The ‘digital dividend’ as a case study in spectrum re-farming

The re-farming of spectrum (i.e. its reassignment to services with a higher value), triggered by free-to-air television digitisation and the switch-off of analogue TV, represents a significant microeconomic reform. Digitisation has already transformed the television industry, and analogue TV switch-off will yield a ‘digital dividend’ for wireless broadband as well as further benefits to television itself. With soaring growth projections for mobile data traffic creating pressure for further spectrum allocations for wireless broadband, lessons learned from the digital dividend process are liable to influence government approaches to spectrum re-farming in future. This article considers the development, over two decades, of an original policy ‘blueprint’ for TV digitisation in Australia as a case-study in spectrum re-farming. While it is too early to judge its full effects, some preliminary lessons are drawn from the various approaches that have been considered and adopted or discarded along the way.