Did it work? An update on the costs and benefits of the transition to digital TV in Australia

Abstract

Abstract This article re-evaluates Australia’s transition to digital television. Earlier analysis in this journal, conducted after about a third of the vacated digital dividend spectrum remained unsold following an auction in 2013, found the whole policy had resulted in a net cost to government revenues. After a further auction in 2017 where the remaining spectrum was sold at much higher prices (A$/MHz/pop), this article repeats the evaluation. It finds that digital switchover, now virtually complete, has produced a significant net increase in government revenues. Other conclusions from the original article about the complexity and difficulty of ex ante cost–benefit analysis, the influence of industry structure, and the capacity of government to plan and complete a large spectrum re-farming project, despite contested and shifting ideas about the purpose of the whole project, are confirmed and emphasized.