MDS Used for Diverse Services

CONFERENCE REPO RT: TTC, SYDNEY MARCH 25-26 1993 MDS Used for Diverse Services The role of MDS (multi-point dis example. This service has been widely pay TV service, delivered by MDS and tribution systems) in pay TV serv accepted within its market so that 95 directed to Melbourne’s Italian com ice delivery remains uncertain as per cent of all tourist accommodation - munity. Teletalia is a subscription court actions against the Govern over 6,000 hotel rooms, resorts and narrowcaster under the Broadcasting ment by MDS licensees Kerry backpacker hostels are subscribers. Services Act, because it is targeted to Stokes and Steve Cosser. The Melbourne Fire Brigade has Italian speakers. It has been test The Government is proceeding dog been operating a training channel over broadcasting since March last year gedly with its plans for satellite as the its MDS frequency for a couple of years. and is currently available to 80 test primary initial delivery system, while In Perth, one MDS station carries tour subscribers. the industry seems to have concluded ist information and the other delivers Sample programs from Teletalia that ideally, pay TV delivery will be a races to the city’s TAB outlets. which were on show at the conference hybrid in which satellite, cable and In Sydney, Steve Cosser’s Australis comprised material such as Italian MDS may all play a role. Media has been providing a 24 hour music videos and beauty contests. The MDS adherents are keeping their news and information channel, company appears to be buying wall-to- case on the boil. One way they have Newsvision, for nearly one year and wall material from suppliers in Italy, chosen to counteract criticisms of MDS will soon start operating this service in and in the setting up stages at least, as an inferior technology, is to point to Melbourne. Though still restricted to has no plans for a local component. the wide range of MDS narrowcast business premises, this service is There are plans, however, for Greek services that are already operating enough to make the mouth of any info- and Chinese services in the future. successfully, or are imminent. junkie water, providing, in real time, At a Technology Training Corpora such offerings as the NcNeil Lehrer tion conference in Sydney in late N ew s H our from PBS in the States, March, Carl J ohnson of Am sol Teletalia NBC Nightly News, BBC Nine OVlock The Cost Question gave a useful sketch of the history and News, ITN World News, as well as our current operations of MDS in Aus own SBS news. In common with other speakers at the tralia. (It is worth noting that the Australis currently holds a total of conference, Carl Johnson claimed that April Issue of A B A U pdate, No.6., pp 9- 26 MDS licences for audio and video even a very small subscriber clientele 11, also contains a straightforward services. can potentially generate good profits outline of MDS, covering the nature of for an MDS operator. Communities the technology, its history in Australia, with as few as 4,000 homes such as possibilities for pay TV and satellite Victoria’s Swan Hill are potentially pay TV, by the ABAs Director of Plan Market Potential profitable markets. An operation ning, Colin Knowles.) would need between 2000 and 2500 The first MDS transmissions were Seventy per cent of Australians live in subscribers to be profitable, but any made by AAP-Reuters in 1984, and the top 13 population centres and an market can be viable if the number of consisted of news and financial data other 15 per cent in 18 smaller centres, subscribers attracted to the pay TV delivered to subscribers, though in the all of which are serviceable by MDS service, multiplied by the amount they form of alphanumeric data rather than systems. are willing to pay, is greater than the pictures. The first MDS video licence On the issue of serving niche mar cost of delivering the service. was issued in 1985 under the VAIES kets, Johnson referred to the signifi Because of its comparatively low regime, which specified that services cant numbers of non-English speak head-end cost (which he estimated as must comprise non-entertainment ers, particularly in the larger language around $65,000 per channel in Aus video transmitted to non-domestic groups, in Sydney and Melbourne. tralia) and in-home cost ($430 ahome), premises. MDS ‘fits perfectly’ into a scenario MDS creates opportunities in markets Services under this regime directed where there is limited television spe that cannot be practically serviced by to business or the professions how cific to the needs and interests of these other technologies. ever, such as a real estate channel, a groups, because ‘it would simply not Not included in these estimates are medical service and a business educa be cost effective to provide a satellite studio equipment, which can be a sig tion channel, proved unsuccessful. The service for two areas of only 100km nificant expense if the wireless cable services which have succeeded are the diameter out of the entire Australian system itself is generating program tourist information services transmit continent’, Johnson said. ming. (‘Wireless cable’ is the term ted to hotels and similar outlets. In September, Johnson’s own com used when several channels are deliv- J ohnson cited Cairns’s Information pany will launch Teletalia, claimed to Television (ITV) as a particularly good be Australia’s first operating domestic Continued on page 14 ... Communications Update ♦ 13 ♦ April 1993 ... Continued from page 13 ered through the same customer re ceiving equipment.) But a typical sys tem would receive all or most of its Press Council: programmingfrom a program supplier who would deliver by satellite or Telecom bearer for MDS retransmission. Speaks for Itself A simple but effective super-VHF transmission studio can be set up for under $100,00 a channel, Johnson said, Letter to the Editor and would allow a franchised wireless cable operator to deliver channels spe cifically suited to its market. If these costs are reasonably accu Dear Madame/Sir* rate, we could be seeing some interest in MDS very soon from the community I refer to your CU comment ‘Another Look at the Press Council’ (Communica TV sector. tions Update, November 1992) which has come to hand. I would like to draw your attention to some points which would balance or correct points of your report. Some Words of 1. At the time of the Herald and Weekly Times takeover, the Council was divided not on concern about further concentration of media ownership Caution but rather on the possible establishment of a statutory tribunal to deal with media takeovers. Barney Blundell of AAP, Australia’s first MDS user, acknowledged the In fact, the Council went on record expressing its concern overthe further pluses of MDS like its cheapness, es ■ concentration of media ownership. pecially relative to satellite and cable, 2. One of the AJA representatives did resign; however two (not one, as you fast roll-out and the potential for in report) of the three AJA representatives stayed on the Council. serting regional programs. At the same time, he sounded some 3. You assert that the Council is dominated by the publishers. They, in fact, warning notes based on AAP’s experi have 10 out of the seats of the present 21 member Council and could thus ence. He said he still needed convinc be out-voted by other members - although voting is rarely if ever along ing that digital signals would work on 'party lines’. MDS, especially where there are con 4. New public members are appointed after advertisement and they are not flicting signals from main transmit people of similar age and background. We have attempted to have a ters. balance of representation on the Council so that there is a gender balance, In his view, MDS would never get a balance of readers of metropolitan and country newspapers, a geo near 100 per cent coverage in any city. graphical balance across Australia and a balance of the major segments Trees and rain present significant prob- of the Australian multicultural community. lems with reception, and small repeat ers or ‘beam benders’ are not a solution 5. The Council’s annual reports have included brief summaries of the for trees. complaints which did not proceed to adjudication since the first annual As for satellite, some local councils report. This is not an innovation. are already objectingto satellite dishes, on aesthetic grounds and this is an 6. I do not believe that there is any contention between our two roles of a issue the industry has yet to come to defender of freedom of speech and of the press, and of the need for a terms with, Blundell said. responsible press. These go hand in hand, they are two sides of one coin. On the issue of cable, half a million houses a year would have to be passed Yours sincerely by cable to achieve claims that are David Flint being made for cable roll-out, and the Chairman problem remains of getting the cable into the house. □ *For the record, the editor of C U is M s Gil Appleton. April 1993 ♦ 14 ♦ Communications Update.

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