Channel 31 | C31 Channel 31 | C31

C31 Melbourne and Geelong is Victoria's not-for-profit community television service providing locally-based entertainment, education and information.

Transmitted from Mount Dandenong, C31 provides access and representation to the many diverse communities within Victoria.

Watch C31 to get your fix of the best in locally produced TV. Sport, music, culture, documentaries. Make the switch to the unexpected.

Helping Community Content Find A Home

C31 Melbourne and Geelong is Victoria's non-profit, open-access community television station - but we're also much more than that.

We support content creators from all walks of life to connect with audiences in a multi-platform world.

With over 1 million YouTube network views and an in-house production team creating community-minded content, there has never been a better time to be involved with C31.

C31 provides access and representation to the many diverse communities within Victoria. You can find faces, voices and issues which are not present in mainstream television.

We broadcast over 90 new locally-produced programs every week. These programs are produced by community television volunteers and independent television makers.

THE FUTURE OF C31 MELBOURNE

In September 2014 the Minister for Communications announced that Transmitter Licences for CTV stations would not be renewed beyond December 31 2015 in order to allow for spectrum to be utilised for tests and trials of new compression technologies.

Following a public outcry and ongoing discussions with the current Government the C31 and our sister stations in Adelaide and Perth have been able to secure a number of extensions to our Transmitter Licences.

C31 Melbourne has continued to work with our partners in Government, the Department of Communications and the ACMA to determine a path forward and in June 2018 the Community TV sector secured an extension of its Licence through to 2020 - a fantastic outcome that will enable diverse communities a voice on Free To Air TV for many years to come.

C31 Melbourne aims to continue to develop our capacity to support and enable communities to create content and connect with audiences in a multi-platform world.

How Do I Connect To C31?

If you are within our licence area, we should already be on your channel list!

If not, you may need to do an automatic channel scan on your TV or set top box so that it can find C31 and store it in your device's memory. After you have done this once, you will be able to get straight to C31 by going to digital channel 44.

As every setup is different, there's not one generic set of instructions that will work for all televisions. If you're having trouble re-scanning your channels, please refer to your devices manual or contact their support centre.

While C31 isn't available as a channel on Foxtel, if you're able to bypass your Foxtel connection and receive regular digital channels through your television, you shouldn't have any problems receiving a signal from C31.

How Do I Know If I'm Within The Licence Area?

You can have a look at our coverage map, if you're within the purple zone you're within our licence area!

Reception

Experiencing picture loss, poor reception, pixelation and not able to receive our channel?.. How to fix

June 2020 Update

Channel 31 has been saved from being switched off permanently after the Victorian government stepped in with funding.

The state government has granted Melbourne and Geelong's community television channel $120,000 to assist it in transitioning to a digital model. The grant, along with lobbying from community groups and Melbourne city council, led to the federal government extending C31's broadcast licence for another 12 months. The station was originally due to be switched off at 11.59pm on Tuesday, June 30 2020.

C31 now has a licence to broadcast until 2021, after which time it is expected to move fully online. The channel broadcasts around 100 shows per week and is an important resource for culturally and linguistically diverse Victorians, with 30 different languages represented across its programming. Its importance has become more apparent during the shutdowns as well, with C31 recording its audience growing by a quarter as viewers remotely tuned into exercise classes and religious services.

Shane Dunlop, general manager for C31, said: "We're looking forward to using the next 12 months to continue to pivot our operations to focus on online broadcasting, and we look forward to working with producers and viewers to ensure that they can still create, distribute and access Community Television content, for many years to come."

June 2021 Update

LETTING the licence of Melbourne community Channel 31 expire at the end of the month would be "boneheaded" move, the city's deputy mayor has warned.

Cr Nick Reece said the much-loved station should be given a three-year extension.

But the federal government said a 12-month extension granted last June was for the station to adopt a digital model. A spokesman for Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the station needed to complete that transition.

Channel 31 general manager Shane Dunlop said there was enough free space in the digital spectrum for the channel to stay on air until 2024.

Cr Reece moved a motion at Tuesday's council meeting calling for the federal government to save the station.

"People working in the creative industries have been amongst the hardest hit by Covid-19 . You could not pick a worse time to be pulling the plug on Channel 31," he said.

"It would be boneheaded ... to switch off community TV now."

The Melbourne station and Adelaide counterpart Channel 44 employ 30 paid staff and have more than 1000 contributors on their books. The channels produce 120 programs a week for a combined monthly audience of 700,000 viewers.

Channel 31 Channel 44

This article by IAN ROYALL is from the June 16, 2021 issue of The Herald Sun Digital Edition. To subscribe, visit https://www.heraldsun.com.au/.

Melbourne TV station Channel 31 has been saved from closure and granted a three-year licence extension

The station was due to fade to black on June 30, but a change to federal broadcast laws ensured the channel would stay on air until 2024.

C31 Melbourne general manager Shane Dunlop welcomed the extension.

The change also secured the licence for sister station C44 in Adelaide. The decision was welcomed by the 1100 Melbourne staff, volunteers and program makers.

C31 Melbourne chair Mike Zafiropoulos said he was overwhelmed by public support for the station. "We are heartened by the collective resolve to fight for community television,'' he said.

This article is from the June 24, 2021 issue of The Herald Sun Digital Edition. To subscribe, visit https://www.heraldsun.com.au/. 
➼ www.c31.org.au

➼ www.c31.org.au



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