Just a month after getting a $250 million licence fee rebate from the federal government, free-to-air television stations are again asking for a hand from taxpayers, Ari Sharp writes in yesterday’s The Age newspaper.

The industry wants the government to set aside for it part of the spectrum earmarked for auction, claiming emerging spectrum-hungry technology such as 3D television could be beyond the reach of the free-to-air broadcasters without it.

If the government buckles to the industry's demands it is likely to reduce the price taxpayers will receive from the billion-dollar-plus auction of the 126 megahertz in spectrum from which the free-to-air operators want a slice.

The spectrum, dubbed the digital dividend, is the space liberated by the shift in broadcasting from analog to digital and the restacking of broadcast frequencies. The government has compared the spectrum to ''waterfront property'' because of the strength and data-carrying ability of the signal.

It plans to auction off the spectrum.

The objections of Free TV, which represents networks Seven, Nine and Ten, emerged in the public release of responses to a government green paper on the digital dividend.

''The substantial reduction in spectrum will limit the capacity for a transition to future broadcast technologies,'' Free TV said. ''This will preclude broadcasters from … delivering additional services such as 3D-TV to free-to-air viewers.''

Free TV argues for the spectrum to be set aside on the basis that it would would allow viewers to get access to the latest technologies free.

As well as 3D-TV, it says, there will be difficulties moving to new technical formats such as DVB-T2 and MPEG-4. While the group does not specify how much spectrum should be set aside, it is understood the megahertz would be in the single digits.

No price, or whether there should be one at all, has been been specified by Free TV.

It is understood that the free-to-air networks are girding themselves for the competition they will face if mobile phone companies gain access to the spectrum and use it for streaming video content.

Foxtel used its submission to back the government plan to auction the digital dividend spectrum.

The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association also backed the case for the whole spectrum to be auctioned, but pressured the government to get moving so that the new licence holders were able to take over immediately after the analog switch-off at the end of 2013.