Digital radio legislation

The Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Radio) Bill 2007 and the associated Radio Licence Fees Amendment Bill 2007 were passed by the House of Representatives on 9 May 2007 and in the Senate on 10 May 2007. They both received Royal Assent on 28 May 2007.

This legislation amends the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, the Radiocommunications Act 1992, the Trade Practices Act 1974 and the Radio Licence Fees Act 1964 to enable the first stage of digital radio implementation in Australia.

This initial roll-out will be based on the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) technology. Additional legislation may be required if and when alternative technologies are identified as being more appropriate for regional Australia. To this end the legislation provides for a review, by 2011, into digital radio technologies most appropriate for regional areas.

Other elements of the digital radio legislation include:

• the provision of the first digital radio services by commercial and wide-coverage community radio broadcasting licensees and the national broadcasters;
• a new multiplex transmitter licence category to accommodate the shared transmission platforms (‘multiplexes’) of the DAB system;
• facilitation of the planning for and licensing of digital radio services by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA);
• a requirement for multiplex licensees to commence and continue to provide digital radio services—in the case of the state capital city markets on or before 1 January 2009;
• the opportunity for existing commercial and wide-coverage community broadcasters to control the multiplex licences for their initial services, with subsequent licence allocations to be undertaken via a priced-based method;
• a six year moratorium on the issue of new licence area planned commercial digital radio licences from the commencement of services in the respective market;
• minimum access rights to multiplex transmission capacity for the commercial, wide-coverage community and national broadcasters on relevant multiplex licences;
• a multiplex access regime to ensure operators of multiplexes provide access to transmission capacity on terms that are open, efficient and generally non-discriminatory, to be overseen by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC); and
• power for ACMA to determine, if necessary, technical and industry standards relating to digital radio and restricted datacasting services.

• Document ID: 70832 |
• Last modified: 13 March 2008, 9:15pm