Television Sydney (TVS) (call sign TSN-31) was a free-to-air sponsors-based
community television
Community television is a form of mass media in which a television station is owned, operated or programmed by a community group to provide television programs of local interest known as local programming.
Community television stations are most c ...
station broadcasting in
Sydney, Australia
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...
. The station lost both its community franchise and the battle to remain on the air on 8 December 2015 and ceased transmission on 20 December 2015 after almost ten years on the air. The station was not replaced.
History
In 2003 the Australian Government called for tenders for what it called the "permanent" community TV licenses. For many years community channels in the major capital cities had operated on narrowcast licenses issued for limited 12-month periods. Everywhere but Sydney the incumbent channels secured the permanent licence. In Sydney, a consortium headed-up by the
University of Western Sydney
Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, Australia. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 as a federated network u ...
(UWS) was successful. TVS received its Iicense in early 2004.
Transmissions officially commenced on analogue UHF channel 31 in February 2006 after three months of technical trials. Unlike the earlier temporary community channel (known simply as
Channel 31) TVS, with the financial support of UWS TVS was able to acquire a high powered transmitter that meant for the first time community TV could be seen right across Sydney.
In November 2009 the Government agreed to temporarily allocate TVS (and the other capital city Community Television channels) an additional (digital) channel so they could
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...
in the period up until the end of 2013 when analogue television will be turned off. TVS announced in December 2009 that it had appointed
Broadcast Australia
BAI Communications, formerly Broadcast Australia, is an Australian telecommunications systems company.
History
Macquarie Bank completed its acquisition of National Transmission Agency in 2002 the seed asset in the publicly listed Macquarie Com ...
as its digital service provider and officially began simulcasting on Monday 1 March 2010 on
LCN 44.
Since February 2009 TVS simultaneously streamed its service via the internet. At the time Chief Executive, Laurie Patton, said the decision to transmit live via the web was part of the station's long-term strategy to be available across all distribution platforms.
In 2009 the
Australian Communications and Media Authority
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is an Australian government statutory authority within the Communications portfolio. ACMA was formed on 1 July 2005 with the merger of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and the Austr ...
approved the station's request for the renewal of its broadcasting licence for a five-year period ending 22 April 2014.
When it commenced on air operations TVS was Sydney's first new permanent free-to-air TV channel in twenty-five years. It was backed by the
University of Western Sydney
Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, Australia. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 as a federated network u ...
(UWS) and
Metro Screen
Metro Screen was a Paddington, Sydney based not-for-profit film, television and digital media training organisation. It was the NSW member of Screen Development Australia (SDA) and was located in the Paddington Town Hall, Cnr Oxford St & Oatley ...
.
TVS switched off its analogue signal on 1 March 2012. The station then only broadcast on LCN 44, with viewers requiring a digital television, or a digital set top box to use with an analogue television.
In September 2014, Australian federal communications minister
Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Turnbull grad ...
announced that licensing for community television stations would end in December 2015. In September 2015, Turnbull, now Prime Minister, announced an extension of the deadline to 31 December 2016, However, TVS' CEO Rachel Bentley stated that TVS could only continue broadcasting if it also launched a
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
service before the amended deadline. TVS announced that it would cease broadcasting on 20 December 2015 in order to refocus programming strategy and develop a strong digital infrastructure, with plans to relaunch online in 2016. However, these plans never materialized and the channel was never replaced.
Broadcast programs
TVS broadcast 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Despite a very limited marketing budget the channel progressively created a loyal audience. TVS recorded continual increases in cumulative audience numbers during the first few years. However, as digital take-up in Sydney increased the channel reported a leveling off of audience growth during 2009. When it launched its digital service in early 2010 audience levels began to increase again with a 15 percent increase in the first month (source
OzTAM
OzTAM is an Australian audience measurement research firm that collects and markets television ratings data. It is jointly owned by the Seven Network, the Nine Network and Network Ten, and is the official source of television ratings data for al ...
).
TVS used the same Broadcast Australia tower as the
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
and
SBS located at
Gore Hill
Gore Hill is an urban locality on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Gore Hill is located within the southern part of the suburb of Artarmon, and the north-west of the suburb of St Leonards.
History
It takes its na ...
. The channel provided coverage across most of Sydney, with reports of clear reception from locations as far south as
Wollongong
Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...
