Oz gov't passes digital TV plans

Few changes in digital conversion scheme

By MARK WOODS

SYDNEY -- Australia's contentious digital conversion scheme emerged relatively unscathed from its passage through the Senate on Friday, when webs backed by Kerry Packer, CanWest and Kerry Stokes retained most of the protections the conservative federal government had promised them.

But the opposition parties, which control the Senate, forced a few changes on the government. Internet access via TV sets will be legal, while, unlike the commercial webs, pubcasters ABC and SBS will be allowed to multichannel, but their extra channels must not carry sports, movies, comedies or national and international news.

These restrictions are similar to those placed on datacasters, which resulted in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., rival Oz newspaper publisher Fairfax and telephony giant Telstra abandoning datacasting trials, sayingsuch a model made it impossible to establish commercially viable businesses.