Digital broadcasting

Digital technologies have revolutionized a great number of fields, from CDs to mobile communications. One of the great challenges for the coming years is to identify whether and how these changes will be relevant to the field of broadcasting.

The Digital Platform Austria work group was set up by the Austrian Federal Chancellery and will contribute to keeping Austria abreast of developments in the field of digital television. Under § 21 of the Private Television Act (PrTV-G), KommAustria is to compile a Digitization Concept for the introduction of digital broadcasting; the work group will support the regulatory authority in this process.

The key objectives of the Digital Platform Austria work group are:

• Supporting the regulatory authority in the creation of a Digitization Concept, with due attention to economic feasibility, to general technical and especially consumer-oriented circumstances, as well as a schedule for the transition from analog to digital transmission;
• promoting Austria as a media location in the interest of the communications industry, and promoting Austrian value creation in a technologically relevant field of the future;
• submitting suggestions for the general regulatory framework of the future, especially with regard to ensuring non-discriminatory access to these new transmission platforms on fair and reasonable terms and observing equal opportunities.