STUDIO was a subscription television arts channel available in Australia on the

Foxtel NXE Australia Pty Ltd, trading as the Foxtel Group, is an Australian pay television company that operates cable television, direct-broadcast satellite, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April ...

and

Austar Austar was an Australian telecommunications company founded in 1995 as Community Entertainment Television (CETV). Its main business activity was subscription television. It was also involved with internet access and mobile phones. Austar's tel ...

platforms.

History

The channel launched in April 2010 as STVDIO, and was owned and operated by SBS Subscription TV, a subsidiary of free-to-air broadcaster

Special Broadcasting Service The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from tax revenue. SBS operates six TV channels (SBS (Australian TV chann ...

. The channel replaced Ovation on

and

. Studio was launched as a competitor to Ovation, since Foxtel believed Ovation was not rating strongly enough. STUDIO was Australia's only channel dedicated to arts and entertainment. It broadcast classical and popular music, literature, film, visual arts and dance with documentaries and performances. As part of a brand redesign in March 2012, the channel was renamed STUDIO, considered a more accessible name. The channel was forced to close on 27 March 2015 as it was unable to re-negotiate their contract with

, and was instead replaced with Foxtel-owned channel

Foxtel Arts Foxtel Arts was a subscription television arts channel available in Australia on the Foxtel platform. History Foxtel Arts replaced the SBS owned arts channel Studio, and became the third iteration of a dedicated arts channel on Foxtel in si ...

. As a result, a number of the channel's arts programs moved to SBS and its

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

service.

Local Australian productions

The channel also recorded live local music, theatre and dance productions, known as the STUDIO Season Ticket. * Smoke & Mirrors with iOTA – Filmed at The Famous Spiegeltent during Sydney Festival 2011. * Amadou & Mariam at WOMADelaide 2011 – The blind Mali duo performed at Adelaide's world music festival in March. * Iconic Songs with Archie Roach – Indigenous performer and activist Archie Roach was joined by long-time friends Shane Howard and Neil Murray at WOMADelaide 2011 to perform three iconic Australian songs. * The 2011 Helpmann Awards – Australia's performing arts awards, broadcast live from the Sydney Opera House. * The Australian Ballet presents Graeme Murphy's Romeo & Juliet – Live broadcast from Melbourne's the Arts Centre. * notes from the hard road and beyond from Melbourne Festival 2011 – STUDIO announced it would record the closing night of the Melbourne International Arts Festival with performances by Joss Stone, Mavis Staples, and Rickie-Lee Jones.

Arts community

In addition to live performances, STUDIO also broadcast news about the Australian arts community. The channel broadcast short programs called [ STUDIO ‘Artbreaks’ which included interviews with local and international artists, performers, and coverage of current arts events. Past artists include: * Dance choreographer Graeme Murphy * Director Wim Wenders * Author Thomas Keneally * Author Shaun Tan * Conductor and classical musician Vladimir Ashkenazy * Author Tim Winton * Singer Dee Dee Bridgewater * Theatre icon John Bell * Director Adam Elliot * Go-Betweens founder

Robert Forster Robert Wallace Foster Jr. (July 13, 1941 – October 11, 2019), known professionally as Robert Forster, was an American actor. He made his screen debut as Private L.G. Williams in John Huston's '' Reflections in a Golden Eye'' (1967), followed ...

* Speigeltent Maestro David Bates * Opera star

Cecilia Bartoli Cecilia Bartoli Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, OMRI (; born 4 June 1966) is an Italian mezzo-soprano widely known in the music of Vincenzo Bellini, Bellini, George Frideric Handel, Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart, Gioachino Ross ...

* You Am I member Tim Rogers Past arts events covered include:
21st Century: Art in the First Decade exhibition
at GoMA, Brisbane
Brisbane Festival 2011

Adelaide Cabaret Festival

Biennale of Sydney 2010

Desert Harmony Festival 2010

Edge of Elsewhere exhibition
Sydney Festival 2010 * New Indigenous Wings
National Gallery of Australia
* Ballets Russes: The Art of Costume exhibition
National Gallery of Australia

Venice Biennale 2011

ACO Instruments – from the Instrument Fund

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:STUDIO (TV Channel) Television channels and stations established in 2010 English-language television stations in Australia Special Broadcasting Service Television channels and stations disestablished in 2015 2015 disestablishments in Australia Defunct television channels in Australia