International Journal of Digital Television - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2015

Digital TV switchover in Australia was completed on 10 December 2013. This article evaluates the country’s transition to digital TV, focusing especially on the financial costs and revenues for central government. It begins by setting digital switchover in Australia into international context, summarizing the goals and the process and identifying similarities and differences with the roll-outs in other countries. It then analyses in detail the spending programmes the federal government implemented to support the transition and the revenue raised by selling vacated spectrum, providing the first public assessment of the net impact for government. This analysis finds that the whole policy so far has resulted in a net cost to government of A$333 million in 2014–2015 prices. This is a striking conclusion, given the substantial net benefit that was so confidently anticipated during early digital TV policy development in the 1990s, but it needs qualification and explanation. Finally, the article draws some lessons for future ex ante analyses of spectrum clearance and other communications infrastructure projects.

This article presents an analysis of the attempt to revitalize the genreviewer relationship in the political debate talk show in multi-platform public service television in Denmark. Based on the generic development since the 1990s, and main findings from a comprehensive case study of the interaction between the live broadcast and the Facebook profile of the show The Debate, the article argues that the communicative ethos has changed profoundly. Populism is no longer adequate to understand the entertaining qualities produced. Finally, the article discusses the emerging conceptualization of the audience at work in the production culture and the creative challenges it entails.

Television was an everyday reality for millions of people at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and arguably remains one of the most important features of media-related leisure. It provides a fertile conceptual and empirical starting point for the exploration of the everyday leisure experiences of media audiences. In this article, contemporary meanings and experiences of television are examined on three dimensions, namely the practices of (watching) television, television and the understanding of everydayness, and the experience of television itself. The emerging meanings and experiences of TV in the digital age are contrasted with the continuities and momentum of more traditional forms of watching and understanding television. Differences were found among the four different age groups (younger adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and elderly) studied, as were important similarities among people belonging to the same age group. The notion and experience of television are being transformed in the digital age, and televisual leisure opportunities appear inserted both in a transforming media ecosystem and in the everyday life of people. The article argues that it is in the contested, negotiated and complex domains of leisure experience and generational belonging that we should continue to explore the notion(s) of television by using new epistemological approaches. This will help us to understand not only its contemporary but also its future status.

Broadcasters deliver their products and services over the radio waves reaching millions of viewers and listeners. Until recently, frequency spectrum for broadcasting services, more so for UHF TV broadcasting, was easily available. But now mobile communication services, among many others, have laid claims on the UHF frequency bands. Preparations are underway globally to find appropriate solutions since the two services cannot share the same spectrum in a compatible manner. The World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 will take up the possible allocation of the UHF TV band for mobile communication. Expectations are that the decisions of the conference will have an adverse impact on TV broadcasting in the UHF frequency bands.

For all of its advantages, digital switchover in Croatia brought new problems. The most severe one is the inability of over 60,000 households in the coastal area of the Adriatic Sea to watch Croatian television broadcaster’s programmes. The reason for this situation is harmful interference caused by Italian television transmitters, which operate on frequencies assigned to Croatia. By doing so Italy directly violates international agreements regarding radio-frequency spectrum allocation and causes direct damage to Croatia and its citizens. However, Croatia is not the only country affected by this problem – Italian hunger for radio-frequency spectrum affects fifteen other countries as well. After too many promises, in 2014 Italy made the first concrete steps towards resolution of this issue. However, due to a long history of broken promises, the latest announcement of elimination of interference by the end of April 2015 is viewed with suspicion.

Broadband as a Video Platform – Strategies for Africa, Judith O’Neill, Eli M. Noam and Darcy Gerbarg (eds) (2014) Springer: Berlin, 177 pp. ISBN: 9783319036168, h/bk, ¢æ84

Data Journalism: Mapping the Future, John Mair, Richard Lance Keeble, Paul Bradshaw and Teodora Beleaga (eds) (2013) Abramis: Bury St Edmunds, 187 pp. ISBN: 9781845496166, p/bk, $23.85

Screen Distribution and the New King Kongs of the Online World, Stuart Cunningham and Jon Silver (2013) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 132 pp. ISBN: 9781137326447, h/bk, £47