Digital Television in Australia

[1]Timeline[1]

[Illustration]

26 May 1993
First meeting of the Australian Broadcasting Authority Digital Terrestrial Television Specialist Group.
1995
The Specialist Group issued its first report, Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting in Australia.
30 January 1997
Australian Broadcasting Authority Digital Terrestrial Television Specialist Group releases its final report, Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting in Australia.
July 1997
Australian Broadcasting Authority releases its response to the Specialist Group report.
Late 1997
The Department of Communications and the Arts and the Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations in conjunction with the ABA and the ABC conducted tests of potential digital television technology for use in Australia. These were the first trials of both DVB and ASTC systems in the one country.
24 March 1998
Howard Government announces Digital Television policy.
8 April 1998
Television Broadcasting Services (Digital Conversion) Bill 1998 and the Datacasting Charge (Imposition) Bill 1998 introduced into the Australian House of Representatives.
18 June 1998
Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) Selection Panel unanimously agrees to recommend that the European DVB-T system be used in Australia.
3 July 1998
Television Broadcasting Services (Digital Conversion) Bill 1998 and the Datacasting Charges (Imposition) Bill 1998 passed as amended by the Australian Senate.
15 July 1998
Television Broadcasting Services (Digital Conversion) Bill 1998 and the Datacasting Charges (Imposition) Bill 1998 passed by the Australian House of Representatives in their new form as amended by the Senate.
30 July 1998
FACTS Specialist Group-DTTB announces further technical element recommendations. Namely: the preferred video format for HDTV production purposes is 1920/1080/50Hz interlaced with a total line count of 1125 lines; Dolby AC-3 should be used for audio encoding; and the Service Information data standard will be based on the DVB-SI standard.
1 January 2001
Deadline for commercial and national Free-to-Air broadcasters to commence DTTB broadcasts in metropolitan areas.
1 January 2004
Deadline for commercial and national Free-to-Air broadcasters to commence DTTB broadcasts in regional areas.
31 December 2006
Prohibition of new Free-to-Air broadcasters expires.

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