Fairfax Calls For A Fair Digital Media
Illawarra Mercury
Thursday June 17, 1999
Media company John Fairfax Holdings Ltd has made a fresh submission to the Federal Government's digital television review, calling for regulations ensuring equal treatment for datacasters.
The company also is urging rules to enable datacasters to use any statutory licence regime available to payTV operators and to require interoperable set-top boxes which receive free and payTV, and data signals.
``Competitive neutrality is a fundamental principle underlying the Government's policies in this area and to the success of digital television," said Fairfax director, electronic businesses, Nigel Dews.
``We are calling for rules that will be true to this excellent policy objective."
The review is being conducted by the federal department of communications, information technology and the arts.
``With regard to `must carry' there should be no discrimination between our datacasting signals and those provided by the television networks," Mr Dews said.
``Similarly, datacasters should be able to access any statutory licence regime used by pay TV operators."
Mr Dews said it was imperative digital TV signals be comparable with payTV receiving equipment.
``If not, screens will go blank and consumers will pay a fortune for what should be built into the system from the beginning," he said.
© 1999 Illawarra Mercury
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