Musical Chairs

An Embarrassment of Channels, April 1996

We viewers have lived swathed in the comfortable cocoon of a three commercial and two government network oligopoly for over two decades and now it's all coming to an end. The commercial broadcasters fought bravely for most of that time to protect their patch of the airwaves and their share of the over two billion dollars spent on television advertising. But our televisual neighbourhood is changing and new people are moving in.

The newest kid in our local television playground - pay - is taking it's first few faltering steps - with Australis and its pay service Galaxy badly bruising their knees after slipping up on the first outing - and Foxtel fighting back tears in the corner after loosing its football somewhere in the haste to be up and running. But these are minor setbacks for the parents of these new services - they know such children are long-term and costly investments. And no expense has been spared on the latest gadgets and best entertainment money can buy.

Viewers in some areas benefited with pay subscription and connection fees driven down to firesale prices. But with so much money spent on expensive cable to be laid to every home, cable set top boxes, decoders and satellite dishes - often well below cost - eventually something has to give. And it could be we viewers who end up giving - through increased subscription fees and a less lively industry as players drop out.

Now into this crowded playground comes more potential broadcast networks and competitors through government inquiries into cross-media ownership and a fourth commercial television network. Broadcasters are horrified by the thought of another commercial network in addition to pay and are likely to support the "Sixth" Channel's non-commercial use for Aboriginal, family or community and educational programming. But they and other media companies are also very excited by an opportunity to increase the value of their investments through purchase and control of bigger conglomerates of local broadcasters, papers and radio stations if government restrictions are removed.

In the short term we can expect an ongoing game of musical chairs as one investor after another takes their chair away. But the music can't last forever and the game ends when only one service remains. In the long term we're promised a whole new contest with a dazzling array of new television channels with all sorts of telephone bells and interactive whistles attached. If we can't do better in sorting out the rules of this new game we'll be lucky to make it to third grade.

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