, in the lower
Blue Mountains and on the Central Coast. Its Digital 44 service had coverage that was equivalent to SBS (and the other free-to-airs), except that TVS did not have a number of in-fill repeaters that boost signals in some "black spots".
TVS had a broadcast operations centre on the UWS Penrith campus. The station's digital automation system was based on the Playbox
software.
The focus was on Sydney-specific programming with some programs sourced from interstate community channels (e.g.
Vasili's Garden from Melbourne) and from professional program makers. As at February 2010 more than forty percent of the channel's programs were Sydney produced with a further thirty percent drawn from interstate community based producers.
The station screened
feature films
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
on weekday mornings and in
prime time
Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
on Sunday and Wednesday evenings. On Friday nights it screened horror and science fiction films on the ''Schlocky Horror Picture Show'' hosted by a skeleton named Nigel Honeybone.
From April 2015, The station screened children's programming on weekday mornings and afternoons and screens and sponsors Butterscotch's Playground shorts featuring former yellow
Wiggle Greg Page.
From May 2015, The station screened news programming on weekday mornings and afternoons with a replay and sponsors
Seven News with Mark Ferguson presented by the news presenter himself.
Not-for-profit community based producers received free program airtime. TVS announced the creation of the
Television Sydney Foundation whose aim is to secure philanthropic donations that will be used to support the development of local programming.
The TVS program schedule was based on a "modified wheel" concept where programs were run several times in the same week to allow audiences a choice of viewing times. The station's program line-up was published on its website, in most Australian
electronic program guide
Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...
s (EPG's) and in the
Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...
and
Daily Telegraph
Daily or The Daily may refer to:
Journalism
* Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks
* ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times''
* ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
newspapers.
TVS accepted sponsorship advertising, limited to seven minutes per hour. It also sold program airtime (a maximum of eight hours per day as permitted under its license conditions).
Programmes
* ''
Pete Boone, Private Eye'' (2002–2004)
* ''
Vasili's Garden'' (2002–2006, 2009–)
Staffing and management
The channel had a small team of paid employees and volunteers (many of them media students) and was initially headed up by former
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...
executive Laurie Patton as CEO, Henri de Gorter as Program Manager and Adrian Alback (later Ian Sneddon) as Operations Manager.
The original TVS Chairperson was UWS Vice-Chancellor, Professor
Janice Reid
Janice Clare Reid (born 19 September 1947) is an Australian academic and medical anthropologist, who has specialised in Aboriginal and refugee health. She was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Sydney from 1998 to 2013.
Early life and ...
AM and later UWS Deputy Chancellor Geoffrey Roberson. In August 2010, TVS announced the appointment of a new chairperson
Harold Mitchell and a new CEO Rachel Bentley, a UWS academic.
TVS was a founding member of the
Australian Community Television Alliance {{Unreferenced, date=July 2008
The Australian Community Television Alliance (ACTA) is a not-for-profit industry association representing free-to-air community television (CTV) channels licensed by the Australian Government under the Cth. Broadcastin ...
(ACTA), the official sector representative. Then CEO Laurie Patton was the inaugural Secretary of ACTA and the sector's representative on the Government's Digital Switchover Taskforce Industry Advisory Group. TVS led the sector's campaign to secure digital spectrum and inclusion on the
Freeview Freeview may refer to:
* Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia
* Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand
*Freeview (UK), ...
free-to-air platform.
Identity history
* 2006–2012: ''You're Watching TVS''
* 2012–2015: ''A Different View''
See also
*
Television broadcasting in Australia
Television broadcasting in Australia began officially on 16 September 1956, with the opening of TCN, TCN-9, quickly followed by national and commercial stations in Sydney and Melbourne, all these being in 625-line Black and white television, bla ...
*
Community television in Australia
Community television in Australia is a form of free-to-air non-commercial citizen media in which a television station is owned, operated and/or programmed by a community group to provide local programming to its broadcast area. In principle, com ...
*
Australian Community Television Alliance {{Unreferenced, date=July 2008
The Australian Community Television Alliance (ACTA) is a not-for-profit industry association representing free-to-air community television (CTV) channels licensed by the Australian Government under the Cth. Broadcastin ...
Notes
External links
Official Website(archived site)
University of Western Sydney
{{University of Western Sydney
Australian community television
Television stations in Sydney
Television channels and stations established in 2006
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2015
English-language television stations in Australia
2006 establishments in Australia
2015 disestablishments in Australia
Defunct Australian television channels
Digital Forty Four