Fiddling With the Digital TV Tuner: Recent Adjustments to a Poor Policy

Abstract

Digital conversion of television in Australia was to have been completed by the end of 2008. Much slower adoption of digital television forced policy changes and the rescheduling of analog television switch-off to conclude by the end of 2013. This paper attributes the slow uptake of digital television to insufficient consumer incentives , excessive regulation of the digital spectrum , and measures to shield incumbent broadcasters from new entrants. Although recent modifications to the policy are a modest improvement , they are unlikely to produce sufficient acceleration of consumer uptake of digital television to enable the completion of the analog switch-off by 2013.