Media Report

Last week, management at the community TV station Access 31 went public with the fact they'd filed a solvency declaration and will close at the end of this month unless they get additional funding and support from the Federal government.

For an update on their progress, we hear from Gerry Gannon, Access 31's Vice President.

Transcript

This transcript was typed from a recording of the program. The ABC cannot guarantee its complete accuracy because of the possibility of mishearing and occasional difficulty in identifying speakers.

Antony Funnell: And staying with television, and the clock continues to tick away for struggling Community TV station Access 31, which broadcasts out of Perth.

Last week, management at the station went public with the fact they'd filed a solvency declaration and will close at the end of this month unless they get additional funding and support from the Federal government.

Now for an update on their progress, I spoke with Gerry Gannon, Access 31's Vice President.

Gerry Gannon: The only good news is old news basically, which goes along the lines of Yes, we're committed to finding a pathway to digital for community television; we're working on it as quickly as we can, and we're right behind you. That's basically the tenor of the word from Senator Conroy's office at the moment.

Antony Funnell: Now you've filed a solvency declaration with ASIC; you've also got a members' meeting on June 27. It sounds like you're still heading towards closing down.

Gerry Gannon: Look as directors, we have to do the right thing, otherwise we'd be in breach of our directors' duties. One of the principal things is can you pay your bills if and when they fall due. And based on our cashflow reports, that was proving to be problematic, so we had to do the responsible thing and move towards this course of action. That's not to say that we will actually go into liquidation if we find some sort of a temporary rescue package which will sustain us until such time as Senator Conroy and the government can get their act together, find a framework for community television to go on digital, and provide us with the sort of financial support, in fact a fraction of the financial support that they gave to the commercial stations, ABC and SBS, a number of years ago when they moved to digital. We understand they got tens of millions of dollars. We're looking for $4.2-million per station, that's our calculations as to what it would cost for us to translate to digital in terms of purchasing the transmission equipment and providing some running costs, plus some cashflow while we rebuild audiences. Because you must remember, Antony, that 42% of the population have now switched on to digital, which means that those viewers are no longer available to us as we languish in analogue-land.

Antony Funnell: And have you had any entities over the last week since the extent of this crisis for the station, since that became public? Have you had any entities come forward to try and assist with that interim funding measure?

Gerry Gannon: Look, we've been talking with various parties, including our State government and including Lottery West, but anybody who would be providing us with support would want to know that we've got some sort of future, and that is dependent on the Federal government making a firm cast-iron commitment with something approximating a time frame, and a clear indication that there would be funding support to accompany that. That has so far been not forthcoming in the sort of form, or with the sort of definite tone that would give comfort to anybody who would provide us with a rescue package in the meantime.

Antony Funnell: But if it gets to June 27, that's not very far away, and there's nothing from the Federal government, no firm commitment, is it all over?

Gerry Gannon: I'm afraid it would be, unless our State government and Lottery West take a gamble, if you like, on the government being as good as their word insofar as what Senator Conroy has said already. Now we feel most likely that they should take the gamble; we do believe that there is a commitment there from the Federal government, we believe in fact that a commitment from this government is probably stronger than it was from the last government. We are beginning to arrive at the view that the previous government wasn't all that keen to maintain community television. We believe that this government is. However Senator Conroy has inherited an unholy mess, left by the previous government; we know he's having difficulties with this, we know he's working on it, but unfortunately if he doesn't work a bit quicker, it could be curtains for us and not just us Briz 31, Melbourne and if those three go, then it won't be too long before Adelaide and Sydney fold as well.

Antony Funnell: And that was Gerry Gannon, the Vice President of Perth Community TV station Access 31.

Guests

Gerry Gannon
Vice president, Access 31

Presenter

Antony Funnell

Producer

Andrew Davies

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