Community television is a form of

mass media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit informati ...

in which a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...

is owned, operated or programmed by a community group to provide

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

s of local interest known as

local programming The terms local programme, local programming, local content or local television refers to a television program made by a television station or independent television producer for broadcast only within the station's transmission area or televisio ...

. Community

television stations A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ear ...

are most commonly operated by

non-profit group A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

s or

cooperatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

. However, in some cases they may be operated by a local

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

, a

cable company This is a list of cable television providers by country. Andorra * Mútua Elèctrica(Cable Mútua), Sant Julià de Lória) Argentina * Cablevisión *DirecTV * * *Gigared *Telered Australia *Foxtel *Fetch TV Austria *BKF *LIWEST *Salzburg AG ...

or a municipal government.

Community television by country

Australia

Austria

Bangladesh

Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication is promoting the advocacy with the government in relations to community Television with other organizations since its emergence from 2011. BNNRC has been addressing the Community Television access issue for over a decade, helping to bridge the information gap in Bangladesh

Brazil

In Brazil, in the 1980s, it appeared as a Free TV, also called Street TV, characterized by the production of educational-cultural videos for exhibition in a closed circuit or in public square, as a proposal of the struggles for redemocratization of the country. Today, a community television are operated across by Conditional Access Service (pay-TV), a public concession for free use by nongovernmental entities, in the cable TV system or in the Citizenship Channel (in terrestrial digital TV). There are about 90 TVs. Each television is formed by an association of entities. It is a channel provided for in Brazilian laws: No. 8977/1995 and No. 12485/2011.CAMPOS & MELO (2017). Anões na terra dos gigantes: A comunicação comunitária televisiva no Brasil. Lisboa: Frenavatec. 165 páginas

Canada

Most community channels in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

are owned and operated by

cable companies This is a list of cable television providers by country. Andorra * Mútua Elèctrica(Cable Mútua), Sant Julià de Lória) Argentina * Cablevisión *DirecTV * * *Gigared *Telered Australia * Foxtel *Fetch TV Austria *BKF *LIWEST *Salzburg A ...

, as a requirement of license imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). However, due to the state of

concentration of media ownership Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. Contemporary research demonstrates in ...

in Canada, whereby the vast majority of Canada's conventional television stations are now owned by national media conglomerates and offer very little locally oriented programming, terrestrial community channels began to emerge in the 2000s in many smaller markets not directly served by their own commercial television stations. Community channels of this latter type are generally operated by local non-profit groups.

Indonesia

Since late 2002, community television in Indonesia is regulated as Community Broadcasting Institution (Indonesian: ''Lembaga Penyiaran Komunitas'' or LPK).

Ireland

Community television is in its infancy in Ireland. Licensing is administered by the

Broadcasting Authority of Ireland The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) ( ga, Údarás Craolacháin na hÉireann) was established on 1 October 2009 effectively replacing the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) ( ga, Coimisiún Craolacháin na hÉireann). The BAI is ...

. Saorview launched on 31 October 2010 giving an addition platform for Community television, however so far Community TV is only available on UPC's Irish cable and Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service ( MMDS) network. The main broadcasters are P5TV (UPC 801),

Cork Community TV Cork Community Television (CCTv) is a community access television station on Virgin Media Ireland channel 803, broadcasting programmes made by, about and for Cork communities. History It launched on 28 May 2009, with the intention to "broadcast ...

(UPC 802) and DCTV (UPC 803). These groups produce content and then they can have it transmitted by an organisation that has a license to broadcast (

terrestrial television Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an ante ...

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

). As well as the above, there are also web based channels which are likely to become more dominant in the not too distant future as broadband coverage and quality improves (and as the technologies converge). Examples of these are Teilifis Gaeltacht Muscrai (TGM) based in the rural Irish speaking WestCork Gaeltacht, and Fingal Community TV based in Dublin.

United Kingdom

Probably the longest standing community television service in the UK is

Swindon Viewpoint Swindon Viewpoint was a local community cable TV channel based in, and serving Swindon. It has been through several incarnations, including its early experimental phase, its main phase in the 1970s and 1980s, its 1990s phase where it operated und ...

, which is over 40 years old. It claims to operate according to the "core community TV principles of access and accountability", and its board is elected by its public. For a list of other channels, see .

United States

Public, educational and government access television is a form of

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...

where ordinary people can create content which can be viewed through

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

systems. Standard public-access television is often grouped with Educational-access television and

Government-access television Government-access television (GATV) is a type of specialty television channel created by government entities (generally local governments) and broadcast over cable TV systems or, in some cases, over-the-air broadcast television stations. GATV pr ...

(GATV) channels, by the acronym PEG. PEG Channels are typically only available on cable television systems.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Community Television Citizen media