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

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.