Satellite Television Service

Rural Services

Satellite Television Service

There are some areas in the region where residents do not receive adequate television reception. Some properties in the Boyne Valley, Targinnie, Wurdong Heights and Benaraby areas have reported poor television reception. For those residents who currently do not receive adequate reception, the Federal Government has a national Direct to Home (DTH) Satellite Television Service which residents can make application to access.

The Direct to Home Satellite Television Service is a Federal Government initiative which involves the delivery of “free-to-air” television signals from four broadcasters (ABC, SBS, Seven Central & Imparja), accessible by individual households with a satellite dish and decoder. Individual householders are required to fund the purchase of a satellite dish and decoder equipment for their home. Where residents may not be able to afford to pay all the costs upfront, Council offers assistance through a three year payment scheme.

For more information on the DTH Television Service click on the links below or link to the Australian Broadcasting Authority site.

Download this form to register your interest - DTH Expression of Interest Form (218KB PDF).

Choose a subject from the list below for more information:

Am I eligible to access the DTH Service?
Cost of Satellite & Decoder Box Equipment
Other Important Information About this Service
How do I register an Interest in Obtaining this Service
Council’s 3-year Payment Scheme

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to access this service you either have to be within the DTH Satellite Service licensed area, or demonstrate that you do not receive adequate terrestrial television reception.

The Boyne Valley is within the licensed area to receive the service. Therefore once a satellite dish and decoder box is installed, the service can be switched on immediately.

For the balance of the Shire, residents have to make application to the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) to seek approval to access the service. The application needs to demonstrate that current terrestrial television reception levels are inadequate. This requires a technician testing reception levels at your home and providing this information on the application form. The cost of carrying out this testing and forwarding an application to the ABA is included in the prices quoted on the costs of equipment page.

There is no guarantee that approval will be granted, however, Council is not aware of any application in the Shire that has been refused. It generally takes 6-8 weeks for applications to be processed.

Once approval is received the equipment can be installed by arrangement with Council’s contractor.

Cost of Equipment

In 2002, Council sought quotations from companies interested in installing DTH services in homes in the Shire.

As a result, Council has a contract arrangement to install an 85cm roof mounted service for $1,280.00 anywhere in the Shire. The 85cm satellite dish will receive adequate signal in the Shire.

As the signals are “free-to-air” there are no on-going monthly access fees for this service, unlike pay television. The initial equipment costs and any ongoing maintenance and repair costs for the equipment, are generally the only costs involved for this service.

Other Important Information

Important information about the DTH Satellite Television Service which residents should be aware of:-

The satellite service provides access to four channels the ABC, SBS and two commercial stations. ABC and SBS programming is exactly the same as what Shire residents currently receive locally, as they are national broadcasters. The commercial stations, Imparja and Seven Central are “out of area” broadcasters. Seven Central broadcasts out of Townsville and Imparja is based in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, therefore you will receive advertising and local news from these areas, rather than from our local area. Imparja broadcasts a combination of channel nine and ten programming and Seven Central broadcasts channel seven programming. The bulk of the programming is similar to what is received locally. It is recommended that residents visit Imparja and Seven Central websites to view the two commercial stations' television program guides.
Programming from Imparja is subject to Northern Territory time, which is half an hour behind Queensland time. (Example: if it is 8.00am in Queensland it will be 7.30am in the Northern Territory therefore you would need to take this into account when looking at the TV guide). Seven Central programming is unaffected as it is programmed on Eastern Standard Time (EST). The two national broadcasters broadcast on a number of channels, at the differing time slots for the various parts of Australia. Therefore you will find that there will be a channel for both the ABC & SBS, that broadcasts in our local area timeslots.
To accept satellite signals, televisions and/or video machines need to be UHF compatible or have audio/video (AV) inputs (if you have a television that is over 20 years old you will need to check this).
The decoder box can only decode one station’s signal at a time. Therefore one decoder box per television would be required to watch different channels on each television within the household. Several televisions can be linked to the one decoder box, however, if you choose this configuration, you can only watch the one station on all televisions at the one time.

Registration of Interest

If you would like Council to co-ordinate the installation of this service at your home at the contract prices quoted please contact the Gladstone Civic Centre.

Repayment Scheme

Where residents may not be able to afford to pay all the costs of the DTH service upfront, Council offers residents the option of a payment scheme over a three year period on the following basis:-

The resident to pay one third of total costs on installation of the DTH equipment.
The balance to be paid off in the following two financial years as a special levy on the property’s rate notice, including interest on the outstanding balance at 5.5% per annum. For example: Based on an outstanding balance of $800, the special rate would be approximately $422 in each of the following financial years.

Where the resident is not the property owner, Council would need the agreement of the property owner before it allows access to the payment scheme.