Television broadcasting in Australia began officially on 16 September 1956, with the opening of TCN-9, quickly followed by national and commercial stations in Sydney and Melbourne, all these being in 625-line black and white. The commencement date was designed so as to provide coverage of the Olympic Games in Melbourne. It has now grown to be a nationwide system that includes a broad range of public, commercial, community, subscription, narrowcast, and amateur stations.
The Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) is an organisation founded in 1980 to expose Aboriginal music and culture to the rest of Australia. It started with 8KIN-FM, the first Aboriginal radio station in the country. Based in Alice Springs, the organisation is particularly focused on the involvement of the local Indigenous community in its production. CAAMA is involved in radio, television and recorded music.
TND is a television station in Darwin, Northern Territory. The station, launched in 1998 as Seven Darwin and broadcasting across Darwin, Palmerston and surrounding areas, is owned by Southern Cross Austereo. Its main competitor is the Nine Network's owned-and-operated station, NTD.
Television in Australia began experimentally as early as 1929 in Melbourne with radio stations 3DB and 3UZ, and 2UE in Sydney, using the Radiovision system by Gilbert Miles and Donald McDonald, and later from other locations, such as Brisbane in 1934.
In Australia, regional television is the local television services outside of the five main Australian cities.
Imparja Television (IMP) is an independent Australian television station servicing over 3,600,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi), across six states and territories: Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. It is based in Alice Springs, and is controlled by Aboriginal people through ownership by Imparja Television Pty Ltd.
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, community television is another model of facilitating media production and involvement by private citizens and can be likened to public-access television in the United States and community television in Canada.
Access 31 was a free-to-air community television station based in Perth, Western Australia which operated between 1999 and 2008 before closing due to insolvency. The station had broadcast on UHF 31 from NEW's television mast at Carmel in the Perth Hills. It was also available at certain times on the Westlink Network, which at the time was broadcast via the Optus Aurora satellite service and some analogue terrestrial repeaters which included the city of Albany.
Digital Forty Four was a Sydney-only trial datacasting service that was licensed by the Australian Broadcasting Authority beginning on 17 March 2004 for an initial two-year run until 31 December 2006. The license was extended on several occasions past 2006, however on 29 January 2010 it was announced that Broadcast Australia's datacasting licence for Digital Forty Four would not be extended past 30 April 2010. At midnight on 30 April 2010, all services from Digital Forty Four ceased broadcasting.
QQQ is an Australian television station broadcasting in remote central and eastern areas of Australia, owned by Southern Cross Austereo. The station is available via satellite and terrestrial platforms – mostly through community retransmission sites, although it also transmits into the town of Mount Isa, Queensland under the call sign ITQ. The station is solely affiliated with the Seven Network.
Imparja Television Pty Ltd is a commercial television company servicing remote eastern and central Australia that began broadcasting on 2 January 1988. It is based in Alice Springs, where it has a studio and satellite uplink facility. It is controlled by Indigenous Australians and is widely regarded as a symbol of Aboriginal Australia.
National Indigenous Television (NITV) is an Australian free-to-air television channel that broadcasts programming produced and presented largely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It includes the six-day-a-week NITV News Update, with programming including other news and current affairs programmes, sports coverage, entertainment for children and adults, films and documentaries covering a range of topics. Its primary audience is Indigenous Australians, but many non-Indigenous people tune in to learn more about the history of and issues affecting the country's First Nations peoples.
Optus Aurora was a free-to-view satellite television platform in Australia, which aimed at providing television and radio services to remote and black spot areas using the Optus C1 and B3 satellites. The service was available in all areas, using a standard satellite dish and set top box, however commercial stations carried on the platform were restricted to their respective coverage areas.
Westlink, formerly known as Westlink Network, was an Australian free-to-view digital television channel broadcast to regional and remote areas of Western Australia on the Viewer Access Satellite Television service. Funded by the Government of Western Australia, the channel was managed and operated by the Department of Regional Development and broadcast a range of community-based content, particularly training and educational programs, using an open-narrowcast licence. The channel was received in over 150 remote locations such as telecentres, schools and colleges.
This timeline of Australian television lists important station launches, programs, major television events, and technological advancements that have significantly changed the forms of broadcasting available to viewers of television in Australia. The history of television in Australia can be traced back to an announcement from the Menzies' government concerning plans for television services in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Australian Indigenous Communications Association (AICA) is the peak body for Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander broadcasters. It is the successor to the National Indigenous Media Association of Australia (NIMAA).
CDT is an Australian digital television station broadcasting in remote central and eastern Australia. It is jointly owned by Southern Cross Austereo and Imparja Television Pty Ltd and operates under the company name Central Digital Television.
The Viewer Access Satellite Television service, or VAST, is a satellite television platform in Australia, providing digital television and radio services to remote and rural areas, as well as viewers in terrestrial black spots. The service uses the Optus C1 and Optus D3 satellites. It is partly funded by the Australian Government and managed through a joint-venture between Southern Cross Media and Imparja Television. It is an even more restricted free-to-view replacement for Optus Aurora providing channels which have been absent on the remote service until now. The platform uses only H.264 video encoding and 8PSK, which allows for more lower bit rate channels on the limited transponder space that's available. The EPG uses an MHEG-5 guide instead of the usual more compatible DVB EIT.
Pilbara and Kimberley Aboriginal Media (PAKAM) is an Indigenous media association based in Broome, Western Australia. PAKAM broadcasts into the northern Pilbara and the Kimberley regions. As an Indigenous media producer, PAKAM relies on and covers content within the Kimberley region and the communities within. Their service also enables the sharing of news, information, media, music, culture and broadcast events throughout their area coverage. They cover over a million square kilometres of Northwestern Australia and re-transmit their programs full-time to an audience of approximately 5,000 listeners.
