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Govt tells SBS and NITV to work together for Indigenous television

The government has asked SBS and National Indigenous Television service to work together to increase Indigenous content on air.

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The government has asked SBS and National Indigenous Television service (NITV) to work together to increase Indigenous content on free-to-air television.

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, has asked the two broadcasters to explore a possible new Indigenous television service.

“The Australian Government is determined to ensure that the resources allocated to Indigenous broadcasting are delivering the best outcomes for Indigenous people,” he said.

“The government’s aim is to provide a national platform for free-to-air delivery of predominantly Australian Indigenous content without the creation of a third national broadcaster.”

The move follows the recommendations of a recent government review and the government giving NITV $15.2m for twelve months of operations last July.

If an agreement can be reached, NITV says it would relocate its existing programming to one of SBS’s digital channels.

NITV, which currently broadcasts on Foxtel, Austar and in some regional Free to Air markets, would need to be dedicated to Indigenous programming and under Indigenous editorial control, with secure funding.

“SBS is well placed to facilitate the evolution of this service and bring Indigenous television on to a free-to-air platform. I have asked the SBS Board to consider whether it is in a position take on this important role, and the NITV board to advise on the matters it regards as critical to the efficacy of the model from an Indigenous perspective,” said Conroy.

7 Responses

  1. If the HD requirements for ABC & SBS were removed (they don’t have to show native HD anyway) there would be plenty of bandwidth for NITV on the SBS transmitter as well as any future channels planned by SBS.

  2. It looks like the merger is planned for the middle of next when NITV’s current funding runs out, provided that it is approved by both broadcasters. It’s understandable that a merger would take a while to work out, but there is nothing stopping SBS broadcasting NITV in the meantime – they should do this ASAP.

  3. Why not just have SBS carry the existing NITV signal through SBS transmitters as a separate multichannel. The SBS transmitters are owned by the Federal Govt anyway and are not for the sole use of SBS, likewise the ABC transmitters are owned by the Fed Govt, and are not for the sole use of the ABC either. Then that way, NITV gets to remain independent and SBS has nothing to do with them programming, production and or editorial wise, staying as totally separate. Next step is to then have the SBS transmitters carry the local/state community TV service as another multichannel, so as the digital frequencies currently being used to transmit community TV can be used instead to start mpeg4 transmissions of the existing networks main primary channels in HD, along with the other still spare unused digital frequency. All too sensible of course for it too happen.

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