Talk anything about C31 Melbourne here!
When is it going off the air?
End of the year, last time I checked.
The channel kind of lost it’s purpose when digital came in. I wouldn’t even know how to access it on my digital boxes and I don’t think it’s listed on Foxtel either.
IT is a shame though that it’s going to shift online (or that’s what I think I heard was happening anyway). It kind of makes the station pointless and there would be no point on keeping it going IMO.
I do miss the good old days of Fishcam though! I also remember when Ch31 used to air the trot horse races on a Saturday night. I was very young then but dad used to get us into it. Good times.
It’s MPEG-2 on LCN 44 coming off the Mount Dandy transmitter and last time I checked (November 2015) it was not on Foxtel.
yeah not sure how you wouldn’t know how to access it if you’re using FTA.
1 Like
The local Chinese community does not seem to be concerned of the channel going off air at the end of this year. There has been no mention of that at all at the website of Asian Television Australia Association.
C31 in Brisbane is available through FOXTEL on Telstra (Tbox)
I don’t think Foxtel has ever carried C31 in Melbourne but pretty sure Optusvision did in the late 1990s.
C31 seem to be airing five minute fillers between shows.
If need be, just call me and I can do some V/O’s
cause there is no consistent timing with different shows. Some can be 22mins, others 18 for a 30 minute slot + ads there is still leftover time.
Thought I whould cap some promos from C31 as it’s going off air at the end of the year.
Foxtel has never carried C31, they approached Foxtel who were not interested.
and instead air their own national quasi community channel Aurora.
which half of it is infomercials/home shopping!
Well I don’t recall watching C31 or seeing it in my guides for years. I do mostly use my Foxtel box these days though.
I’d rather Imparja than that Foxtel rubbish.
1 Like
I’m pretty sure that Foxtel has never carried any of the community channels (which surely must’ve ultimately been another reason why TVS had an earlier death than the other community stations at the end of last year, in a market which has a fairly high take-up rate of Pay TV), although correct me if I’m wrong.
As far as FTA coverage is concerned, I thought that digital TV generally helped the coverage of community TV if anything. I can’t speak for other markets obviously but when TVS Digital was broadcasting here in Sydney from 2010-15, I received the channel just fine. Analogue 31 was a bit fuzzy when it was on from 2006-12, but watchable for the most part.
1 Like
Same in Melbourne. I’ve always received a fuzzy 31 where I lived. I used to live in Hawthorn for most of the 1990s and there was a TV antenna and repair shop that had C31 playing on a TV in the shop window when during the day they had a slide with the night’s programmes (they were on air for 4-5 hours a day back then) and the reception was not perfect but good (must have got a good UHF aerial as you can’t get it clearly in parts of Hawthorn and you certainly can’t get it on an inside aerial), in 1996 a translator was set up at Como to allow reception of C31 on UHF-64 and I got it loud and clear (with a new outdoor antenna in my flat). I worked at a Primary School library in Richmond at the time and on their TV they got SBS-28 good but C31 was very fuzzy. Digital cured all that, although sometimes there’s a few picture break ups. Online is perfect, now C31 can be viewed all over the world!
1 Like
Coming soon to 31 Melbourne and Brisbane and 44 Adelaide
MEDIA RELEASE:
Censlus 2016 – See What Really Happened on Census Night!
& The Death of Australian Community Television.
Censlus 2016 is a one off half hour TV special which takes a satirical look at the Census website crash on Tuesday 9th August 2016. The special will be broadcast on both Channel 31 Melbourne and 31 Digital Brisbane on Friday evening 25th November at 7.00pm; Channel 44 Adelaide on Monday evening 28th November at 8.00pm; and Channel 39 Dunedin in New Zealand on Tuesday evening 22nd November at 9.00pm. The special has been Produced by Phillip McKechnie of Pheluciam Productions, in association with Producers Brigitte Craig, Aisling McGrogan and Alex Richter.
Everyone in Australia is familiar with the website crash on Census night which left millions of Australians stranded in front of their computer’s trying to complete their Census Form. On this same night, the Australian Women’s Rugby Sevens Team defeated New Zealand to win Gold Medal at the Rio Olympics. This was also the time when the Pokémon Go craze was sweeping the Globe. Censlus 2016 takes a satirical look at that evening, where staff members are more interested in the Olympics and the Pokémon Go craze than the Census Form that everyone was trying to complete.
At the end of 2016, community television will cease broadcasting in Australia on a free to air basis. With the advent of streaming television services, it is vital that Australia has a growing and competitive television industry. As with community newspapers and community radio giving people pathways to a professional career, community television has provided an important pathway for future television and film makers to gain the necessary and relevant experience to make the transition into the professional industry. Many television, film and radio personalities we know today got their start in community television. This pathway will now be closed.
Writer, Director and Co-Producer Phillip McKechnie has been involved in over eighty TV, film and theatre productions over twenty five years. He has written four short films, producing and starring in two of them, and has also written four feature length screenplays. DRACOVA was represented by The Charlotte Gusay Literary Agency in Los Angeles in 2012 and another feature length screenplay, CHEAT, is currently under option with Digital Film Productions in the U.S.A.
Phillip has also produced and created a thirteen part theatre sport style improvised comedy television show called Misguided where the storylines continue every week. Misguided is currently showing on Channel 31 on Monday evenings at 10.00pm; and on both 31 Digital Brisbane and Channel 31 Dunedin in New Zealand on Monday nights at 9.00pm. Misguided was created in Australia and community television has given the Producer the opportunity to showcase the show’s format. The death of community television will see these opportunities lost to show case future generations of Australian talent and content.
