The Australian Government confirms it will not allow datacasters to compete with digital television in Australia.
Datacasting - referring to a broadcasting medley of text, audio and video "data" - has been severely limited under the terms of the policy. Datacasters will not be able to become de facto broadcasters because the Australian Communications Minister, Richard Alston, has almost entirely prevented any category of video being displayed by datacasters.
Announcing its long-awaited digital TV policy this week, the government in Canberra confirmed that existing free-to-air TV stations will have to provide both high-definition digital TV and a cheaper standard-definition service from 2001. In return, newspaper publishers will be banned from datacasting programs that resemble "the kinds of programs that we are used to seeing on television", or in otherwords any program longer then 10 minutes.
The ruling restricts datacasters, such as News Limited, to the provision of basic information services. They may also provide such services as electronic commerce, banking and e-mail.
In an angry reaction, News executive chairman, Lachlan Murdoch, claimed the policy lacks vision and fails to keep up with the real world. It protects the "free-to-air TV cartel".
