Notice of draft exemption order for
Telstra Pay TV Pty Ltd
(Application Ref. 84)
This notice sets out the draft exemption order for Telstra Pay TV Pty Ltd’s Sports Play Powered By Fox Sports channel provided by Telstra Mobile Foxtel and invites persons to make submissions to the ACMA within 30 days of 24 January 2013 in accordance with subsection 130ZY(6) of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.
Telstra Pay TV Pty Ltd (the Applicant) is a subscription television licensee. It provides, through Telstra Mobile Foxtel, the Sports Play Powered By Fox Sports channel (the Service).
The Service is one of 35 channels which are purchased in packages by subscribers and delivered to Telstra mobile devices as ‘Mobile Foxtel’. The Sports Play Powered By Fox Sports channel provides live sport and sports news from sporting events in Australia and overseas.
Summary of reasons – unjustifiable hardship
The ACMA’s preliminary assessment is that failure to make the order for the Applicant would result in unjustifiable hardship for the following reasons:
(i) There is currently no technical capacity for closed captioning for the Service.
(ii) It is not feasible for the Applicant to procure and implement a new platform that would provide technical capacity to meet the captioning requirements for the Service within the time constraints of this financial year (2012-2013).
(iii) The only technical option available of creating a duplicate channel with open captions for the Service, as well as for the other 34 channels which comprise the Mobile Foxtel service provided by the Applicant, in order to meet the captioning requirements for this financial year, would impose financial costs that would make the Mobile Foxtel service commercially unviable and would likely result in the Applicant discontinuing the Mobile Foxtel service, including the Service.
For further detail please refer to ‘Preliminary Statement of Reasons for Application # 84’ document.
To view the draft exemption order please refer to ‘Draft Order for Application # 84’ document.
All submissions received up to and including 22 February 2013, will be considered in making the ACMA’s final assessment. Submissions received after that date will not be considered.
Publication of submissions
In general, the ACMA publishes all submissions it receives. The ACMA prefers to receive submissions that are not claimed to be confidential. However, the ACMA accepts that a submitter may sometimes wish to provide information in confidence. In these circumstances, submitters are asked to identify the material over which confidentiality is claimed and provide a written explanation for the claim.
The ACMA will consider each confidentiality claim on a case-by-case basis. If the ACMA accepts a claim, it will not publish the confidential information unless authorised or required by law to do so.
Please note that the ACMA does not acknowledge receipt of submissions.
Effective consultation
The ACMA is working to enhance the effectiveness of its stakeholder consultation processes, which are an important source of evidence for its regulatory development activities. To assist stakeholders in formulating submissions to its formal, written consultation processes, it has developed a guide called Effective consultation: A guide to making a submission. This guide provides information about the ACMA’s formal, written, public consultation processes and practical guidance on how to make a submission.
Please forward submissions quoting Application Reference # 84 to
Email:
Post:
Submissions to Order Applications
Content Monitoring and Review Section
PO Box Q500
QVB NSW 1230