The political problems surrounding the provision of a commercial television service to viewers in remote areas first surfaced publicly in the 1984 Australian Broadcasting Tribunal (ABT) Inquiry into Satellite Program Services (SPS). The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) had already worked out its Homestead and Community Broadcasting Satellite Service (HACBSS) scheme for bringing ABC TV to remote areas via the satellite, but there remained considerable uncertainty as to the provision of commercial television to remote areas. The Minister for Communications asked the Tribunal to examine this issue in the course of its Inquiry.
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References
1.
Minister for Communications, 15 November 1983, Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, Satellite Program Services Inquiry Terms of Reference, par.6.
2.
Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, Satellite Program Services Report, Canberra, AGPS, 1984, 1, 85–90.
3.
Ministerial Statement, 10 October 1984.
4.
The new proposal did not seem to be uniformly agreed on by the networks. Some network executives told the Tribunal there was no new proposal, while Ted Thomas (ATN 7) said the new proposal was simply a ‘cosmetic twist’ to the earlier network plan.
5.
Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, Remote Commercial Television Services, First Report, June 1985, Appendix 3.
6.
ibid. 239.
7.
ibid. 238.
8.
Letter from Minister for Communications to the television networks (Messrs Thomas, Barker and Chisholm), 15 March 1985.
9.
Chapter 3.
10.
Remote Commercial Television Services Inquiry, Transcript, 1245.
