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TVS (Television Sydney) is a free-to-air television station in Sydney, Australia broadcasting on the UHF 31 frequency. It is the latest of various attempts to create a viable community based station in Sydney. Previous incarnations failed due to internal politics and, ultimately, the failure of the incumbent to secure the new "permanent" Community Television licence issued by the Australian Broadcasting Authority in 2004. In all other capital cities, except for Adeliade where no permanent licence has been issued, the incumbent won the permanent licence.

Previous attempts to provide a service on Channel 31 transmitted initially from the UTS building in Broadway, then sites at Gore Hill north of the present location, and finally at the Broadcast Australia (ABC/SBS) site.

TVS promotes itself as "The first permanent free-to-air TV station to be launched in Sydney in 25 years". Those operating prior to TVS did so on a temporary "open narrowcast" licence. TVS is clearly aiming for a higher standard than its unsuccessful predecessors and is backed by the University of Western Sydney which has plans to introduce a program of post-graduate studies in television.

From its unofficial launch on 20 November 2005 some 18 months after gaining the license, TVS underwent a trial period running a continuous program loop, giving viewers a taste of programs and testing technical systems. Unfortunately there were technical problems, as is common for all start-ups using new technology, but these have largely been addressed.

Since 20 February 2006 at 4pm TVS has been broadcasting a full schedule of programs 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

TVS has a 20kW transmitter - compared to the previous licensees' 250 watt, then 2KW and then 5KW transmitters - and shares the SBS antenna located on the Broadcast Australia tower at Gore Hill. Transmission facilities are leased from Broadcast Australia. TVS has a fully digital broadcast operations centre on the media campus of the University of Western Sydney.

The channel provides coverage across most of Sydney, with reports of clear reception from high locations as far south as Wollongong, in the lower Blue Mountains and on the Central Coast. In some areas the signal is not as clear as SBS due to SBS having a higher transmission power, yet for a variety of topographical reasons in other areas TVS is reportedly clearer than SBS.

Program content varies from highly innnovative and interesting to questionable (television, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder) and a generous approach is being taken in order to assist in the development of a vibrant community television sector in Sydney.

Some programming is supplied from other community stations, notably Melbourne and Perth. This is to augment the program schedule in the start-up phase and to demonstrate successful program formats to potential program providers in Sydney, which has never had the broadbased community television culture that exists in other Australian cities.

TVS actively encourages local program makers to pitch to the channel and provides free airtime to not-for-profit producers.

TVS accepts sponsorship advertising, mainly consisting of 30 seconds spots, and has engaged an external sales and sponsorship agent, Media Brokers (www.mediabrokers.com.au)

Information on how to tune to TVS, how to submit a program proposal, plus a complete program guide are available at www.tvs.tv.

External links

• Official Website
• Fire Horse Studio (TVS ident design)

• Television stations in Australia