Community TV channels get final broadcast lifeline

Tim Burrowes

December 13, 2016 12:44

Australia’s community TV stations have been given a final lifeline by the government, just nine days before they would have had to switch off their transmissions.

The CTV stations will now have to give up their broadcast licences and switch to online only by the end of June next year. community-tv-australia

The extension was announced this morning by communications minister Mitch Fifield.

The terrestrial spectrum used by community TV stations is of high value to the government, which can instead auction it off to other users, including telco providers.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.

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2 COMMENTS

David Hague 13 Dec 16

Typical. Don’t worry about the people they serve. The $$ they can cough up by flogging the bandwidth is FAR more important. I mean, someone has to pay for pollies’ retirement perks …

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Spinner 14 Dec 16

I can hear crickets… No one actually cares because no one actually watches

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