Digital Forty Four
Encyclopedia
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Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
-only trial datacasting
Datacasting
Datacasting is the broadcasting of data over a wide area via radio waves. It most often refers to supplemental information sent by television stations along with digital television, but may also be applied to digital signals on analog TV or radio...
service which was licensed by the Australian Broadcasting Authority (now the Australian Communications and Media Authority
Australian Communications and Media Authority
The Australian Communications and Media Authority is an Australian government statutory authority within the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy portfolio...
) in March 2004 for an initial three year run until late 2007. The license was extended on several occasions past 2007, however on 29 January 2010 it was announced that Broadcast Australia's datacasting licence for Digital 44 would not be extended past 30 April 2010.
Shortly prior to the end of the Digital 44 service in March 2010, community television
Community television
Australia's Community Television is a form of Citizen media much like Public Access Television in the United States and the Community Channel in Canada...
station TVS
Television Sydney
TVS, or Television Sydney , is a free-to-air community television station broadcasting in Sydney, Australia.-History:Transmissions officially commenced on analogue UHF channel 31 in February 2006 after three months of technical trials...
began transmission on the service. At midnight on 30 April 2010 all the other services from Digital 44 ceased broadcasting.
The services provided at various times during its six years of operation have included a television guide for Digital Television (DVB), a community service channel providing information on road, weather and surf conditions, with live broadcasts every fifteen minutes, the Australian Christian Channel
Australian Christian Channel
The Australian Christian Channel is a Christian channel featured on subscription-based television in Australia. The Australian Christian Channel is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on Foxtel, Austar, Optus, TransACT, and Neighbourhood Cable....
(ACC), EXPO shopping channel, National Indigenous Television
National Indigenous Television
National Indigenous Television, commonly referred to as NITV, is an Australian television network broadcasting throughout Australia via satellite.-History:...
(NITV), Teachers TV information channel and live broadcasts of the meetings of the Australian Parliament, with audio-video coverage of the House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
and Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
.
Channel Lineup
Under conditions associated with the datacasting licence, channels on the Digital 44 service had to be either text based or narrowcast services. Entertainment programming was not allowed on the service, however some programming on the Australian Christian Channel was shown in a reduced screen format with text content around it, as that satisfied the datacast requirement.| LCN | Service | Notes: |
|---|---|---|
| 04 | Free-to-air Free-to-air Free-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee... television guide |
|
| 40 | NITV | |
| 41 | ABC News & Weather | Text only |
| 42 | D44 Homepage | |
| 44 | TVS | |
| 45 | Teachers' TV Australia | |
| 46 | Australian Christian Channel Australian Christian Channel The Australian Christian Channel is a Christian channel featured on subscription-based television in Australia. The Australian Christian Channel is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on Foxtel, Austar, Optus, TransACT, and Neighbourhood Cable.... |
|
| 47 | Australian Federal Parliament - House Of Representatives | |
| 48 | Australian Federal Parliament - Senate | |
| 49 | Expo Expo Channel Expo Channel is an Australian home shopping channel. It is owned by Direct Group Pty Ltd, a marketing and direct sales company based in Sydney, which also owns sister channel TVSN.-History:... |
Shopping Network |
Former Channels
As it was a long term trial, many channels that started on the service did not continue until the cessation of broadcasts, they include Channel NSWChannel NSW
Channel NSW was a community information digital television channel that was currently running under trial in the Sydney area. The service was provided and operated by the Government of New South Wales...
, a station that included live traffic as well as government announcements, a Maquarie channel showing financial information and a TAB channel showing betting odds.
Other channels included,
- Channel 45 - Channel NSWChannel NSWChannel NSW was a community information digital television channel that was currently running under trial in the Sydney area. The service was provided and operated by the Government of New South Wales...
- ended 30 June 2009 - Channel 47 - Macquarie DigitalMacquarie Media GroupSouthern Cross Media Group is one of Australia's major media companies. On 3 July 2007 Southern Cross Broadcasting recommended Macquarie Media Group's offer of A$1.35 billion, for a takeover of the corporation. Under the deal, Macquarie Media Group will then on sell the metropolitan radio...
- ended 11 June 2007 - Channel 48 - TABTABTAB may refer to:* TAB , a Romanian amphibious armored personnel carrier* Tactical Advance to Battle, a British Army term for a Loaded march....
Channel - ended February 2005 - Channel 401 - House of RepresentativesAustralian House of RepresentativesThe House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
- Channel 402 - SenateAustralian SenateThe Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
- Channel 403 - House of Representatives Main Committee
- Channel 404 - Committee Room 1
- Channel 405 - Committee Room 2
- Channel 406 - Committee Room 3
- Channel 407 - Committee Room 4
Legacy
The ACMA decided in closing the service that it was unlikely that datacast services would come to auction in the near future, and decided continuing the trial was unnecessary for that reason. NITV which gained coverage on the service considered the closure of the service a blow to its chances of gaining permanent spectrum for the service, and put the long term viability of the service in to question.Most of the other channels on Digital 44 are available unencrypted on satellite or via online streaming.