More dominant in their inactivity: consumer response and the adoption of digital TV in Australia

After much hesitation, discussion, and power brokering, Australia adopted digital TV for its Free-to air broadcasting on January 1, 2001. However, by December 2002, only a few thousand homes had adopted the technology. This paper examines the implementation and regulation of digital TV in Australia from the point of view of the ‘established base’ the new technology will replace, theories on diffusion and innovation of new technologies, and the Justification Model, which sees technology choice as social gambling. It then evaluates the various protectionist regulations and limitations imposed on the technology to safeguard the various stakeholders, the implementation strategies used, lack of digital content, marketing efforts, negative media coverage, and the economic realities of the technology, and argues that if consumers reject the technology altogether, it would lead to Australia missing the future applications of digital technology and the opportunity to address the issue of the ‘digital divide’ in the 21st century.

Digital TV in Australia and the USA: a cross-impact analysis of the adoption and diffusion of digital TV in Australia and the United States

The paper examines the adoption and diffusion of Digital Television (DTV) in Australia and the United States, identifying historical, technical, regulatory, marketing, and other commonalities and differences that appear to be most significant to its adoption, as both countries have experienced a 'sluggish' diffusion and adoption of DTV so far. Using library research and borrowing the cross-impact matrix method from futures research, the authors develop J J events related to the various influences and groups of stakeholders that had shaped the policy making and adoption of DTV. We then carry out a comparative analysis between the two countries to make evident their impacts, strengths, and directions of influence. The authors suggest that the implementation of DTV in these two developed countries appears to be nearly identical. Even though Australian and US broadcasting models are fundamentally different, the diffusion process for DTV is primarily affected by the nature of digital technology and globalisation, two trends that may be diminishing the import of the nation-state in the technology adoption process. The paper concludes that these broader economic and technical events may have greater import to DTV's successful diffusion than do traditional, cultural, and nationalistic factors suggested in earlier comparative broadcast studies.

The present and the future of digital TV in Australia

Australia adopted digital TV (DTV) on January 1, 2001 but due to slow adoption by end users, the deadline to discontinue the analog signal has so far been postponed twice. This paper examines the history and current status of DTV adoption in Australia with reference to theories of adoption and diffusion and the Justification Model of Technology and why end users
appear reluctant to adopt-in spite of affordable converters. End user opinions are examined on ‘why they do not adopt’ and ‘what may encourage them to adopt’, using public submissions to the 2005 parliamentary ‘Inquiry into the uptake of digital TV in Australia’. The paper advocates relevant media literacy programs to address the low public awareness of DTV and its benefits because its rejection may result in less affluent end users losing the chance to receive a range of convergent services in the future via the ubiquitous and affordable television.

TV interview

1 electronic text : HTML file + 1 video file : digital, mp4 file

The ABC, the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, and the emergence of digital children’s television in Australia

 This paper analyses the campaign to establish terrestrial digital children’s public service broadcasting in Australia. It finds that the development of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s digital children’s channel (ABC3), an initiative initially embraced somewhat opportunistically, enabled an expansion strategy for the public service broadcaster that ultimately helped determine the shape of its current digital channel portfolio. Contrasting the collective and divergent interpretations of future audience behaviours and needs developed by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) and the ABC, it argues that both organisations developed strategies and made policy decisions that were influential in conditioning the current digital television ecology.