Address to Australian Broadcasting Summit 2010

Sydney Conference & Exhibition Centre
Wednesday, 24 March 2010

Thank you and good morning everyone, it is a pleasure to be here at the Australian Broadcasting Summit.

It's great to have this opportunity to talk with Australia's leading broadcasting experts and industry players.

The Australian Broadcasting Summit has, in eight short years, established itself as a marquee event for the broadcasting sector.

I say eight short years, but of course, those years have seen profound change and disruption within the broadcasting sector, both in Australia and around the world.

In the face of massive technological change, the very concept of broadcasting is challenged.

As a dizzying range of new content delivery platforms entrench themselves in our lives, we must ask: what is broadcasting today?

More importantly, what do Australians want it to be in the future?

As we grapple with the many challenges and opportunities facing broadcasting in the 21st Century, it is crucial that we continue to work together to shape the future Australians want to see.

As the landscape of the media is revolutionised, the old methods of broadcasting must be re-examined and reinvented to respond to the changing climate.

But content remains central – as Rupert Murdoch has said, "content isn't just king – it's the emperor" of the new media world.

For the best part of a century, broadcasting has been the most powerful method of delivering content – information, entertainment, education - to audiences.

Throughout the 20th Century, it transformed the human experience, broadening our horizons and enhancing our understanding of the world.

Broadcasting is widely credited as the medium that created and nurtured the concept of a national identity by supporting the development of culture and society.

Broadcasting is the medium through which we talk to, learn about, and come to understand each other.

It reaches across state boundaries and differing time zones to bring us together as a nation.

Governments must take a keen interest in the structural settings that support broadcasting and encourage that national conversation.

A century after broadcasting took over the world; there are many people ready to proclaim its demise.

Just as radio was heralded with prophecies of doom for newspapers and print media; and the arrival of television was later regarded as the death knell for radio; so the rise of the internet has led to sometimes exaggerated pronouncements of the death of broadcasting.

While new technologies have changed forever the way audiences consume media content, the role of the broadcaster will remain important as long as broadcasters continue to evolve and embrace change.

In Australia, we are fortunate to have what I believe is the most structurally diverse and one of the most robust broadcast media industries in the world today.

Unlike the UK, whose media landscape is dominated by the behemoth presence of the BBC, or America, where television is largely delivered via subscription cable, Australia has a healthy competitive mix of industry structures.

We have a vibrant mix of commercial free-to-air broadcasters, in both radio and television, including large metropolitan networks and a diverse range of regional commercial broadcasters providing local content.

Commercial free-to-air television networks produce hours of local programming – news and current affairs, children's content, adult drama and documentaries, plus variety programs and reality TV – every year.

Commercial TV is most often the home of the "water cooler" programs – those stories and events that bring the nation together, and provide moments of shared cultural experience.

Australia's subscription television sector has led the way in the development of new and enhanced services for over a decade.

Subscription television has pioneered many services that were for too long unavailable to Australians, such as time-shifted channels, true HD broadcasts, and the development of interactive TV via PVR products like Foxtel's IQ and Austar's Mystar.

The willingness and ability to take risks and develop new products has been a hallmark of the subscription television sector in Australia, and the industry as a whole has benefited from the vision and creativity of subscription TV.

Commercial radio in Australia, too, has shown a remarkable capacity to embrace opportunities, and the rapid embrace of digital radio is an impressive example of this.

After only 10 months on air, the proportion of people listening to radio through new DAB plus receivers in the capital cities is an impressive 3.7%.

This points yet again to the willingness of Australian audiences to take up new technologies, and to seek the best possible media services available.

I know all of you here are acutely aware of the challenges facing your industry, and have many and varied ideas about how to respond.

I also know that how you bring those ideas to fruition depends largely on the regulatory settings that are currently in place, and will be determined by the Government's approach to future regulation.

Before I talk about the need for regulatory reform, I'd like to outline the work we have done over the last two-and-a-half years and put into context some of the key policies and Government programs that are currently underway.

When Labor came to Government in November 2007, Australia was already lagging the world in the delivery of digital television and radio, and was suffering some of the slowest internet speeds and most limited services in the developed world.

The Rudd Government is determined to change this.

Just yesterday I was in Mildura to mark to the 100 day countdown to the switch to digital television in that region.

The Rudd Government has recognised the significant benefits that are afforded by digital switchover.

We recognised that a firm switchover timetable was essential to give certainty to industry and consumers.

That is why we announced 31 December 2013 as the firm date by which digital switchover will be completed in Australia, and have set that date in legislation.

As a result, the Digital Switchover Taskforce has been able to work effectively and cooperatively with broadcasters to commence the real work needed to switch off analog TV.

