THE ORGINAL VAST SUBMISSION (VOLUNTARY CONTRACT)
VIEWER ACCESS SATELLITE TELEVISION (VAST) | FREE TO AIR (FTA) SATELLITE TELEVISION IN AUSTRALIA

	WESTERN WESTERN AUSTRALIA	CENTRAL SOUTH AUSTRALIA, NORTHERN TERRITORY AND P.N.G	EASTERN TASMANIA, VICTORIA, N.S.W, A.C.T AND QUEENSLAND
Seven Network	GWN7	Southern Cross Television	PRIME7
Nine Network	WIN Television	Imparja Television	WIN Television
Network Ten	Western Digital Television	Southern Cross Ten	Southern Cross Ten

DEVELOPER NOTES

• The way the system worked in the orginal submission is the box would have a smart card it would have be registered online or over the phone and all that did was determine whether you were in the Western, Central or Eastern regions this was important because you could access the channels of your region those outside your region would be locked. Unfortunately Australian media laws are very complicated while this system is great it doesn't work legally and the original submission was rejected.
• The satellite knows what region you are in therefore it is trivial to determine whether you can view those channels or not because the smart card records your region and the satellite knows your region this is why there is a special registration for travellers who will get whatever channels are in their current region and the card actually records that so if they move from west to east for example they will get the eastern channels but not western but they would get the western when they moved back there.
• No special box was needed and no special smart card was needed either the encryption was Irdeto mainly because it's supported everywhere I know Irdeto can be broken but that's not the point the point is the encryption is only there to enforce the region locking it has no other purpose. If there were no region restrictions there would be no need for any form of encryption it's only there to enforce the region coding!
• It has been twenty years since the original submission was made and was rejected. I know they were going to make a request to the government to have the laws changed and this may be possible in the future but I do not know the outcome of that at this point in time. It is my understanding that my submission was rejected because it was not legal and I don't really know what happened after that I was asked to make a submission and I made one that was the extent of my relationship with them.
• It is my understanding that the media laws have been changed since then and it is now possible to implement my submission and part of it has been implemented on the satellite but it's not exactly the same as my submission. In the current structure there are only two regions WESTERN and CENTRAL and they are structured as shown in the table above exactly the EASTERN region doesn't exist the CENTRAL region covers the EASTERN region as well at the moment!
• It is also my understanding that you do need a dedicated VAST box to receive the VAST service it can't be setup with any satellite decoder box it needs a VAST dedicated satellite decoder. This wasn't intended in the original submission where any satellite decoder with a compatible smart card should be able to receive the VAST service. I also believe the smart card is tied to the box which means you can't change the smart card in the box which is something that was not desired in the original submission.
• So with a traditional card if I lived in Broome I would get the WESTERN channels?! That is correct! If I moved then to Victoria for example I would get nothing?! That's exactly right! That is why travellers need a special card because they wouldn't have that problem?! That is correct. If you have a traveller's card there wouldn't be a problem if you moved but if you had a traditional card you would have to get a new card that's a simple case of ringing VAST and asking for one there is a fee for that service of course.
• So that would mean you could have a card for every region?! That is correct but that is illegal under the law bringing us back to the region coding which would mean VAST would have to cancel your Broome card and issue you another you couldn't have two cards and watch two regions by switching the cards. But you could do that with a traveller's card?! That's right! I don't understand why that is permitted on a traveller's card?! The travellers' card expires every two years and needs to be replaced traditional cards don't expire.
• It is true that Network Seven is GWN7 in Western Australia, Southern Cross Television in South Australia and the Northern Territory and Prime7 in Tasmania, Victoria, NSW, ACT and Queensland they only broadcast their Network Seven signal in capital cities Hobart, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Darwin, Adealide and Perth the satellite service is not intended for people in these regions in the regions where the satellite service is intended those seven channels listed in the table would be recieved in those regions
• It is exactly the same for Network Ten as it is for Network Seven but Network Nine is different they want to broadcast their signal all around Australia and they don't like sharing it with relays like Imparja and WIN Television it is only because of the current media laws that Network Nine can not get what they want! If Network Nine had what they wanted Win TV would be Nine broadcasting Nine's signal and Imparja would be Nine broadcasting Nine's signal only Nine broadcasts Nine's signal.
• We are talking of something that is twenty years old now and it's not the same Network Nine as it was twenty years ago. The Network Nine that exists today is becoming more like Network Seven and Network Ten selling off parts of their Network that is outside the captial cities and only broadcasting their signal in capital cities like Ten and Seven do. The Network Nine that exists today has no problems with Imparja and WIN TV broadcasting their signal in fact they want to see more of them doing it.