EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2007 No. 108

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts

 

Broadcasting Services Act 1992

 

Broadcasting Services (Digital Television Format Standards) Repeal Regulations 2007

 

 

The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the Act) provides for the regulation of broadcasting, datacasting and online services.

 

Paragraph 217(1)(b) of the Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

 

The purpose of the Regulations is to repeal the Broadcasting Services (Digital Television Format Standards) Regulations 2000 (the Principal Regulations) as a result of changes to the Act made by the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Television) Act 2006 (the Amending Act).

 

Subclause 37(1) of Schedule 4 to the Act provides that the regulations may determine standards, to be observed by commercial television broadcasting licensees and national broadcasters, regarding the format in which television programs are to be transmitted in SDTV Digital Mode in non remote areas. Subclause 37B(1) is a very similar provision which provides for the regulations to determine format standards to be observed by commercial television broadcasting licensees and national broadcasters in remote areas.

 

A program or service is broadcast or transmitted in “SDTV Digital Mode” if it is broadcast or transmitted in digital mode in a standard definition format (see clause 4B of Schedule 4 to the Act).

 

The Principal Regulations, in reliance on subclauses 37(1) and 37B(1) of Schedule 4 to the Act, set out SDTV format standards applicable to commercial television broadcasting licensees and national broadcasters. However, subclauses 37(1) and 37B(1) are to be repealed upon commencement of Schedule 2A to the Amending Act on 5 May 2007 (or earlier by Proclamation). The power to make regulations will then be replaced by a provision in the Act allowing the Australian Communications and Media Authority to make technical standards for digital transmission by legislative instrument.

 

The repeal of the Principal Regulations is a necessary consequence of the forthcoming repeal of the provisions in the Act under which those Principal Regulations were made.

 

The Act specifies no conditions that need to be satisfied before the power to make the Regulations may be exercised.

 

The Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

 

The Regulations will commence on the commencement of Schedule 2A to the Amending Act.