With just two and a half months to go before the first part of our country (Mildura/Sunraysia) is left without access to a free-to-air analogue television, Senator Conroy announced this morning a joint venture between the Government, Southern Cross Media and Imparja.

The Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) service will be available to all areas except for Western Australia where a deal is in the works with Optus.

From the media release:

Executive Director of the Digital Switchover Taskforce, Andy Townend said the satellite service will be available for the Mildura/Sunraysia region as the first region to switch over to digital-only TV on 30 June 2010.

To access the VAST service, viewers will need to purchase a new satellite set top box with an access ‘smart card’, a satellite dish and cabling.

“Households wanting to get ready for the new satellite service should contact a qualified antenna installer to express their interest so they can start making arrangements immediately, including the installation of a satellite dish,” Mr Townend said.

Altec UEC will be the initial supplier and distributor of satellite set top boxes. The supplier will be informing antenna installers and satellite equipment suppliers in Mildura/Sunraysia about the availability of the new satellite service from today.

Households in the Mildura/Sunraysia region already using the existing Aurora satellite service will be able to convert to the new service using their existing dish as soon as the new set top boxes are available.

Do you live in the middle of nowhere and want access to television like everybody else? Tell us in the comments.

It’s like going to the fights and having a hockey game break out this week on Boxcutters as we tie up the trans-Pacific phone lines, talking with Peter Campbell (Director of FOXTEL Sport and Olympic Games) and Giaan Rooney (former Australian Olympian and Channel 9 Winter Olympics 2010 commentator) live and direct from Vancouver, BC, Canada.

As we battle with international time-zones, we have some suddenly curtailed news, one thing to watch this week, some updates to things we’ve covered in the last week or two and some hilarious reality gossip.

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Send us all your winter olympiad thoughts by sending us email or send us an SMS on 0458 288 837 (0458 CUTTER). And don’t forget to invite all your Facebook friends to become Boxcutters fans.

Archer is an animated series on FX in the US. Fox 8 announced it will air on March 7 in Australia so we take a little look.

We talk about Chuck vs the *shudder* “shippers”.

In the news we discuss The Biggest Loser fans gone silly, David Leckie on record and Senator Conroy skis his way into the networks’ hearts.

There’s a Ray Watch, some TV Clichés .

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Continue to the show notes »

It’s all in the title.

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• or listen to 211 in your browser

Contact us by sending us email or send us an SMS on 0458 288 837 (0458 CUTTER)

Continue to the show notes »