More Australian based industry news for you. The Aussie government is having to rethink its plans for closing down analogue TV broadcasts after figures showed take up of digital TV services is low. Government types hoped to start turning off analogue signals in urban areas in the next three years, with a country-wide switch-over achieved by 2011. However, while 85% of the population is covered by digital terrestrial TV, and 95% has access to one or another digital service, market penetration still stands at just 10%. The country's Communications Minister, Helen Coonan, admitted: "Given the current level of digital take-up, an analogue switch-off date of 2008 in metropolitan areas seems unachievable. We need a Digital Action Plan to drive digital take-up and a plan for the transition to the point where Australia will be ready to end the expensive simulcast period."
As previously reported, the UK government has similar timescale ambitions to switch off analogue TV signals. There is a much higher number of households receiving digital TV over here which on one level makes the British government's plan's more realistic - although, as we might have pointed out once or twice before, that doesn't account for the number of households receiving digital TV on their main set, but still accessing analogue signals on second or third portable tellys.