In 2015 the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) released Deadline 2025: Collections at Risk, which highlighted the fact that Australia’s audiovisual heritage will be lost forever if not digitised.

Risks to magnetic media digitisation

Deadline 2025 identified 3 main risks to magnetic media digitisation:

• The obsolescence of machines to play back magnetic media, the end of production of machines and spare parts, and the uneven or unknown distribution of machines needed to digitise the many formats in use since the late 1950s.
• The decrease in engineering and technical skills needed to maintain and repair playback machines as experts retired from industry.
• The predicted deterioration of tape formats and impacts of poor storage and below preservation standard digitisation efforts.

Mitigation efforts

These risks remain urgent, although with active mitigation some have had less impact than expected.

For example, some formats appear to have a longer lifespan, out to 50 years or more provided they are stored in appropriate environmental conditions.

Sourcing of playback machinery has been a targeted activity, and the NFSA has machines and parts for a wide range of formats. 

Action to-date

The Deadline 2025 message has been used by the NFSA and many other audiovisual archives and collections to advocate for the urgent need to fund digitisation efforts for magnetic media. 

The NFSA has been able to increase the rate of digitisation of our own collection materials and has been supporting the digitisation of at-risk magnetic media from National Collecting Institutions, ensuring culturally significant audiovisual materials are both preserved and made accessible. 

We also support the cataloguing and digitisation of magnetic formats for First Nations organisations and communities, preserving and making accessible endangered language and cultural information. 

In 2026 and beyond the Deadline 2025 work will continue, and with current collection growth and resources it is realistic that we have another 10 years of digitisation efforts to ensure magnetic formats are preserved and accessible.

Make a financial donation to Deadline 2025.