As most of you are aware, there is a great deal of technical and legislative work going on behind the scenes to get ready for the switch to digital, but for the viewer, the most obvious change is the arrival of new TV channels.

Since the Government announced the end date for analog TV, Australia's free-to-air commercial broadcasters have embraced the opportunity to provide new services to their audiences.

All have launched digital-only multi-channels over the last 18 months.

Network Ten led the way with ONEHD, catering to that ever-present Australian thirst for more sport, followed closely by the Nine Network's Go! And Network Seven's "7TWO" – all are rapidly finding favour with Australian audiences.

Added to the ABC's two – soon to be three – multichannels, and SBSTwo, the free-to-air content offering has expanded from eleven channels (including ABC2 and HD simulcasts) at the time of the 2007 election to 16 today – and this will grow to 17 with the launch of the ABC news channel later this year.

And of course, added to this mix is digital community television.

I was particularly delighted last year to honour a commitment I made before the election that a Labor Government would not leave community television behind.

In November we were able to identity available spectrum and provide funding to enable Australia's community television stations to join other broadcasters in simulcasting their programs in digital.

Sydney's community TV station - TV-S - launched its digital service earlier this month.

The Rudd Government regards community television as an essential component of the broadcasting landscape and we look forward to seeing it grow and thrive.

This enhanced content offering is the impetus Australians need to make the switch to digital television, and it could not have been achieved without the cooperation and creativity of Australia's free-to-air television broadcasters.

That cooperation has also been essential to the development of the Government-funded satellite service that will bring digital television to all Australians, no matter where they live.

In a country as vast and as sparsely populated as Australia, the provision of communications services in rural and remote areas has always been a particular challenge.

Just as the National Broadband Network will bring parity of broadband services to people outside the capital cities and major regional centres, our investment in satellite digital television will finally bring to viewers across the country the television services long enjoyed by urban Australians.

Legislation introduced into Parliament last week will underpin the new satellite service.

The new service will also provide viewers with access to their local news – something the existing analog satellite service does not do.

Again, this groundbreaking measure would not have been possible without the cooperation of Australia's commercial broadcasters, particularly the regional broadcasters who serve these sparsely populated markets.

While participating in the development of the satellite service, regional broadcasters are also working with the Government to deliver the same number of television channels to their audiences via terrestrial broadcast.

Of course, as most of you know, switchover is literally around the corner.

As I said, along with some of you here today, I was in Mildura yesterday for the launch of our "countdown clock", and I am pleased to report that Mildura is absolutely on track to lead the nation to digital switchover.

Latest statistics from our Digital Tracker reveal that more than 85% of residents in the Mildura Sunraysia region have already converted to digital TV.

This figure doesn't include the more than 1300 households that have been helped to make the switch under the Government's household assistance scheme since late January.

Again, the role of broadcasters has been essential to ensuring Mildura is ready to make the switch.

Broadcasters have agreed to upgrade the self-help transmitter at Underbool, and have agreed to build an entirely new transmission facility at Ouyen, where residents have for many years received extremely limited television services.

Negotiations between broadcasters and the local council, who operate the analog self-help site to be upgraded, have commenced and will be ready for 30 June.

While the benefits of the switch to digital are becoming obvious with the provision of new channels, all of you here today know that it has a broader impact.

Realisation of the digital dividend is a key element of the Government's broader communications policies.

In January, I released the Digital Dividend Green Paper.
Submissions closed early this month, and those submissions will be available today on the Department's website.

Submissions to the ACMA's discussion paper on the future use of the 2.5GHz spectrum also closed earlier this month.

Both consultation processes will be crucial to the Government's final decision on the size and location of the dividend, and the associated restacking of broadcasting spectrum.

I know that most of the organisations represented here today made thoughtful and considered submissions to both papers.

Importantly, there is widespread support across the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors for achieving the Government's target dividend of 126MHz.

The Government recognises there are differing views on how the dividend can be achieved, and quite divergent views on how the released spectrum should be auctioned or allocated.

As we have done over the last two-and-a-half years, we will engage constructively with industry as we move towards making the final decisions on spectrum management.

Spectrum is a valuable public asset, and its use must be maximised for the public's benefit.

Realisation of the digital dividend is a key economic reform for Australia.

As with everything we do, at the centre of our deliberations must be the interests of the Australian people, and the appropriate industry settings to underpin innovation and improved service delivery.

Supporting industry to enable creativity and responsiveness, sustaining Australian content and prioritising the needs of the audience, is at the centre of the Government's approach to media policy.

It is why we have unashamedly thrown our support behind Australia's national broadcasters, the ABC and SBS.

While I recognise that some of you here have concerns about the growth of the ABC in particular, let me repeat that the Rudd Government is absolutely committed to the strength and independence of the ABC, and of SBS.

