National Indigenous Television - History

History

Indigenous groups and individuals lobbied the Australian Government to fund a nationwide Indigenous television service in the 1980s and 90s, however no major political party championed this cause.

In the late 1990s the Imparja Info Channel (also known as "Channel 31") was launched free-to-view on the satellite Optus Aurora service, providing largely Aboriginal programming direct to homes and via network of BRACS transmitters to remote Aboriginal communities. The Aboriginal programming on this channel later became known as Indigenous Community Television.

In 2004, Imparja stated a desire to run a better funded service, at least within its license area. In the same year, a voluntary NITV Committee was formed and a summit was held in Redfern, Sydney. The summit involved a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media professionals and community members committed to the establishment of a national Indigenous broadcasting service.

In 2005 the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts considered funding an indigenous public broadcaster, and subsequently conducted a review process. Following the conclusion of the report, the Government of Australia announced $48.5 million in funding for NITV.

In 2007, NITV established a head office in Alice Springs and a television arm in Sydney. On 13 July 2007 NITV launched, replacing Imparja Info Channel on Optus Aurora and in the remote Aboriginal communities it previously reached. It soon after also became available free-to-air on Optus D1 to Australia and eastern Papua New Guinea .

NITV announced in September 2007 that it would also launch on Australian subscription television services, and has commenced on 1 November 2007 on Foxtel and Austar's satellite service on channel 180, with it becoming available on its cable service soon after. It shows Australian programs and sports like The Last Tasmanian, The Ngurratjuta Lighting Cup, The Marngrook Footy Show, Letterbox, Burned Bridge, and the annual NSW Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout.

On 30 April 2010, NITV ceased broadcasting on Sydney's digital television Datacasting service along with Teachers TV, Australian Christian Channel, the home shopping channel EXPO and other services.

On 8 May 2012, SBS received $158m in government funding, of which $15m a year would be dedicated to a new free to air Indigenous Australian channel which would replace NITV in July 2012, with 90% of staff transferring to this new channel. While SBS did not initially comment on whether the new channel would maintain the NITV branding, SBS elected to re-launch NITV on Freeview channel 34 on 12 December 2012. Among its launch day programming was two live broadcasts from Uluru, including From the Heart of Our Nation, a two-hour event to mark the channel's launch at Noon, and a concert in primetime simulcast by SBS One.