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Title

Remote beginnings, metropolitan development: community and indigenous television in Australia

Author(s)

Rennie, Ellie

Abstract

Australian television officially commenced in 1956, two decades after the United States and Britain. The United States had chosen to structure its television industry in favor of commercial media enterprise, whereas Britain kept television in public hands, implementing a state-funded British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and retaining public ownership of transmission sites. Having observed the benefits of both models, the Australian government opted for a 'dual' model, permitting commercial television but also establishing an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which would operate under a similar framework as its British counterpart. Television was an immediate success in Australia. In order to maintain cultural policy objectives, the government adopted a method of quid pro quo, whereby broadcasters were required to conform to policy objectives (such as local content quotas and children's programs) in return for a stable market in which no more than three commercial broadcasters were allowed to operate in any one area. By the early 1970s, television had evolved into a mature and relatively stable industry, but community television became a permanent fixture in the analogue landscape only in 2004. What was originally heralded as a seismic shift in the media landscape—'the most fundamental change in broadcasting since the introduction of television itself' (Productivity Commission, 2000)—did not budge the incumbent commercial and national broadcasters. Amidst all the planning and jostling for digital television channels, one important point was: digital television could open up a range of possibilities for the third sector media, offering new content forms and better governance models organized around flexible spectrum use. As national and commercial broadcasters rallied to maintain their existing interests and services, the community sector was already rethinking the boundaries of what its 'television' might be. This chapter revisits the history of community and indigenous television before it examines the issue of digital television.

Publication Type

Book chapter

Research Centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Institute for Social Research

Source

Community media: international perspectives / Linda K. Fuller (ed.), Part I, chapter 1, pp. 21-29

Publication Year

2007

Keyword(s)

Australia;  Communication;  Community media;  Digital television;  Indigenous television;  Television;  TV

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan

Language

English

Publisher URL

http://www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/product.aspx?isbn=1403977941

Copyright

Copyright © 2007 Linda K. Fuller.

ISBN

9781403977946

Peer Reviewed