Orange is the New Black price comparisons show just how much Australians are paying compared to the US. [Image from choice.com.au]
Last night he held a panel to discuss the future of television in Australia, with representatives attending from Foxtel, Village Roadshow, Telstra, and iiNet, as well as consumer group Choice. The panel met to debate the best ways in which to tackle the growing ‘problem’ of piracy in Australia. One good thing came of this; Village Roadshow admitted their mistake in delaying the release of high-profile films in Australia, and have promised to now match release dates with the US. While this is good news for the both consumers and the film industry, for those of us who are drawn more towards television, the panel made no new progress. Foxtel still has a monopoly on the industry. Foxtel still charges exuberant prices. Netflix (or a similar service) is still unavailable. And the government is still moving towards punishing the illegal downloaders of otherwise inaccessible content. Research by Choice shows just how expensive it is to watch TV in Australia.
And that’s not all TV lovers have to be worried about. Malcolm Turnbull today announced that community television will likely lose it’s license by the end of 2015. He believes that the service needs to move into the future, and is therefore pushing it online. Community television will no longer be television. This is a sad blow for us media students. What this holds for the future of RMITV is currently unknown, but you can pretty much guarantee it’s not going to be a happy ending. Community TV is not leaving without a fight though. On twitter, #committocommunitytv is being used to show support for the service, and a petition is still circulating at i.committocommunitytv.org.au. Get around it.