List of Australian television channels Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Australian television channels include two government owned national networks, three major commercial capital city networks, several regional commercial networks and independent stations that are generally affiliates of the major networks, and a handful of community stations.
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2 Commercial stations 3 Datacast stations 4 Community stations 5 Amateur stations 6 List of Australian television callsigns 7 See also 8 External links |
Australia has two (and a half) government owned national TV networks:
ABC TV (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) carries a variety of locally produced news, current affairs, and sports coverage, as well as arts and comedy. It also carries a lot of content from the United Kingdom. It has an output deal with the BBC, and has strong ties to Channel 4 (UK).
To match the commercial networks, ABC TV is often known as Channel 2 in the major capitals where it's broadcast on that frequency. However this name is never used on-air.
SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) was founded to cater for the roughly 1/3 of Australians that don't speak English in the home. Its role was to complement the ABC.
SBS TV has in recent years moved away from this audience, preferring instead to target a broader-based section of the Australian community.
SBS shows a lot of non-English movies and non-Australian government news programs. It also has a lot of English language PBS, CBC and BBC documentaries, and Comedy Central comedy. It makes a few news and current affairs programs, and commissions documentaries, movies and comedy programs. In the sporting field, it often screens soccer, cycling and athletics. It also screens more opera and classical music programs than the other free-to-air networks.
SBS TV was originally similar to Canada's Omni, but is now more like the UK's Channel 4, but without the popular American shows.
The "half" is Imparja. Imparja is owned by governments of various kinds, including the federal one. Its main channel (known as Imparja) is a commercial station affiliated with Nine and Ten, but it also produces some of its own programs. This makes it a bit like S4C. Imparja also has a second channel which is used for community broadcasting. Many indigenous commmunity broadcasters broadcast Imparja developed material, and content also flows back the other way.
NIRS (the peak Indigenous radio group), is lobbying the government to start a new, nationwide Indigenous TV network. No major political party has championed this cause however. Some have argued that all that would be required is the existing system plus some digital terrestrial carriage on the SBS mux, Pay TV carriage, and more funding for local Indigenous media groups.
There are several commercial broadcasting companies:
Government networks
ABC TV
SBS TV
Imparja
Commercial stations
Ownership and network affiliation do not necessarily align; see the table below for the relationships between stations. Markets served are shown by row; programming affilation is shown by column; on-air name is shown in the body of the table, along with station ownership in brackets.
1 One company has a monopoly in this area, as the ABA believed the viewers should have a choice of two commercial stations, even though there is only enough advertising revenue for one. 2 Non-aggregated area. Aggregation is the joining of multiple television markets into one, allowing all broadcasters to transmit to the new aggregated market. 3 Transmission via satellite for remote areas 4 Tasmanian Digital Televison (TDT), a digital only station, only recently began broadcasting. Southern Cross, as the former sole broadcaster of Seven and Ten programming in the state, has retained significant Ten programming for the benefit of analogue only viewers. It is expected to align fully with Seven once digital television receivers are common enough that significant advertising revenues can be made via the platform. 5 Mildura Digital Television (MDT) a joint venture company between WIN and Prime, is due to start broadcasting in 2005. While its format has yet to be officially anounced, it is widely expected to carry significant Network Ten programming. Very little Ten programming is currently available in Mildura (via WIN), and most of that is sport. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There are three main commercial networks in Australia:
In other areas, there are stations who contain just as much network programming as these stations, but use different names. In a few areas there are less than three commercial broadcasters, and these three streams find themselves on two stations.
Most of the commercial stations in the major captials are owned by the same company that owns the network, and most rural and regional stations are owned by different companies. However, this rule is not absolute (as can be seen in the above table).
Regional and remote on-air names include:
As with the major metro stations, local content is usually only in the form of a nightly news program and advertising. Some stations import all their "local" news though, and some have a lot more local programming, like NBN.
The most notable Datacast station is Macquarie Digital.
Some cities also have a community station. Although the stations are not strongly related, they are usually known as Channel 31 because most of them transmit on that frequency.
Current stations include:
TVSydney
Channel 31 Melbourne & Geelong
Briz31 (Brisbane)
Access 31 (Perth)
Channel 31 Adelaide
LINC TV (Lismore)
And dozens of ex-BRACS stations throughout remote Australia.
Aspirant Community TV groups exist in Canberra, Hobart, Bendigo, Mildura and probably a lot of other places. The main one however, is Bushvision.
Stations without a Community licence, but with a similar format include:
Imparja Info Channel
Westlink
Schools Television
And the Narrowcast TV stations.
The Australian Amateur Radio bands include frequencies standard TVs can receive. A few hardcore amateurs make use of this by broadcasting video.
Channel 16 is usually used. Sometimes other frequencies are used, especially those used by satellite TV services. Most transmissions can be viewed and heard on a standard TV, but some transmissions require additional or other equipment.
Television Gladesville in Sydney transmits three nights per week on Channel 16 (VK2TVG). Channel 35 was used until July 2001 when the Australian Communications Authority reallocated Channel 35 to digital television. They operate the strongest ATV station in Sydney, using 1kW.
VK2RFM is another Sydney service, broadcasting from Oakdale. They use a variety of frequencies, including Channel 16.
VK2RTS broadcasts a good signal from Springwood on 16.
VK2RTG on the NSW Central Coast also uses Channel 16.
VK3RTV is Melbourne's main amateur transmitter - on Channel 16. This is located on Mt Dandenong, and broadcasts something most nights after 8pm.
When each broadcaster is granted a license, they select a callsign. For commercial networks, these are generally three letters, followed by a number. The first two letters are selected by the licensee; the third letter indicates the state or territory; and the number indicates the frequency (channel) that the station broadcasts on at its primary site. For example, HSV-7 broadcasts on channel 7 in Victoria. Sometimes the third letter is used as part of the acronym or mnemonic to name the station - for example GTV represents 'General TeleVision' or 'General TV', although the V stands for victoria.
With the onset of aggregation in regional areas, and now digital television, the callsigns do not retain the meaning that they did in the past. Stations will sometimes change frequency, or have different frequencies at different locations, such as re-transmission sites, where the same signal is re-broadcast in a different area. However the three letter codes have generally not changed and are still used within the industry.
A list of callsigns is show below, with original explanations of the callsigns, and alternate uses shown in brackets.
This is an Article on List of Australian television channels. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About List of Australian television channels Commercial networks
Regional and remote commercial networks
Most stations using these names are clear extensions of the three major networks, and their on-air graphics usually make this very clear. Stations in the two channel markets generally look very much like one of the major commercial networks, with a few programs from one or two others thrown in.Datacast stations
This is an interesting class of broadcasting that is little used.Community stations
Amateur stations
NSW
Victoria
List of Australian television callsigns
See also
External links