Congratulations to Australia’s first ‘permanent’ community television licensees, Access 31 (Perth) and TVS (Television Sydney). Perth will benefit from continuity and growth in CTV with its vibrant Access 31 service and Sydney can look forward to a really exciting future with the emergence of the new community and educational joint venture, Television Sydney.

The announcement of these licences is a significant event for Australian media, However what should have been a great cause for celebration after a decade of uncertainty, Government inaction and sustained lobbying has been severely compromised by an Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) decision which seems to have no regard for the more than 30 community-based program providers in Sydney and the communities they serve.

In announcing its licencing decision, ACMA has also specified that Community Television Sydney, who has been the trial licensee in Sydney for the past decade, must cease programming immediately.

The CBAA welcomes ACMA’s insistence that the new Sydney licensee TVS make good its promise to welcome program providers (including the many ethnic groups that provide programming) from Community Television Sydney Ltd (CTS). However we are critical of ACMA’s decision to terminate the current Sydney service without notice. This will disenfranchise the communities who are otherwise unrepresented in television and lead to a complete gap in access.

ACMA has told the CBAA that it can only act within the given regulatory framework and its job was to award the licence to the best applicant. We do not dispute the licensing decision, which was arrived at after a whole year of investigation involving exhaustive appraisal of the credentials of the six applicants in Sydney.

The CBAA's General Manager, Barry Melville said "There have been lots of ups and downs during the ten years of the community television trial. We were hoping that the transition to permanent licensing would build on the strengths of CTV such as community participation and cultural diversity. We are happy that TVS is a suitable applicant who will uphold these principles, but ACMA's actions towards CTS could only result in bitter disappointment in Sydney for anyone who is a producer, or viewer of programs on community television."

In December 2003 the official television audience surveys showed that 992,000 were watching Channel 31 in Sydney. Now thanks to ACMA there will be no service at all until early 2005 because there is no transition plan to bridge the gap between the end of the community television trial and the start of the fully licensed service to be provided by the successful applicant Television Sydney.

Notwithstanding the result of Federal Court intervention and the need for the ACMA to reconsider its decision, the CBAA calls for a fair and consistent transition plan from ACMA for community television licensing.

With community television licence decisions pending in the next few weeks for Melbourne and Brisbane, ACMA needs to ensure that the effects of its decisions are in the public interest.

The CBAA will continue discussions with ACMA to encourage them to achieve better outcomes.