Media in Melbourne

Relative to most other Australian cities, Melbourne media is unusual in its size and diversity.

Melbourne Newspapers

Melbourne has two major and one minor daily newspapers. Melbourne's daily newspapers include the compact format The Age owned by Fairfax Media,^[1] the News Limited owned tabloid format Herald Sun, and the free afternoon tabloid format MX, also owned by News Limited.

A third major paper, the The Argus was discontinued in 1957.

The Herald Sun was created from the merger of The Sun News-Pictorial and The Herald in 1990.

The weekly Melbourne Observer newspaper was established in 1969. It is showbiz oriented. It is on sale and available free online at www.melbourneobserver.com.au

There are a variety of free, weekly newspapers focused on local suburban regions. These are usually distributed to households without subscription.

Melbourne is served by various newspapers published in languages other than English. These include newspapers published in Melbourne and those published elsewhere. There is also a wide variety of street press available in Melbourne.

Melbourne Television

Melbourne is served by six free-to-air television networks. The three commercial television providers, the Seven Network, the Nine Network and the Ten Network have commenced broadcasting new sub-channels including 7HD, 7Two, 7mate, 7flix, 9HD, 9Gem, 9GO!, 9Life, Ten HD, Eleven, One HD. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation provides four channels, ABC1 (also available in High Definition), ABC2, ABC3 and ABC News 24 from the Ripponlea and Southbank studios. SBS television also provides four television channels, SBS One (also available in High Definition), SBS Two, NITV and SBS Food Network. Channel 31 is a public access community television station which screens mostly foreign-language television for migrant communities, and amateur lifestyle programs.

Melbourne has a large and thriving television industry that along with Sydney, produces most of the Australian prime-time television content. Melbourne produced television series include Neighbours, Kath & Kim, Hey Hey It's Saturday, The Footy Show (AFL), Blue Heelers, Dancing with the Stars, Steven Spielberg's The Pacific, Rush, Underbelly, Thank God You're Here, Rove Live, Summer Heights High, The Project, The Marngrook Footy Show, Millionaire Hot Seat, Deal Or No Deal, The Chase Australia, Family Feud, Offspring, The Panel, The Real Housewives of Melbourne, Winners & Losers and House Husbands

The ABC has a large headquarters and production facility in the inner-city suburb of Southbank, SBS studios at Fed Square, C31 at Melbourne city, Nine at Docklands (it was moved from Richmond), Ten at South Yarra (it was moved from Nunawading) & Seven at Docklands (It was moved from South Melbourne).

Melbourne is also served by paid subscription television services Foxtel, Optus TV and UBI World TV.

Melbourne Radio

Melbourne has a wide range of radio stations. For 2010, the Nielsen Company estimates the Melbourne radio market has 3,840,000 listeners.^[2]

Sports radio

Melbourne has several radio stations dedicated to sports broadcasting. One such station is SEN 1116, which took over 3AK's old radio license and replaced it with a 24-hour sports format.

Sport 927 (formerly known as 3UZ) covers all sports but specialises in total coverage of Horse Racing, Harness Racing and Greyhounds.

Triple M, while generally focused on music broadcasting, is noted for its sports coverage (with hourly sports updates from personalities including Brett Phillips). Triple M is a contender in the Australian Football League (AFL) radio broadcasting rights - in October 2005 there were four Victorian radio stations that had the rights to broadcast AFL matches: Triple M, 3AW, ABC and K-Rock.

3AW's sport coverage consists of the show Sports Today with Dwayne Russell and Gerard Healy, as well as its AFL coverage.

774 ABC Melbourne's sports coverage includes the Coodabeen Champions who are a comedy-music group (led by Greg Champion) that usually appear on the morning of most cricket and AFL matches. They also cover a wide variety of sporting events, including taking BBC's Test Match Special, the Australian Open, and international and domestic cricket.

Talk radio

The most notable locally produced talk radio stations are 774 ABC Melbourne(part of the ABC Local Radio network), and 3AW which often achieves the highest ratings. Both stations feature extensive local news coverage and talkback. SEN 1116 is also a talk station focused on sports. Melbourne is also served by SBS Radio which broadcasts in a variety of languages, aimed at migrant communities.

Community radio

Australia's most successful community radio station, 3RRR, is a Melbourne institution. SYN FM, at 90.7 FM, another community station, is staffed and presented entirely by youth up to age 26. Other community stations in Melbourne include 3PBS, which plays mostly specialist music programming, and 3CR, an AM radio station run by a broad coalition of left-wing activists. Melbourne is also home to Australia's first and only gay and lesbian community radio station, JOY 94.9.

In addition to the major players in Melbourne, there are many smaller radio stations catering to particular community interests. 3CR caters to a diverse range of community groups and community languages, 3XY 1422AM provides Greek language programming, 1593AM (Rete Italia) presents 24 hr/day Italian, 3CW 1341AM Chinese, and Pacific Islanders are now catered to on 3XX 1611AM which is better known for its 80s and 90s music during the day, and 3KND presents indigenous community programming. The FM band also features smaller suburban stations, and low powered services in various suburbs featuring programming ranging from dance music to English radio, Arabic programming and more. Light FM on 89.9 FM is Melbourne's community Christian station with the slogan of "Good friends, great music and a message of hope".

Music radio

Melbourne has nine analogue music formatted radio stations. There are eight commercial (six on FM and two on AM) and the ABC's national youth broadcaster, Triple J (107.5 in Melbourne). 101.9 The Fox and Nova 100 compete directly with a Contemporary Hit format targeting the under 40s. 105.1 Triple M runs an adult oriented rock format and features live AFL coverage on the weekends during winter. Mix 101.1 is more female oriented with a hot adult contemporary format that is aimed at 25-54. Smooth 91.5 (previously, Vega and Classic Rock) is Melbourne's newest commercial station and is now running an easy adult contemporary format that largely appeals to those aged 35+. Gold 104 and 1377 3MP are also aimed 40+, with adult contemporary/gold formats with music primarily from the 70s and 80s. Magic 1278 also runs an adult contemporary/gold format but targets 55+ audiences with music from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Digital radio

Digital radio commenced in Melbourne on the 11 May 2009 and uses the DAB+ standard. Melbourne currently has fifty five digital stations. DAB+ reception is good in most of the metropolitan area but it is still patchy in fringe areas (in particular Geelong and the Mornington Peninsula). Digital stations have the advantage of a translator in the Melbourne CBD that provides better signal quality than analogue services in some Inner East and central suburbs.

All of Melbourne's commercial, ABC, SBS stations, as well as Melbourne-wide community stations, simulcast their analogue broadcast on digital. The ABC, SBS and commercial networks also run additional digital only programmes. Digital stations include pop-up seasonal or festival formats, additional news, sport and specialist music genres such as dance, indie, jazz, chillout, country, love songs, Australian music, unsigned artists, Asian, Arabic as well as eighties and nineties only formats. Many of the digital stations are national formats and even those run by commercial stations are largely free from advertising at this stage.

See also

• Television broadcasting in Australia
• List of Australian radio stations
• List of Melbourne radio stations by frequency

References