Down Under: New Government Told Viewers Not Yet Tuned to HD

Sound Familiar? Broadcast networks are being told that they still have to do more educating before the masses of consumers will adequately understand the upcoming benefits of DTV and HD services. While that advisory could be echoed in many countries, including America, this particular warning came from the operations chief of the Ten Network in Australia last week.

The network’s Grant Blackley made his comments at about the same time the country’s next minister of communications was committing to a national analog turn-off deadline of December 2013. The minister-designate is part of the new labor government that was just elected to office.

Blackley said nearly a third of Australian homes now have terrestrial DTV and about 20 percent will have HD-channel access by the end of 2007, but “As an industry we still have a job to do,” according to The Australian in Sydney.

Ten Network plans to go on-air with its new Ten-HD channel on Sunday, Dec. 16.