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How many viewers do Channel 31 shows have?

Fishing tops the viewing list in June.

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Fishing and cars are the top drawcards on Melbourne’s Channel 31 according to numbers released by the Community TV broadcaster.

Talking Fishing had the biggest audience in June followed by Classic Restos. There were at least 4 fishing themed shows in their Top 10.

While C31 isn’t in the OzTAM panel the channel has previously commissioned its own research for Melbourne & Geelong.

Last year just before a looming switch-off, Shane Dunlop, general manager of C31 told TV Tonight, “About 10 years ago 1.5 million people, on any given month watched community TV. Now that’s probably halved. But I think that’s the case of the entire Free to Air industry. So yes, there’s been a downturn, but I would say that Community TV at the point it is about to be switched off is actually going through something of a renaissance.”

An extension was recently granted for a further 3 years.

15 Responses

  1. I listen to community radio (3RRR & PBS), and they have great shows. I am hoping to host a show on one of the community radio stations in the next year or so (so fingers crossed).

    With the Sunday Night Movie, I was an extra in the movie that aired on C31 here in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago, and I enjoyed watching it (it was a mockumentary called “Fraud Festival” and I was in the crowd at the so-called “music festival” that was filmed for the mockumentary) as well as enjoying being an extra in it.

  3. Hi David, I was wondering if you know what ADJ audience means in the chart? I thought it may have been average audience but that wouldn’t explain why the average weekly audience is 1/4 of the size.

      1. Commissioned an independent company, whilst “Who owns OzTAM?
        OzTAM is an independent company owned by Australia’s major commercial television broadcasters – the Seven Network, Nine Network and Network Ten”.

  5. What a weak federal government we have. Community tv in Perth could be picked off and shut down. Because of its size and east coast media support, Melbourne’s community tv lives on for now. Yay for that. But community tv is sorely missed in Perth. Replaced by nothing and left with the dross on digital channels. Another free kick for Murdoch media courtesy of its federal government puppets.

    1. … not quite sure how it can be a “free kick for Murdoch media” given that News Corp doesn’t own any free-to-air television stations in Perth or anywhere else in Australia … if you want to watch Foxtel (jointly owned by News Corp and Telstra) you have to pay for it and only around 30% of Australians have made that choice … and BTW, if you do choose to buy a Foxtel subscription, I understand there’s a community television channel on it …

      1. It’s part of a bigger picture. Anyone not following the favours given to anyone but the abc is not seeing the full picture. Yes, a rant borne from frustration. The question remains, why was community tv shut down? Who benefited? Why did it happen? Not for the reasons Paul Fletcher stated because the spectrum is now unused. There’s no room community tv could not still be using the spectrum. Why is it not? The feds have no answer they want to give. And I’ve asked.

  6. It’s complete insanity that they turned off TVS some years ago considering that Sydney is the country’s largest metro market (and potential audience of Community TV).

    I was surprised that anime shows would often air on there, presumably thanks to Madman’s contributions (fairly recent stuff too, albeit very niche subtitle-only stuff). A great platform to check out from time to time, though I did find it comical that there would be knitting shows and the like during primetime.

    For a time I was considering producing a scripted series for the station (and likely pass it on to community stations in other states), and I loved the fact that even a Joe average like me had the freedom to produce television, however minuscule the audience, however nonexistent the budget, and however unrefined the production values would have been. The opportunity was taken away from us before we even had the chance to try. 🙁

  7. I think viewers are turning to Community TV as with community radio. We are caravanning up the east coast of NSW, the commercial radio is bad, there is great community radio out there, now I just dont tune into commercial radio at all now.

    1. So you may enter the Shoalhaven/Illawarra areas where we do indeed have some quality community radio stations, compared to the garbage on commercial radio where it seems that one announcer is not enough but now have to have two or three talking heads on-air at the same time, all babbling over each other.

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