New public affairs channel A-Pac sets its sights on the free TV market
Australia’s new public affairs channel A-Pac is to be used as a pawn in the war between free and pay TV, with its owners Foxtel and Austar trying to use it to grab a place on the free-to-air digital platform.
In a bombastic video just posted on A-Pac’s new web site, the voiceover states that the channel “will be made available for inclusion on digital free to air television.”
Up to now, the digital free-to-air channels have been reserved for the existing free TV players, Seven, Nine and Ten, along with SBS and the ABC. The new channel – to be funded without the help of the public purse – was suddenly announced before Christmas in a move which was cited at the time as an attempt to outfox the ABC.
It will now make it harder for the ABC to call for public funding for a 24 hour current affairs channel when the pay TV operators are already offering one for free. The A-Pac video (described by blogger Peter Black as verging on propaganda) goes out of the way to make the point, stressing phrases such as “fully funded by Foxtel and Austar” and “at no cost” to the public.
