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NITV future hangs in the balance

NITV, National Indigenous Television broadcaster, has today announced it will cease to exist without government funding.

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National Indigenous Television broadcaster (NITV) has today announced it will cease to exist without government funding.

The plea for financial support carries a switch off deadline of June 30th 2010.

NITV, which airs home-grown shows including Marngrook Footy Show, The Barefoot Rugby League Show, Yaarnz, Yarramundi Kids, Letterbox, Grounded, and Momentum, broadcasts in the Sydney Metropolitan Area, Geelong, Ballarat, Mildura, via Foxtel, Optus and Austar and on 147 terrestrial transmitters in remote areas of Australia.

A Press Release from NITV follows:

NITV has been on air since July 2007. We have earned the support and trust of Indigenous viewers and other Australians. NITV has utilized the talents of Indigenous writers, directors, journalists and producers to make programs in genre ranging from music to health, sport, news, current affairs, culture and children’s programs. Most of NITV’s content is made, not bought.

The Australian Government has not yet committed to a future for NITV.

This means we will have to switch off NITV from midnight 30 June 2010. We need your support.

Please send your messages of support to [email protected]

OR write to Minister Garrett, the minister NITV’s portfolio comes under directly at

The Hon Peter Garrett AM, MP
Title: Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts.
Parliament House Contact
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

To send an email, go to www.aph.gov.au/P_Garrett_MP/ then click ‘contact form’

29 Responses

  1. The report Leigh mentions can be found here: arts.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/90441/nitv-exec-summary-final-report.pdf

    It suggest some changes to board structure and tendering process, but it’s pretty benign compared to some of the strong language used by Leigh and Burnt. It’s also been written by DEWHA, who you would question what their broadcasting expertise is?

  2. “NITV is about programs for Indigenous people not about programs developed by Indigenous people.”

    This is one reason this station is failing. This company should not receive anymore funding as its mistreatment of funds and their totally lack of cultural protocol is a slap in the face to Indigenous people throughout Australia.

  3. NITV is a Resource for which we all agree is a much need service in Australia but the problem is that it does not have the support that it says it does. Last year a Report into NITV found major problems throughout the national organisation ranging from financial mismanagement, to it’s tendering and procurement policies.

    NITV should be around, and as an Aboriginal man I agree with the idea of NITV but it has issues that need to be sorted out. Maybe a total restructure of the organisation is needed before it is too late. But alas maybe it already is.

    PS As an Indigenous Media Developer based in Cairns and having worked in the industry for 20 years delivering items to Channel 7, Channel 9, 10, ABC and SBS, Imparja and international broadcasters. Yet I have not had a lookin from NITV even though I have tried with news stories such as Australia’s ladies visit to an Aboriginal health Service, various launches etc.

    But as Tanya Denning, Head of Content at NITV said in an email to me one day last year.

    NITV is about programs for Indigenous people not about programs developed by Indigenous people.

  4. i notice that NITV comes under Garrett’s portfolio (Water, heritage and the arts). Isn’t NITV a TV service? Shouldn’t Conroy be in charge of this? Or is becuase it’s an aboriginal service it gets “special treatment”?

  5. To those saying it should be FTA, it IS on FTA already. It is broadcast on the Optus C1 / Optus D3 satellite with Foxtel, but the service is not encrypted, so it is available for anybody to access.

    Granted, it could be argued that a satellite dish costs money, but not much… certainly less than a television.

  6. We cant let this happen. NITV is a much needed cultural neccessity to a nation which is not only losing it’s current identity but has forgotten or chooses to ignore most of its ancestory !

  7. I saw the CEO on the Marngrook Footy Show on Thursday night and found it difficult to comprehend how the Federal Government can expect NITV to remain in limbo until the budget which is due just 6 weeks before the end of funding. This means that NITV can do absolutely no planning until then and with long lead times in TV, keeping the organisation going with momentum is just impossible.

    This is similar with when they did with Community TV stations getting permanent licences and also the digital transmission go ahead. Government just doesn’t understand or care about how ongoing operations can be crippled by uncertainty and slow decision making.

    With all the millions and even Billions of dollars this government is wasting on the failed pink batts scheme ($2400 million) and overcharging in the $16000 million Education Revolution building program, the $10 million per annum cost of NITV looks like extremely small change.

    NITV is a really good service to aboriginal people and even if it’s an abject failure now (which it’s not) it at least needs to be given another 5 years to find it’s feet. New TV stations need this long to establish themselves as community TV has shown. You could use SBS or even channel 10 as other examples of how long it takes a TV station to establish itself.

    By the way, love the Marngrook Footy Show and watch it each week.

  9. I like NITV and if some don’t then they don’t. Funding local content even if some dislike crosswords makes more sense then funding US reality, UK trash and any other rubbish 99.99% is spent by ABC/SBS at the moment.

    Why some provide veiled comments you must wonder but they seem too busy watching Border Security and The Hills to worry about other views than their own.

  10. I can’t believe your comments David. I thought this was Australia and people are free to express their opinions.
    We, as taxpayers, have a right to have an opinion as we are funding this. Personally, I don’t want my dollars going to fund shows where people are doing crosswords – it was on an episode of a show called Letterbox.
    Where is private enterprise – couldn’t we have a mix of funding because I believe it is important for an indigenious channel, however not solely funded by the Government.

    1. It is indeed a free country Sally, the comments were approved as they were not a breach of Comments Policy.

      Others that have attacked on a basis of racial background have not been. Internet anonymity is not license to villify in my book. If other online forums choose to publish them so be it. However, I’m not sure it was mandatory for me to agree with everyone’s opinions? There are hundreds of comments on this site I don’t agree with. It’s possible to agree to disagree and still be friends. Healthy debate is a good thing and so is broadcasting that offers alternative opportunities, representation, diversity, ideas and development.

  11. I don’t see how merging NITV and TVS with the ABC or SBS can be viewed as a negative. If they had the facilities of the ABC or SBS available to them then TVS and NITV could be saving money and there’s a better chance they could be producing better programs. You wouldn’t have to take their independence off them to make that happen.
    NITV and TVS could also take advantage of some of the back catalogue of ABC and SBC and not screens so many repeats of their limited programs.

  12. I agree with Jason D that It should be free-to-air Australia wide.

    Actually as I started reading the comments from first to last I wondered why no one had suggested that is should be FTA. At least then we would see ratings etc.
    Actually I don’t see anything wrong with the first few comments, they told it as they saw it !

  13. TVS now that makes me laugh.”Sydney’s newest station”,yeh for about the last 4 years or so.That was a great station before it went off air & returned as TVS.
    NITV i have found myself watching here and there but this too is repeat after repeat just like TVS…..actually like most stations.

  14. NITV is an independent broadcaster, meaning that Indigenous people decide what programs are made and how the channel is run – you won’t get that by merging it with SBS or ABC folks.

  16. This is sad news if true. Love the Marngrook Footy Show and other programs on this channel as a change from the usual we’ve come to expect on the other networks. Hopefully the government sees the value in keeping this unique television network on air.

  19. It should be free-to-air Australia wide. Not only would most Aboriginals probably not have Foxtel, it is a useful resource for non-Aboriginals to learn about Aboriginal culture.

  20. This is crazy. New Zealand has not one, but *two* Maori channels funded by the government… why is there such an indifference toward the Australian indigenous peoples? But then again… I am not really surprised.

    NITV should be properly funded, along with a commitment by the government to roll it out on digital, nationwide.

  23. Does anybody really watch this channel? The audience I would imagine would have to be smaller than TVS. Why can the govt just merge this with SBS then?

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