SBS 'well-placed' for NITV merger: Conroy

1 Sep 2011, 5:02 pm   -   Source: SBS
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NITV will maintain funding for its current form until June 30 next year. (NITV)

NITV will maintain funding for its current form until June 30 next year. (NITV)

SBS is 'well-placed' to launch a new free-to-air channel featuring Indigenous content, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said today.

SBS is “well-placed’’ to launch a new free-to-air channel featuring Indigenous content, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said today.
 
Senator Conroy has asked the National Indigenous Television Service (NITV), which is currently broadcast on Pay TV, to begin talks with SBS about a partnership.
 
The proposal was intended to boost the amount of Indigenous content on free-to-air television without creating a third national broadcaster, Senator Conroy said.
 
“NITV has played a significant role in establishing an Indigenous television service since it first went to air in July 2007,” he said.
 
“SBS is well-placed to facilitate the evolution of this service and bring Indigenous television on to a free-to-air platform.”
 
NITV Chairman Ken Reys said the Federal Government had requested the “preliminary” talks as part of a review of the Indigenous broadcaster’s funding.
 
The network will maintain funding for its current form until June 30 next year.
 
“We see this as a potential opportunity to achieve a long-awaited ambition of securing national free-to-air transmission for Indigenous television,” Mr Reys said.
 
“There are many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and millions of other Australians, who currently don’t have access to NITV.”
 
Mr Reys said a number of important issues, such as editorial control, funding and the continuation of NITV’s daily news service, would be discussed with SBS.

NITV

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Your Comments

Pointless channel

Johan - from Perth, 2 years ago

What a waste of a FTA channel. It's currently available on Foxtel and it has a very limited target audience - is there really a need to dedicate an entire channel to indigenous programmes? SBS's third FTA channel should be used for sport and a mixture of documentaries as well as a select number of programs from NITV.

Learn from NITV

Mark - from Curl Curl, NSW, 2 years ago

Really enjoyed NITV when it used to be on digital free to air. Honestly, it's so refreshing to see something meaningful on TV. Kept coming back to it. How many other Marngrooks are there out there? Commercial content is shameless rubbish and this is a great addition to SBS and ABC's quality (in that order). Australia needs it - Get on with it !

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