The Minister for Regional Communications, Senator the Hon Bridget McKenzie, has today announced a review of the Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) service.
The VAST service currently delivers free-to-air television to approximately 30,000 travelling Australians, such as grey nomads, and around 200,000 households mainly in regional and remote Australia that do not have access to terrestrial television services.
“In today’s rapidly changing communications environment, it is timely to review VAST’s performance and hear from industry and the community on whether VAST is still the best option to deliver television services to people in areas that don’t receive reliable free-to-air TV services,” Minister McKenzie said.
“The VAST service has been operating since 2010, as part of the national switchover to digital television which has benefited so many Australians.
“As part of the review, we are seeking feedback from stakeholders on the VAST service and I encourage everyone with an interest to have their say on the delivery of television services in regional and remote Australia,” Minister McKenzie said.
The Department of Communications and the Arts is undertaking the review and has released an issues paper and terms of reference for the review. Submissions are due by 5.00 pm (AEST), Friday 22 June 2018.
The review is expected to be finalised by August 2018.
The issues paper and information on how to make a submission is available at: www.communications.gov.au/vastreview