Sons And Datacasting: Strategic Decision Making — Televised Revolution
An interesting programming road block is taking place weekly on Channel Seven at 3:30am on Thursday mornings with classic 80’s drama series Sons and Daughters airing across Seven, 7Two, and 7Mate at the exact same time. You can find it in the schedule for this week and will take place again next Thursday morning. What the TV guide doesn’t tell us is that Sons and Daughters also ran on TV4ME at the same time, contravening laws governing datacasting services in Australia. The reason for this roadblock? A Seven Spokesperson tells Televised Revolution “This is a strategic decision for our late night viewers”.
Seven are likely running this Sons and Daughters roadblock for one of two reasons. Either they are using the timeslot as an opportunity to work on a technical issue, such as implementing a software or hardware change, rebooting machines, etc, or this is part of some sort of joke taking place within the programming department. Either way, both are valid enough reasons for this odd 3:30am scheduling of Sons and Daughters.
But, “a strategic decision”?
Perhaps amid the home shopping programs and reruns of The Baron there is considerable strategy being implemented by Seven to really benefit from the highly sought after 3:30am audience of bakers, new parents, and angry loners. Perhaps one underestimates the power of this 30 year-old show and its flow-on effects, strongly impacting on My Kitchen Rules ratings?
The serious issue here is the fact that Sons and Daughters was being screened on the datacasting channel TV4ME. Televised Revolution is reliably informed that Sons of Daughters screened on the datacasting channel between 3:32am and 3:54am. That’s 22 minutes of premium Australian drama being broadcast on a service that, by way of licensing, restricts entertainment programs like this being broadcast for any more than a 10 minute extract.
Get Dan Barrett’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
As per the Broadcast Services Act 1992:
14 Condition relating to category A television programs
(1) Each datacasting licence is subject to the condition that the licensee will not transmit matter that, if it were broadcast on a commercial television broadcasting service, would be:
(a) a category A television program; or
(b) an extract from a category A television program.
(2) The condition set out in subclause (1) does not prevent the licensee from transmitting an extract from a category A television program, so long as:
(a) the extract is not longer than 10 minutes; and
(c) the extract is not combined with one or more other extracts from category A television programs in such a way that the extracts together constitute the whole or a majority of a particular category A television program; and
(d) having regard to:
(i) the nature of the extract; and
(ii) the circumstances in which the extract is provided;
it would be concluded that the licensee did not intend that the extract be combined with one or more other extracts from category A television programs in such a way that the extracts together constitute the whole or a majority of a particular category A television program.
(3) A reference in subclause (2) to a category A television program is a reference to matter that is covered by subclause (1) because of paragraph (1)(a).
(4) A reference in subclause (2) to an extract from a category A television program is a reference to matter that is covered by subclause (1) because of paragraph (1)(b).
(5) If, because of subclause (2) of this clause, a datacasting licensee can transmit matter without breaching the condition set out in subclause (1) of this clause, the condition set out in subclause 16(1) does not prevent the licensee from transmitting that matter.
If the reason Sons and Daughters ran on TV4ME was just due to a technical issue, I’m sure that we can all agree to look the other way. But…. as part of a “strategic decision” for their programming? That’s an entirely different issue. A strategic decision strongly states a desire to violate the Broadcast Services Act deliberately and willfully.
Of course, all of this highlights the problems with the datacasting legislation accounted for as part of the Broadcasting Services Act. It’s overly restrictive in what can be broadcast on the services, with home shopping being one of the few forms of content that makes much sense in an Australian broadcast media environment. Currently datacast services are restricted to:
- Information only programs (including matter that enables people to carry out transactions)
- Educational programs
- Interactive computer games
- Content in the form of text or still visual images
- Parliamentary broadcasts
- Ordinary electronic mail
- Internet content
- Program guides
Surely viewers would be better served if more news and informational programming could be carried on datacast services than the current situation that allows for great shows like the Bowflex Treadclimber and Dr Ho’s Muscle Therapy. In an era with broadcast media competing with so much content available online (including video streaming content services), it makes zero sense to see any content restrictions on the datacasting services.
Shifting legislation allowing datacasting services to actually provide benefit to Australian viewers? That truly would be a great strategic decision.
