2001 may herald the onset of digital TV in Australia but the first set-top boxes to hit the retail shelves won't be locally made.
Australian commercial television broadcasters, the Seven, Nine and Ten Networks have selected French electronics company Thomson Multimedia from "quite a large number of tenders," Creina Chapman, manager of regulatory and corporate affairs at Nine Network, told ZDNet.
"The networks encouraged companies to submit something even if it didn't meet the specifications, but at the end of the day, looking at price, numbers and specifications, Thomson [Multimedia] was the only one we were assured could deliver," Chapman said.
Although Panasonic is planning to manufacture equipment for the local market here in Australia, according to Chapman, "[currently] there's nothing produced here".
Therefore, for the start up for digital television down under, Chapman said it had to be something produced for another market and adapted to Australia.
Panasonic declined to comment on its intentions to manufacture set-top boxes for the Australian digital TV market.
Thomson Multimedia will supply 10,000 set-tops to coincide with digital TV's debut in January.
The network consortium has confirmed it is underwriting the deal with Thomson - speculated to be worth in the region of AU$5 million.
A suggested price tag of AU$600 per box is "rather exuberant", according to the director of corporate development at Seven Network, Simon Francis.
All 10,000 set top boxes are destined for retail shelves but the network trio is "yet to go into negotiations and discussions with retailers," Francis said.
The number of Australians able to tune into digital TV in the New Year will be limited to 500, with the first batch of boxes expected to arrive in the country by year's end.
A further 4,500 boxes will arrive mid January and the remaining 5,000 sometime in February.
"Our intention is that anyone who wants to put [set top boxes] on their retail shelves can," Chapman said. "It's our view that Thomson Multimedia should not be picking and choosing a couple of preferred retailers."
The networks would not disclose what companies they had canvassed for the contract, saying the information was "commercially confidential".
