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Facing switch-off but Community TV wants extension during pandemic

While the govt is assisting FTA networks, Community TV turns to Minister Fletcher to ask for more time.

As they face a switch-off from broadcast to online-only from July 1st, Channel 31 Melbourne and Channel 44 Adelaide say the coronavirus lockdown has only underlined the need for Community Television.

Both stations provided live-to-air broadcasts of multi-denominational church services during Easter Week, Ramadan and Vaisakhi.

“We are proud to be able to support our local communities through this challenging period,” says C44 Adelaide Acting General Manager Kristen Hamill. “There are many Australians that don’t have access to the internet, and our local broadcasts provide an essential service to keep people connected, comforted and informed.”

But both services have also been hit hard by restrictions with stations facing reduced revenue, staff redundancies, operational challenges and production shutdowns.

“Like many businesses, we are in survival mode,” says C31 Melbourne General Manager Shane Dunlop. “We are being asked to make a monumental and challenging digital transition work in unprecedented times. It’s an unreasonable and impossible request.”

In March 2020, Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher made clear to C31 Melbourne and C44 Adelaide that he would not consider renewing their free-to-air broadcast licences beyond the current deadline of June 30th, 2020.

While the government has previously spoken about re-purposing the spectrum, CTV stations claim “no reasonable explanation” for the decision has been given. They claim they will not be able to survive as online-only channels.

Since the 2014 announcement, and a further six years of instability, Sydney (TVS), Brisbane (Bris31) and Perth (WTV) have all seen channel closures.

But C44 Adelaide and C31 Melbourne have formally asked Minister Fletcher for a renewal of their broadcast licences, allowing time to navigate the pandemic, until there is a planned alternative use for the broadcast spectrum they occupy.

A switch-off would result in immediate job losses of more than 15 full time staff, over 200 weekly volunteers and insolvency for both businesses.

C31 Melbourne’s Shane Dunlop said, “The Australian Community Television Alliance call upon the Federal Government and Minister Fletcher to renew our broadcast licences and show their support for culturally and linguistically diverse communities, local journalists, screen and media practitioners, small businesses, tertiary students, LGBTI+ groups and a vibrant collection of volunteers and contributors who still call Community Television their home”.

Neither C44 Adelaide or C31 Melbourne have received a response from Minister Fletcher.

14 Responses

  1. I volunteer for a community radio station and it is not in the country, it is in Hobart and I agree with David that it needs and requires some full time staff, we have one and we are progressing and broadcasting in this time of the virus, I have been doing a show now for forty years and this morning we did an Anzac Day service. Something that the other stations did not or could not do it is left up to the ABC and the over 400 community broadcasting stations to broadcast from the community to the community for the community.

  2. Just for the history books. Former Coalition communications minister Helen Coonan introduced the so-called ‘permanent CTV licenses’. Labor’s Stephen Conroy allocated digital spectrum so that CTV could move onto the Freeview platform with the other FTA’s. The faceless bureaucrats in the communications department fought Conroy but lost. They never supported CTV. Malcolm Turnbull made positive noises but in the end bowed to pressure from his department. There has always been enough digital spectrum to go around. Just look at how many junk channels the commercial networks have found room for within their bandwidth allocation. Perhaps the saddest and most disappointing sidebar to this saga is the refusal of SBS to provide a home for the CTV stations, on numerous occasions. But then again they weren’t initially keen on taking over NITV either.
    Laurie Patton| Inaugural CEO, TVS…

  3. “A switch-off would result in immediate job losses of more than 15 full time staff … ” points to part of the problem. When community radio and then television started last century, it was based on the idea that it was about the “community” and would be run by volunteers. In the 21st century, very few people appear to want to volunteer for anything, even if it’s their own hobby and think they should be paid. When Perth community television Access 31 collapsed in 2008 there were over twenty paid staff and they demanded that the federal government give them $5 million to remain open. We’ve seen similar situations where universities have decided they no longer want to fund community radio stations. Maybe it really is time for a reset and re-think.

      1. While I recognise your particular experience, it would have been more recent than mine (!) and I can assure you that community radio has existed (and still exists all over the country – with emphasis on “country”) without “a core team of full time and paid staff” and “things” have not “collapsed” at all. In fact, in my experience and looking at ACMA investigations, it’s when there are full time paid staff members, they tend to think of the station as being “theirs” and block out any others who are not their “close mates” which has caused disruption in the sector for years precisely because the stations have strayed away from the core purpose of “community”.

  4. Time to move online and open up your content to the world, why keep wanting to stay to limited community tv transmission areas, small thinking if you want to survive embrace the technology or die off like many other media outlets have found out all too easily in the last decade.

  5. One of the issues with metropolitan based community TV is the limited scope of broadcast area. It would be good to be able to see the metropolitan community channels broadcast nationally for community & business links, as well as for diplomatic awareness of the state capitals & interstate capitals for interstate & regional viewers. All public free-to-air content should be accessible nationwide. This notion would also be applicable for interstate ABC state/territory capital local radio accessibility on the digital TV platform nationwide. It’s better to have more choice & expansion of the digital TV channel array. And ideally reinstatement or introduction of further community channels if possible.

    If the metropolitan based community channels are having to go to the IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) or similar without free-to-air TV extension, they could be added to the Freeview…

    1. They are streaming online but it’s the free to air broadcast that makes it accessible to a large audience. Same as what the major networks do, and they are not switching off free to air anytime soon. But the community channels are having it forced on them when there is no planned use for the spectrum they are using anyway.

      1. I was not aware either that they were online as they are not listed in any mainstream streaming lists that I am aware of. This is why it is important that the least that could happen whether or not there is a free-to-air extension is that they are added to Freeview FV web, app & interactive TV live streaming & on demand so they can be found in a mainstream location & available nationally. It could be used as an incentive for other IPTV services to join Freeview FV, community or other, if Freeview could facilitate this option & potential Australian IPTV additions meet standards.

      2. I agree with you. How come Seven, Nine and Ten are not being forced to an online-only model? We can get useless home shopping channels on terrestrial television (Open Shop, Spree TV and TVSN), but we can’t have community television on terrestrial television? I think the Government is protecting commercial television’s interests at the expense of the interests of the community at large. No doubt the Australian people prefer community television as opposed to pointless home shopping channels.

        In this day and age, with media becoming more concentrated into fewer and fewer hands (look at Nine taking over Fairfax in 2018), we need community television more than ever.

      3. I’m all for them staying on FTA but this issue has been going round and round in circles for too long now. Everyone involved needs a solid answer not temporary extensions.

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