It’s not just “hobbyists”, it’s a lot of students learning to work in TV and film, as well as different minority groups and ethnic groups making content for their communities.
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I think that report is too dismissive of the issues at stake here.
Firstly the spectrum point. Community TV is not in the way of experimental digital services - there’s low likelihood that anything will be launched at all - and even lower chances that those services will be expanded beyond the main capital city transmitter sites, such as to require that CTV moves immediately.
They can commence operation of a service on VHF 10 - and would only need to have any impact on community TV once they decided to either expand into regional areas, or if they decided to begin transmission on the translator stations.
Secondly, there’s no reason to not carry community TV on such a service. TVS first made it to digital TV by being carried on the Digital 44 trial. While it may require new equipment to continue viewing, it may well be a more compelling offering than a demonstration loop and a one off sporting event that they use to justify a 4k trial (in the same way as the lack of useful 3D content when that was a thing).
Third, and I think most importantly. They are publicly owned airwaves. The consolidation of the broadcast media is a reason to provide more opportunities for localism and media diversity, not to shut them down. 44 Adelaide and WTV are especially important, given how little content is produced in Adelaide and Perth for commercial and national television.
By all means, don’t subsidise them. If broadcast community TV is unwanted, then it will go unfunded. But give them a license and give them access to spectrum.
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here, here!
Not strictly true - if an experimental service launched on VHF 10 in metro areas, the associated translators would also most likely get the service and in some cases the spare frequency for those is located on a frequency occupied by CTV. e.g the spare frequency for Kings Cross, Manly/Mosman and NW Sydney is 29
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Based on a channel chart from the restack - Adelaide is clear all the way to Renmark/Loxton, in Perth there’s a small translator site to the north, and in Melbourne, while the South Yarra service would be a problem for translator sites in the inner city, the main service uses the UA channel for the Latrobe Valley/Bendigo.
Given there’s not even a proposal for a service, forcing CTV off the air just because in theory the frequency might be needed down the track is unnecessary.
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Just like eveything with this government, it’s ideology.
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There are four Community Television stations in Darwin:
4 - Aboriginal TV
41 - Darwin TV
42 - Tourism TV
43 - Education TV
http://aboriginalbroadcasting.org/
I didn’t record very much content from these channels while I was up in Darwin, but here is what I got:
Aboriginal TV
Audio muted in middle of this clip in case of copyright issues:
Watermark and Classification symbol
Darwin TV
Watermark:
Some promos
Tourism TV
Education TV
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Licenced as HPON, but yes owned by community radio station Radio Larrakia Aboriginal Corporation/Larrakia Investments who own:
• Radio Larrakia 94.5FM
• Australian Indigenous Radio (Vast Satellite Ch 913)
• XStream Radio Darwin FM 91.5
• Palmerston FM88
• Aboriginal TV Channel 4
• Darwin TV Channel 41
• Tourism TV Channel 42
• Education TV Channel 43
• Aboriginal Media College
• Sea Eagle Productions
http://aboriginalbroadcasting.org/index.html
One question I’ve always had about Aboriginal TV, did their channel TVNT on 44 rebrand as Darwin TV and move to 41, or was Darwin TV a completely new channel? None of their other multichannels were rebranded or moved, so thinking the former.
I remember seeing mention of a “iTV64” station in the analogue days in Darwin - was this the evolution of it? Or is it just that’s how the HPON station existed in the first place to get it’s current usage?
As far as I understood, that was just an advertorial station, rather than a community one.
From what I can gather from the limited resources online, iTV64 was a one-hour loop of tourist information and lasted from October 1997 until 2009/10 on analogue TV.
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it looks like Melbourne’s C31 live stream has gone offline for the time being, the only way you can watch it is on digital TV in Melbourne. The live stream has had continual problems over the past few months, this is not good for the migration of community TV to online. They are thankful the Turnbull Government gave them an extension of their broadcast licence, otherwise they won’t survive!
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I believe they were forced into changing streaming hosts so possibly some teething problems?
EDIT: This was an email that they send out to their mailing list a while ago:
In the coming days you may notice some small changes to our online platform as we continue to evolve into a digital first community media hub.
A few months ago we learned that our current platform partner (Hostworks) had been sold and that the acquiring parent company had made the decision to exit from media altogether requiring us to make alternative arrangements. In the coming days we will be shifting all of our content to the new hosting environment. This will result in some tweaks to the current website as well as some service interruptions has we move our library of content to the new hosting service over the coming weeks and months.
Our current apps will be decommissioned, however the new website is mobile responsive and is designed to replicate app functionality, so audiences will continue to be able to stream content live or on demand to their mobile devices. C31 has a number of exciting possibilities emerging as to how we may be able to distribute our content across a range of platforms including other ‘third party’ platforms.
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Deleted…
C31 officially has til mid-2018, maybe more though from what I hear.
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Just had to do a dive through Google and found that it’s online until at least June 2018 with more talks!
Since when has the date been changed from December 2017 to June 2018? The only note of this date I can find online is on the C31 website.
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I think it got pushed forward when the media reforms went through a few months back. IIRC Nick Xenophon pushed it through
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Western Sydney University shouldn’t have dropped TVS in anticipation of the original switch off date and stayed on air instead, if they had they would still be on air.
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