Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 12—Culture and recreation 515
initiative of the Heritage Collections Council,
which coordinates national approaches to caring
for, and promoting access to, Australia’s heritage
collections. AMOL’s Guide to Australian Museums
lists over 1,000 national, regional and local
museums across Australia, with information being
accessible through a range of search options such
as region, collection type and collection strength.
The Open Collections section of AMOL offers a
searchable collection database comprising almost
half a million object level records, including over
50 full collections. It also features a growing
number of knowledge-based stories about various
collections and objects within collections. The
Museum Craft section provides access to a range of
resources for museums workers, including
conservation resources and information, online
discussion forums, an online Open Museum
Journal, links to important Australian and overseas
museums sites and information about contacts and
associations, jobs and training, events, publications
and grants. Since October 1998, the site has
averaged well over 250,000 hits per month,
representing more than 9,000 users in 2000.
The ArtsInfo Internet site brings together
information on the wide array of cultural grants
and support programs, as well as industry training
and development programs, offered by all levels
of government and by non-government
organisations. ArtsInfo also provides access to a
business showcase of Australia’s cultural products
and services and a resource section including
industry bulletin boards, a directory of training,
tutorials, a festival directory and fact sheets.
Radio and television
broadcasting
Broadcasting services in Australia are regulated
primarily through the Broadcasting Services Act
1992. The Act identifies and defines categories of
broadcasting services, establishes regulatory
arrangements for all but the national broadcasting
services, and establishes the Australian
Broadcasting Authority (ABA) as the independent
regulator for radio and television in Australia.
The Act defines six categories of broadcasting
services covering both radio and television:
national broadcasting services—the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the
Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) are
regulated through separate legislation;
community broadcasting services—non-profit
free-to-air services provided for community
purposes;
commercial broadcasting services—free-to-air
radio and television services operated for profit
and funded predominantly by advertising
revenue;
subscription broadcasting services—services
with general appeal to the public and funded
predominantly by customer subscriptions;
subscription narrowcasting services—services
with limited appeal to the public (either
because of content or availability) and funded
predominantly by customer subscriptions; and
open narrowcasting services—services
providing programs targeted to special
interests groups (e.g. foreign language), or of
limited appeal because of content or
availability, and not funded by subscriptions.
Broadcasting and transmission
In March 1999, the telecommunications company
ntl won the bid to own and operate the National
Transmission Network, previously managed by
the National Transmission Agency. The
transmission network comprises 560 strategic
sites across metropolitan, regional and rural
Australia, and ntl’s core business is to transmit
the analogue television and radio broadcasts by
the ABC and SBS. Commercial and community
broadcasters, emergency services and
telecommunications operators have also leased
space on the sites. The company will continue to
invest in the network infrastructure to maintain
and improve the range, reach and quality of
transmission services across the country. Australia
will enter the digital era of broadcasting by
January 2001, and ntl will have a major role in
migrating the broadcasting industry to the new
digital platform.
Australian Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC)
The ABC has been in existence since 1932 as
Australia’s only national, non-commercial
broadcaster. At 30 June 1999 the ABC provided:
six distinctly targeted radio networks across
Australia on over 6,000 transmitters which
include metropolitan radio stations in nine
cities, 39 regional radio stations and 11 smaller
studios, Radio National, ABC-FM and the
Triple-J youth radio network;
a national television service carried on about
600 transmitters;
Radio Australia, an international radio service
broadcast by shortwave to Papua New Guinea
and the Pacific, and via satellite to the