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This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as
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CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Contact Officer and Copyright Details
Datacasting Charge (Imposition) Bill 1998
Date Introduced: 8 April 1998
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Communications, the Information
Economy and the Arts
Commencement: Royal Assent
To impose charges on the providers of datacasting services.
This Bill is a revenue measure associated with the
Television Broadcasting Service (Digital Conversion) Bill
1998 (Digital Conversion Bill), which amends the
Broadcasting Services Act 1992 to provide for the
introduction of digital television.
Datacasting services are those involving the transmission of a
digital signal (which could be in the form of data, text, image or
sound) and which utilise the spare capacity of the spectrum
allocated to the ABC, SBS and commercial television broadcasters
for the conversion to digital television.
The charge is being imposed to prevent the television
broadcasters using their free spectrum to compete unfairly against
service providers who were required to pay for spectrum use.
It is an objective of the Digital Conversion Bill that the
national (ABC, SBS) and commercial television broadcasters be
permitted to use any spare digital transmission capacity to provide
datacasting services [proposed new sections 5(2)(l) and
17(2)(l) of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992].
Proposed new section 48 of the Broadcasting
Services Act 1992 provides that a datacasting charge is due
and payable in accordance with a written determination by the
Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA). The ABA also makes
determinations with regard to the standards to be observed by
datacasters.
Note that datacasting services do not include commercial radio
services, subscription broadcasting or narrowcasting services, and
open narrowcasting services. The national and commercial
broadcasters are prohibited from transmitting these services under
clauses 10 and 33 of the Digital Conversion Bill.
Readers should consult the Digest of the Television
Broadcasting Service (Digital Conversion) Bill 1998 for more
detailed information on the digital television issue and the role
of the ABA.
Clause 6 imposes a charge on the national and
commercial television broadcasters if they use their transmitters
to transmit datacasting services.
Clause 7 provides that the amount of the charge
is in accordance with a written determination of the Australian
Communications Authority (ACA). The determination is a disallowable
instrument.
Note that under proposed new section 50 of the
Broadcasting Services Act 1992 the ACA is first required
to report to the Minister on the competitive neutrality principles
it employs in developing its proposals for datacasting charges.
This report must be tabled.
Kim Jackson
20
April 1998
Bills Digest Service
Information and Research Services
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ISSN 1328-8091
Commonwealth of Australia 1998
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Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library,
1998.
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