Great News for Community television.
Its a shame that Sydney, Brisbane and Perth don’t have this platform.
I really think a community based channel world really work in Western Sydney. But its probably too late to resurrect.
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My understanding is the spectrum is no longer reserved for community TV outside of Melbourne and Adelaide.
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Has it actually been carved out now for other uses?
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It’s the same as it has been, the “sixth channel”, which is going to sit dormant for years to come.
The problem is mainly just how much investment confidence can a Community channel have with no knowledge of when they might decide to allocate that, which is I think the main thing that did WTV/TVS/31 Brisbane in.
More space for 5G looms as the main thing, but that could be a few years or over a decade away.
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I really can’t understand why we are still yet to see a smart TV App for Community TV from the various App stores? Then the need for costly DVB transmission (restricted to SD single channel only) and costly maintenance for the remaining transmitters which are end of life can be alleviated by switching them off.
Yes, there is an App for smart phones, not smart TV’s, why dragging the chain?
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From when I tried to use the CTV+ android app a few months back, it doesn’t work. If it’s not buffering, it’s crashing. Can’t imagine they’re going to have any luck getting it going on a TV.
Neither iOS or Android apps have been updated in five months. The website works fine though.
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Proposal to vary the Melbourne television licence area plan
We would like to vary the Melbourne television licence area plan (TLAP). We want to remove the allotment end dates for the community TV broadcasting service C31.
The current end date is 30 June 2024. This will allow C31 to continue to broadcast past the end of June 2024.
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I thought they are now allowed on air till the Government finds another use for the spectrum?
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Yep, this is just executing that intention in the regulations.
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C31 and 44 Adelaide could use the VHF10 frequency instead of the present UHF32, that is a throwback to when these stations transmitted on UHF31 in the analogue era. Most new antenna installations in the Melbourne and Adelaide areas are VHF only and are not capable of receiving these stations at the moment. It makes sense for this to happen.
Think VHF10 was reserved for high power services, not lower power community services.
C31 and 44 are full powered…
Not according to the Television Licence Area Plan
You will note the 6 VHF slots have 50kW ERP from their main TX site whereas community TV on UHF32 is only 15kW ERP from the main site. Being such lower power limits their service for only 1 X SD service, as a fair chunk of the ASI DVBT stream is contained with null packets to allow for very aggressive forward error correction to enable reception in an area comparable to the high power VHF services.
It’s not low powered though, it may be less so than the commercials, but is generally receivable most places.
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Agreed.
It’s a licence condition that prohibits C31 and C44 from broadcasting anything but 1x 576i stream.
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You’d think they could run a HD simulcast now.
How do U watch channel 31 if you don’t have an antenna cord can you watch it on a app?
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Yes - CTV+ App
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Not on smart TV Apps though.
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