Free-to-air television has returned to the Bendigo region after new transmission equipment was installed at Mount Alexander. Residents over 60 are relieved. Everyone else barely noticed.
"It's back!" said Margaret Dawson, 87, a retired nurse who spent 13 days staring at a blue screen and refusing to use iView, even though four different grandchildren tried to show her how.
Her son David, 44, an IT consultant, reacted to the news with the enthusiasm of someone being told the kettle had boiled.
He visited twice while the TV was out. Margaret told him it had been broken for two weeks.
"Just watch it on iView," David said, not looking up from his phone.
"I don't want to watch it on the iView," Margaret said. "I want to watch it on the television. Like a normal person."
Local retailers reported a surge in enquiries about streaming devices during the outage.
"We sold about 40 Chromecasts," said JB Hi-Fi employee Marcus Chen. "Thirty-six were returned. One woman asked if Netflix needed an antenna. Another bloke brought his back because it 'didn't have Ray Martin.' I had to look up who that was."
At press time, Dawson was watching A Current Affair while David tried, once again, to explain she could have watched it on her iPad.
"I don't trust the iPad," she said. "I don't want the government tracking me."
David gave her the iPad for Christmas in 2019. It remains in its box. Margaret uses the box to prop open a window.
Authorities have advised residents to rescan their televisions to restore channels.
For anyone under 40: yes, this is still something people do.
