Australian public servants...
Whoda thunkit?
El Reg, we definitely need a sarcasm icon.
Australians who try to set up a new satellite TV in remote areas can't register online for free-to-air reception, because an expired domain has left the registration service TITSUP (Total Inability To Support Usual Performance). From 2010 to 2012, the Federal government rolled out the Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) …
"From 2010 to 2012, the Federal government rolled out the Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) service, which lets registered users outside the free TV footprint access Australia's free-to-air channels."
Why does anyone need to register for a free-to-air service?
At least in NZ getting access to free content via satellite is just a matter of installing a dish and wandering down to your local home appliance dealer for a cheap decoder - one variety of which is known as a 'Pooh box' in my family due to the default display of 'P00' in it's idle state.
No registration or need to live outside the terrestrial coverage area required.
"Why does anyone need to register for a free-to-air service?"Can't have the peasants doing things without permission can we?
I have line of sight to the antennae on Mount Wellington and most of the time reception is fine but because distance the signal is quite attenuated. Under certain weather conditions the signal is weak enough (because multipath?) the picture breaks up every minute or two. Presumably if we had a satellite connection this wouldn't be an issue.
>Why does anyone need to register for a free-to-air service?<
It is not a free-to-air service. It is an encoded satellite TV service, carrying FTO content. The service is provided by a commercial satellite TV service, and they would charge the Aus government more if it removed their ability to run the competing paid service.
You can buy a sat-TV decoder and smart card, and register your smart card with the provider. That suggests that the broadcast signal contains information that activates your decoder. How exactly does that work?
Part of it is content licensing, and part is to do with broadcast area laws.
The registration says which region you are in, which they use to restrict which channels you get. Content licensed for NSW can't be broadcast to WA, for example. And commercial stations can't broadcast outside of their area either.
I dont know if they actually enforce this - my old Aurora (the predecessor to VAST) card let me access every Aurora channel. And I'm not eligible for VAST (not that I was eligible for Aurora either - I got the card from a remote school I worked for at the time who were chucking stuff out).