FREE-TO-AIR television is unlikely to be regarded as free by residents of Port Campbell next year when analog signals are phased out and households face bills of up to $900 to install satellite equipment to watch their favourite programs.
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Over two decades, the community cobbled together a system to improve the notoriously weak TV signals in the town, using government grants and donations. But Port Campbell, like 14 other Victorian towns and more than 500 nationwide, has been overlooked in the march to digital TV, and will rely on satellite services for TV signals, unless residents can persuade broadcasters to upgrade the transmitter to digital or pay for it themselves - something that would cost millions.
TV reception has always been finicky, especially in hot weather and because of interference with signals on the same frequency sent from different transmitters. When his television is on the blink, Port Campbell resident Ray McCraw drives to the shed from where signals are relayed down to the town, flicks a switch off and on to reboot the equipment, and then phones home to check if the audio has come back on, or if the picture has improved.
The shed housing the transmitter is on land leased by Corangamite Shire Council and is connected by a 250-metre length of coaxial cable to an antenna on the highest point of a nearby farm that takes an incoming signal from Ballarat, 140 kilometres away.
The equipment has served its purpose well, says John O'Rourke, an antenna specialist from Warrnambool who helped upgrade the site with TV blackspot funding several years ago.
It will all be decommissioned when analog TV broadcast licences for country Victoria are revoked in June next year.
''For a place the size of Port Campbell, it is an uneconomical proposition to upgrade to digital,'' Mr O'Rourke said.
''But there will be a hell of a lot of problems with the tourism sector, with caravans and motels who would face enormous expense to try to set up their TV coverage for visitors.''
Port Campbell has a population of about 600, but this number swells in holiday periods.
''I like my telly, and a lot of people in the town do,'' Mr McCraw said. ''It's a major human contact for a lot of people, but in the bush it's a lifeline.''
He and his wife retired to the coast from Hamilton about 10 years ago. They are envious of relatives and friends in their old home town and elsewhere who enjoy free-to-air digital TV from high-definition set-top boxes now costing as little as $50.
Corangamite Council said it would encourage ratepayers to pursue the satellite option, which comes with a $400 federal subsidy per household. Some pensioners may get more help.
Satellite equipment suppliers are advertising Viewer Access Satellite Television, or VAST, equipment kits at $495 or $599, which exceed the subsidy. Along with installation costs of an estimated $300 to a single TV set, conversion to satellite could be expensive, especially for residents with more than one TV.
Test broadcasts for the federal government's $375 million VAST service began this week in the Mildura broadcast area. The region will be the first to move wholly to digital TV, at the end of this month.
''Information on the changeover is just starting to filter into the public consciousness,'' Mr McCraw said. '' I guess it will increase once Mildura comes online and we find out how the satellite system operates in the non-terrestrial signal areas. Hopefully all the bugs will be ironed out in Mildura and South Australia before Western Victoria is switched off next year.''
For more information about the digital switchover timetable, go to digitalready.gov.au or phone 1800 201 013.
