ABSTRACT
The development of pay Television (TV) and other new TV services in Australia contrasts to the other major development in media in the 1990s: the popularisation of the Internet and World Wide Web. Australians have taken to the Internet with great enthusiasm. Pay TV is a relatively recent but important development in the diversification of Australian television. In contrast to Europe and North America, where pay TV had been in operation for between ten and thirty years, pay TV services did not commence in Australia until 1995, after thirteen years of public inquiries and political delays. Pay TV services represented an important departure from the ‘rough equity’ approach to developing Australian communications in terms of how decisions would be made about where to provide services. The code which applies to pay TV operators was developed by a new industry association representing a range of new media service providers, called the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA).
