Australia’s digital switchover continues to struggle

Tim Burrowes

March 4, 2009 2:50

Australia’s stuttering transition to digital broadcasting has sufffered a further blow with an admission from the ABC that it will not be ready to begin digital radio broadcasts until July.

Kate Dundas, the national broadcaster’s acting head fo radio, told The Australian that funding delays meant that the ABC won’t be ready for the May launch.

The May switch-on was itself the latest in a series of delays which have seen test transmissions taker place for more than five years without the service being made available to the public. Trials of digital radio in Sydney began back in December 2003 while December last year was at one point set as the switch-on time before the Government granted a further extension.

So far, the only network to give away anything about its plans for digital radio is Austereo, which has launched Radar Radio to champion unsigned Australian musicians.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.