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No more extensions for Community TV

Media reform for all? 23 years of free-to-air access is about to come to an end.

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The Community Television sector has today received the news it anticipated: Minister for Communication Mitch Fifield has told them there will be no more extensions to spectrum access.

The bad news comes after a last minute extension in December to the end of June.

Despite broad media reforms for the big guns before the parliament, Community TV will lose spectrum access after June 30th 2017, forced to exist online.

It brings to an end 23 years of free-to-air access for the sector.

Organisations such as C31 Melbourne had been arguing that the deadlines imposed were insufficient time to build alternative revenue streams.

C31 General Manager Matthew Field said “It is unfortunate that the Minister is so eager to kick us off air, given the fact that there is no planned use for the spectrum we currently occupy, and also given our genuine efforts to find a solution that would not stand in the way of more efficient spectrum use in the future. The losers are communities underrepresented in mainstream media, young aspiring screen practitioners and audiences who value a free to air channel committed to airing 100% original Australian content. It is an extraordinary decision in the context of the explosion of shopping and racing channels since the advent of digital TV”.

Some Channels such as C44 Adelaide have already moved online, while Sydney’s TVS shut down in 2015 as a result of govt taking back spectrum.

C31 Melbourne has argued that its spectrum access should be aligned with its broadcasting licence, awarded by ACMA through to 2019, but it will now continue through apps and digital after June 30th.

15 Responses

  1. We have community radio why not TV. Who is it hurting??? If they can support their own way then what’s the problem? Spectrum, oh come on that’s crap.

  4. Federal government are just trying to get rid of a hot-bed of left wing politics! 😉

    Seriously, I am scratching my head about why this is happening. A lot of ethnic and esoteric interest groups are the ones being hurt.

  5. What’s with all the anti-NITV sentiment – do people feel they’re not getting their individual <$1 per year's worth out of it?

    (Since it was rolled into SBS it's a bit hard to get good numbers on how much the government pays to support NITV, but based on past numbers it's likely well under $20 million/year.)

    1. Compared to the ABC, SBS offers good value to the tax payer. What really needs to be shaken up is the ABC. Force the network to operate in a manner similar to SBS and the Australian tax payer will reap the benefits.

    2. The anti NITV sentiment is just racism. Who watches it? People of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands descent.

      If you don’t like the content, don’t watch it, there’s no need to troll about it online.

      Besides NITV is not the reason the community channels are going. The idea of a completely independent, community run tv channel goes against the very fabric of a government controlled by large corporations who also control the rest of the media.

      24/7 shopping channels aren’t offensive to those in power, just the public.

  6. Love how these “datacasting” channels are not used for datacasting at all, but for 24/7 advertising. Out of the entire VHF & UHF spectrum Fifield can’t spare one SD channel in each capital city? Meanwhile we can fund and allow the great unwatched NITV.

  7. This is sad. The govt is abolishing broadcasting licence fees (and datacasting charges) for the rent-seeking commercial networks which are publicly-listed businesses, but can’t find room for Community TV. Moving online is not a sustainable solution. They will disappear in the noise.

    1. Well lets be honest another government stuff up. Abolishing TV license fees and what are we getting in return? Surely the government could have told 7, 9 or 10 that if they wanted a free TV license they had to take turns in broadcasting the community channel 31.

  10. I don’t understand why spectrum can not be found given that SBS has an entire channel devoted to food & the commercials waste spectrum with channels whose entire content is infomercials.

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