North Burnett council votes to switches off Eidsvold all digital television

The North Burnett Regional Council has voted to decommission all digital television retransmission stations in Eidsvold despite negative community feedback.

About 600 Eidsvold residents will be left in the dark after the North Burnett Regional Council voted to strip them of all but one free-to-air TV channel.

The North Burnett Regional Council has voted to strip 600 Eidsvold residents of all but one free-to-air TV channel on Monday with the ABC now the only channel available in that area.

The special council meeting decided the council would “decommission all digital television retransmission equipment at the Eidsvold tower” on June 30 with no efforts made to repair any damages sustained before that date.

Eidsvold is the last of several North Burnett towers to be switched off, following a year of shutdowns in Moonford and Bukali/Bancroft.

The North Burnett Regional Council said providing TV services was not one of its core businesses.

The agenda for the meeting listed their reasoning behind the decommissioning was driven by the fact the “services are not considered part of Councils core business.”

The Eidsvold tower – only installed in 2011 – was built to support residents during the analog to digital conversion.

The council stated in their agenda the towers were failing regularly due to having exceeded their expected lifespan.

“Significant costs are incurred by all ratepayers to provide these services to a small portion of the population,” the special meeting agenda said.

Eidsvold is the last of several North Burnett towers to be switched off, leaving residents with only the ABC in terms of free-to-air television.

The council also touched on a range of complaints it received from residents.

The complaints included pixellation and audio issues,. The council said the issues could be directly traced to older transmitters.

It also stated replacement parts were not available to repair the existing aged transmitters.

Eidsvold residents were not happy when news broke\, with many fearing the region was going backwards.

Burnett resident David Anthony posted to social media: “A short-sighted decision by council, especially in the 21st century”.

Eidsvold resident Yasmin Barber, who rallied in protest against the decision, said Eidsvold was a great little town, “so expect to hear more from us”.

Callide MP Bryson Head, of the LNP, said the council was trying to find a solution via the VAST satellite network, which was provide access to free-to-air TV, at least in the short-term.

“Council are looking towards opportunities to seek potential funding to ensure continuing service or looking at subsidising other free-to-air networks,” Mr Head said.