Channel 31’s days appear numbered as Adelaide community TV station offered lifeline
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23.06.2020

Channel 31’s days appear numbered as Adelaide community TV station offered lifeline

Words by Tom Parker

Adelaide’s Channel 44 has been offered a 12-month extension of their free-to-air licence.

If nothing changes, Channel 31 will be switched off at the end of June in a disastrous result for the longstanding community TV station. The station has been a critical platform for emerging content creators to ply their craft and gain exposure since 1994 – if their contract is not renewed it will leave a gaping hole in Melbourne’s creative landscape.

Just days out from the June 30 switch off, Channel 31 has learned that its sister station, Channel 44, has been offered a selective 12-month extension of their free-to-air licence. The Melbourne entity have made similar attempts to seek a similar offer from the Minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher, to no avail and the station has come to the assumption that an extension won’t be forthcoming.

Channel 31 is puzzled by the decision, one that lacks justification, reasoning and shrouds the Melbourne community TV station with uncertainty – ‘Why them, but not us?’

The station’s general manager, Shane Dunlop, admits he is confused by the move to offer Channel 44 an extension without considering Channel 31.

“This decision to provide an offer of 12 months to just one community TV station begs the question as to whether any of the reasons put forward by Minister Paul Fletcher as to why more time could not be granted to the sector as a whole have any merit,” Dunlop said in a press statement. “The valuable spectrum in Melbourne will go unused for many years to come and at a great cost to the vibrant and diverse Victorian community whom Channel 31 has had a 25-year history of servicing.

“With seven days remaining until our broadcast comes to a close, we ask one more time for Minister Fletcher to consider our case and to provide Channel 31 Melbourne with the same 12-month extension he is considering providing to Channel 44 Adelaide.”

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