Imparja turns off free-to-air satellite TV for travellers in Australia

GoSee uses free-to-air satellite TV

Here is some sad news from the informative Westprint Friday Five online newsletter Sunday, Nov. 9, 2008.

Imparja has stopped legitimate travellers (and even people living in a reception black spot) from receiving Imparja (Nine network) from October 1.

This follows an internal review by Imparja Television and a decision to withdraw from the processes by which viewers whose place of residence is located outside Imparja's licence area have been able to gain access to Imparja broadcast services.

This includes travellers and those who do not receive adequate reception from their local TV channels. 

Imparja told GoSee today that they had stopped renewal of satellite decoder cards from October 1 because of  lack of resources and funds. GoSee contacted Senator Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communciations and the Digital Economy by email through his department on November 11. A link to this feature was also sent.

GoSee has no direct response from Senator Conroy. But  an approach to Joanna Gash the Opposition Shadow Spokesperson for Road Tourism produced an email response to her request for information from Andrew Lanigan, Office of Senator Conroy, that - " A response will be sent to your office directly". That was on November 17.

Westprint Friday Five Eletter raises the concerns for thousands of Australian travellers -

"Even if you have not yet got a satellite dish and may even never get one, you may still want to watch the cricket or footy on someone else's setup".

GoSeeAustralia takes Satellite TV on the road

The following is said to a copy of an unsigned emailed letter which is reported to have been sent to "the minister". GoSee presumes, that this means Senator Stephen Conroy Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

GoSee cannot vouch for its authenticity but the sentiments expressed are shared by travellers.

Dear Sir,

I am a self-funded retiree and have joined the thousands of grey nomads touring this great country. My wife and I have been travelling for 3 years now and part of the enjoyment in our life style, has been the ability to travel and enjoy remote areas of Australia.

In fact, we spend most of our time in these areas well away from the east coast of Australia.

We have had a traveller's permit to view free to air satellite for these past 3 years and it has enabled us to follow our favourite TV programs, especially sport, such as cricket and the Olympic Games, no matter where we are in remote areas.

The process until now has involved us reapplying with both commercial stations every six months to keep our decoder cards working. No doubt this is an unnecessary administrative burden on the stations involved.

However, this enjoyment is about to end.

The free to air TV stations are now about to stop giving us travellers the licence to watch satellite TV in remote areas, because they will no longer switch on our decoders.

Surely we could be allowed to apply just once, and thereafter have the ability indefinitely to watch satellite TV. This would save the on-going and time consuming administrative burden on the stations involved by not having to renew everybody’s access every six months.

This decision by Imparja (to start with and probably to be followed by Central 7) to no longer cater for travellers will affect many of the 250,000 people in caravans and mobile homes.

Most of these are pensioners and self-funded retirees.

Sir, it is a simple request we ask for. We are not asking for money or handouts. Just the means of watching free-to-air television like all other fellow citizens. We have already invested our own money into satellite dishes and decoders to give us this freedom of choice.

Editors Note: Here is an extract taken on Monday, November 10, 2008 by GoSee from the Imparja Website, it is under the Home Page option Receiving Imparja.

7. RECEPTION OF IMPARJA FROM LOCATIONS OUTSIDE OUR LICENCE AREA WILL

NO LONGER BE PROVIDED (updated 29 Sep 08)

Imparja Television is one of the two licensed commercial TV services covering remote Central and Eastern Australia TV1. Under the Broadcast Services Act Imparja is not permitted to provide a broadcast service outside its licence area, except with certain limited exceptions.

This includes both the ACMA managed “out of area” schemes and travellers who are normally resident outside our licence area but who may be visiting the remote areas for a time.

Under the Broadcast Services Act there is no compulsion on Imparja to provide such out of area access to our signal.

LNBF settings come from the polarisation chart

Increasingly we are finding that applications for direct satellite access are coming from viewers outside our licence area and are placing an un-sustainable commercial and operational burden on us.

It is also becoming increasingly obvious that the out of area schemes are being used as a means to circumvent the legal restrictions on our broadcast reception area.

