to watch MasterChef or Gogglebox via a TV antenna is not a universal human right. This is a commercial sector thatâs experiencing decline. Ten will make the argument that its programs are available via 10play. Those 3 viewers in Mildura who might miss out on streaming SVU might just have to do without or find some other option. Itâs not up to the government to manage that gap in the market.
Mildura was deliberately left out of the framework for aggregation in the 1980s for reasons such as are evident now â that it canât support three commercial networks (even if shared between 2 licencees).
As mentioned above, I donât see SCA having any desire to fill the gap in Mildura.
At a stretch I could maybe, just maybe, see CDT step in, but that is an operator probably under just as much financial strain as MDT and adding a loss-making outlet in Mildura will not be desirable for them, either.
In retrospect this was one of the mistakes of aggregation. On its own, Mildura canât support three commercial networks, but if it is integrated with the rest of Victorian market then the answer is yes.
the answer was no at the time because it was deemed that Mildura was still too small to support three commercial networks without being disproportionately subsidised by other regions across the aggregated market which in turn would have impacted the viability across the aggregated market.
(When you looked at market sizes at the time, Ballarat, Bendigo, Albury, Shepparton and Gippsland were sort of around the high 100,000s or 200,000s mark. Mildura was something like 50,000)
So Mildura was cut and isolated from aggregation. Thereâs no guarantee that things would have looked any rosier by including Mildura in the aggregated market.
Think the best case scenario here is for 10 to strike a deal to at least broadcast their main channel on either the 7 or WIN multiplexes.
That way, while viewers lose the multichannels (and will need 10 Play to access them), 10 is able to retain a presence in the Mildura market.
I remember when Prime came to Mildura WIN would often insert channel 10 content into their program line up they could divide all of 10 channels as you say Into their multichannels but would they have enough bandwidth to support this, Read this article In the financial review & It looks like Mildura may not be the only one on the chopping black with WIN reviewing their footprint In N.S.W, S,A, & W,A:
This could have been avoided (in the short term at least) if they had included Mildura in Regional Victoria when aggregation occurred in 1992.
Donât think that WIN will cut itâs broadcast of 10 in the Riverland, South East SA and Griffith for the short term since they donât have to share the revenue with another party in addition to 10.
Where is playout now done from?
Should also be noted that IIRC SCA now handles sales for WDT and MDT.
Playout for 7 for regional areas is done from Canberra.