Westlink moving to VAST

[Smacca]

New message on their Aurora channel indicating the change. Also been temporarily upgraded to widescreen which is weird for Aurora.

[gordon_s1942]

Its only 11 months before Aurora to be turned off.
It doesnt seem possible that 4 years ago this seemed to be so far in future as to be something to remember to do 'something' about but now, it is time to do 'Something' about it.

[Smacca]

I honestly thought Westlink would be given the flick since RHC took a lot of the programming away. But it turns out they still have some state govt related programming, and they still 'sell' airtime to companies and organisations if they want to use it.

What they should do now is simulcast with WTV Perth when there's nothing on (which can be up to a week sometimes!) Bit of a waste of space otherwise.

[nbound]

What they should do now is simulcast with WTV Perth when there's nothing on (which can be up to a week sometimes!) Bit of a waste of space otherwise.

Good idea, but I doubt ACMA or the WA Remote commercial stations would like it.

[cmoore]

I honestly thought Westlink would be given the flick since RHC took a lot of the programming away. But it turns out they still have some state govt related programming, and they still 'sell' airtime to companies and organisations if they want to use it.

What they should do now is simulcast with WTV Perth when there's nothing on (which can be up to a week sometimes!) Bit of a waste of space otherwise.

If anything WTV ch 44 should have their own ch on VAST WA considering the whole purpose of the VAST service is to-offer the regional areas the same DTV services that the metro areas have.

Aurora GWN/WIN switch off is planned for July 2013, with the rest of Regional Aust in Dec2013

I see Sky Racing on Optus D2 has started migrating to VAST. Soon enough there will only be religious services only on Optus D2.

[nbound]

CTV stations arent licensed to be broadcast outside of their capital city. It isnt going to be happening outside a change of the law or an ACMA backflip.

[ap5]

CTV stations arent licensed to be broadcast outside of their capital city. It isnt going to be happening outside a change of the law or an ACMA backflip.

Until it went bust 2-3 years ago, Channel 31 Perth broadcast on Westlink on weekends..

I'm not in Perth, but I believe WTV is a community channel like Channel 31 used to be, so it might be an issue of money rather than broadcast rights

[Smacca]

Exactly. These 'laws' never stopped Access 31 from being both on Westlink and terrestrially retransmitted in Albany and Bunbury in analog all those years ago.

The Western Australian Government’s Westlink satellite
television service, licensed as a narrowcaster, broadcasts
programs for education, training, and corporate development as
well as special events and conferences across the State and
nation. Westlink’s education and training programs were core
features of Access 31’s original program schedule. Now Westlink
makes Access 31 available on weekends to retransmission
facilities in Albany and Bunbury as well as Westlink’s own
satellite viewers in remote areas.

Source:

[gordon_s1942]

This might take some hammering out by why cant there be an OZ wide Community group, an amalgamation if you like of all the different cities, to share this facility?
Because of the the Time Zones, there would be 2 'Peak' times for East and West, the 'middle' like SA/NT could share both zones.
One approach would be to point out to who ever funds this channel, how wasteful all that unused transmission time is when there are options available to spread the cost.
Govt dept's generally dont like to appear to be other than cost efficient (oxymoron there) so that approach might work.

[OSIRUS]

Westlink is now on Vast channel 602

12647 V 30000 DVBS2 FEC 3/5

(Not sure how long it has been here......just found it)

Cheers