Following an internal review therefore Imparja Television has decided to withdraw from the processes by which viewers whose place of residence is located outside our licence area have been able to gain access to our broadcast services.

This includes travellers and those who do not receive adequate reception from their local TV channels.

We will only be activating smartcards from applicants whose residence is located within our licence area.

If your main residence or the location of the satellite receiver (eg a fixed holiday home) is outside our licence area, regretfully we will decline to provide you with access to Imparja. This includes new applications in black spots.

If you believe your residence is within Remote Central and Eastern TV1 you may apply by letter, fax or email, providing supporting evidence (eg a map location or address details).

Further information on broadcast legislation and the restrictions and processes by which broadcasters are allowed to provide out of area reception are available on the Australian Communications and Media Authority (acma.gov.au or 1800 226 667). The website also provides access to detailed maps of our licence area.

We are sure you will understand that Imparja will not be providing any telephone or email responses to this situation and that any comments or questions you may have should be directed to the relevant broadcasting authorities, or your local commercial TV broadcaster.

Imparja is a private, fully commercial television company registered in the Northern Territory. It is unique in Australia and the world, being totally owned and controlled by Northern Territory and South Australian Aboriginal shareholders, who have never requested nor received a dividend, preferring to invest any profit back into the development of the company.

Broadcasting live via retransmission sites at Ceduna, Coober Pedy, Leigh Creek and Woomera in South Australia; Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Bathurst Island in the Northern Territory,

Imparja reached a total audience of 62,000 people.

As well as indigenous and locally produced programs, Imparja purchases its programming from the Nine Network. Imparja is broadcast to an audience of over 430,000 people.

Through access to digital satellite capacity, Imparja also broadcasts a second channel, NITV (National Indigenous TV).

Imparja receives some Federal funding through the Department of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy (DBCDE) for the provision of services and training.

 As part of this funding Imparja manages the satellite service for NITV as well as eight indigenous radio stations which are uplinked for Imparja's Alice Springs operation.

All of these services sit within the Imparja social platform, which sees the company, with some assistance of the Federal Government, deliver in excess of $3.2 million of benefit to the community and indigenous organizations on an annual basis.

Audible digital satellite lock on and sat angle adjustment vertical and horizontal

Imparja says intensive planning is underway for the predicted legislative changes for a move to digital broadcasting in remote and regional areas of Australia.

An industry source told GoSee today that pirates cracked the Irdeto 1 and 2 encoded satellite card system back in 1999. That led to pirated Foxtel being freely available. Foxtel shut the gate, but Austar did not and ABC and SBS did nothing much until 2007 when they started changing keys.

The source estimates that about 30,000 of the Irdeto cards let pirates in. Legitimate industry has paid ever since, the source says.

Satellite encrypted cards are purchased in bulk by legitimate businesses. The industry price from Optus is between $50 and $70 a card. For small business this is a constant budget issue.

Why is encryption necessary?

The source says programming rights, network control and network licence protection are among the main arguments for encryption.

One obvious (but unlikely) solution for travellers is to do away with encryption , the source told GoSee. It is afterall an Australian aberation with few if any parallels in the free-to-air world

In terms of Australian travellers major networks like 9 and 7 could easily adopt a - why both response? the source said.

Travellers on the move are not by their nature a fixed audience for ad sales. Viewing and listening time (in the case of radio) is often relatively brief and frequently spaced with breaks of days or even weeks.

This leads to service back-up costs when the user finds, after not using satellite gear for sometime, reconnection is both tedious and frustrating for both user and the provider. Data stream set-up to a satellite might take from two to eight hours.

The big frustration for regular traveller satellite users who have their gear right up to scratch and know what they are doing is to find they cannot get a signal (reception black spot) because the designated provider, who has exclusive rights, does not provide service, the source said.

This leads to the Imparja situation. Travellers faced by this reality looked for and found Imparja as one free-to-air option which is now closed.

Editors Note: GoSee believes that Australian travellers are entitled to TV reception. Commercial operators are given a licence - monopoly to provide service to all Australians.

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contact: Garth Morrison
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Email: garth@contact.com.au