I do not share the view that the correct response to the pressures facing commercial media is to weaken the national broadcasters.

A healthy and diverse media needs both commercial and national broadcasters to play strong roles, engaging in creative pursuits and fostering competitive tension.

That's why I was delighted that, in the middle of the most significant global economic downturn in 75 years, the Government was able to give the ABC its biggest funding boost since it was incorporated in 1983, and to find new funding for SBS to produce more local content.

This funding increase has already seen the arrival of the long-awaited ABC children's channel, and is being leveraged throughout regional Australia to produce user-generated content and provide online media education to regional communities through the "ABC Open" project.

At the same time, we have moved to significantly overhaul the process of appointing directors to the ABC and SBS boards.

The Government's new merit-based board appointments process has already resulted in the appointment of two outstanding candidates to each of the ABC and SBS boards, and I expect to make a further appointment to each board in the near future.

Legislation to enshrine this new appointments process has passed the House of Representatives and is now awaiting debate in the Senate, where I hope it will meet a less contested fate than our NBN-related legislation.

I know most of you are following the progress of the NBN with keen interest; after all, its creation is a game-changer for the broadcasting sector.

Our planned investment in the National Broadband Network will have a profound effect on the way Australians are entertained and informed over the coming decades.

High-speed broadband has the potential to revolutionise the way film and TV content is delivered and consumed.

Work on the NBN is now well underway.

Once complete, it will be an enabling platform for a whole range of new content business models, indeed the models that compete directly on the same patch of ground that broadcasters have been treading for a century.

New players such as Fetch TV are coming into the market, intending to offer a mix of subscription, free-to-air and Internet Protocol Television services to viewers at highly competitive prices.

Devices such as Telstra's T-Box further blur the boundaries of broadcast and download content, while international giants such as Google are desperately chasing the advantage in establishing new delivery platforms.

For the most part, these new models do not seek to be "broadcasters" in the traditional sense; rather they seek niche audiences and target content to specific communities.

Clearly, viewers are attracted to this personalised service.

However, for advertisers, the large audience will always be the most attractive proposition and, as long as broadcasters retain their focus on content, I believe the audience will be there.

The ‘marquee' events– large sporting events, Australian stories such as Underbelly and Packed to the Rafters, and programming that taps into our national psyche, such as Masterchef – will always find an audience on broadcast television.

No matter how popular social networking becomes, or how many hits a video receives on YouTube, the knowledge that more than a million of your fellow Australians shared the moment when your footy team won the grand final is, I would say, irreplaceable.

The protection of that shared experience is the responsibility of all of us, and I welcome the opportunity to work with the sector to create the appropriate regulatory settings to underpin a prosperous, creative and responsive future for Australian broadcasting.

The Rudd Government has demonstrated its appetite for regulatory change with its approach to the telecommunications sector.

In our discussion paper on telecommunications reform for the 21st Century, the Government flagged its intention to consider the overall regulatory framework for communications services in a converged environment.

Many current regulations are out-of-date already; others will be as soon as the national satellite television service and NBN are up and running; and others are well-intentioned but inadequate for the convergent media era.

As I have said previously, regulatory issues such as media diversity, ownership controls, audience reach rules and local content obligations will all need to be re-visited.

I'm sure you will all agree that consideration of all aspects of media regulation is important if we are to maximise the cultural and social benefits of digital television and the NBN, as well as the economic ones.

The objective of protecting local content must remain at the centre of our approach to regulatory reform, but as international content competes ever more fiercely for Australian audiences, we must look at how we can continue to deliver that content in the future.

Of course, the Government's policies and actions, particularly in creating the NBN and pursuing the switch to digital only television, have rapidly accelerated the arrival of the convergent media age in Australia after years of delay.

I know most of you here are keen to engage in the process of reviewing and reforming the regulatory settings for the media and to ensure that broadcasting services are supported to withstand the challenges coming from new content delivery platforms.

Let me repeat: content is key.

The people in this room are the creators and custodians of Australian media content, and have the knowledge and the passion to ensure quality content is distributed as widely as new technologies allow.

It is crucial that the appropriate regulatory settings are in place to foster competition, encourage diversity, inspire creativity and protect the Australian voice.

There are probably as many views about what those settings should be as there are organisations represented in this room today. And I want to hear all of them as we move together into our digital future.

While we are facing great challenges to the traditional understanding of broadcasting, with those challenges come great opportunities – and I can think of no group of people better equipped to exploit those opportunities than those here today!

After years of neglect, the Rudd Government is determined to create the conditions to ensure that Australian broadcasting continues to thrive.

We have achieved much in the last two-and-a-half years, and I am confident that, with continued cooperation and creativity, we can and will achieve even more as we move to realise the full benefits of digital media.

Thank you.