Shticking it to the government

HENRY Greener, architect of the iconic Jewish community TV program The Shtick is furious at the Federal Government’s decision to remove Australia’s community TV stations from the air.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced last week that Channel 31 Melbourne, along with counterparts in other Australian capital cities, have until the end of next year to migrate their content to the internet.

The move reportedly caught community TV management off-guard and vigorous protests have landed on Turnbull’s desk.

The minister said the freed up spectrum would be sold to commercial broadcasters or to Telstra to improve its mobile phone services.

But Greener, who has masterminded The Shtick behind and in front of the cameras for the past 10 years, is gloomy about the prospect of the show pulling significant numbers of viewers online, particularly before the National Broadband Network is established.

“If it’s such a great idea, why hasn’t the government asked Channels Seven, Nine and Ten to move everything onto the internet?” Greener lamented to The AJN.

He said research shows The Shtick is viewed by only around 300 people online, while some 30,000 viewers tune in to see it on TV.

The show began a decade ago when Channel 31 management asked for Jewish TV providers to include more local content.

Its predecessors, Shalom TV and later Oz Shalom TV, had been running on the station for around 20 years.

“It’s a purely commercial decision. There are six shopping channels in Melbourne, so why can’t there be a community channel? It’s a big blow,” he said.

Aside from the loss of the Channel 31 TV signal in December 2015, Greener is concerned at a lack of Jewish community support for Jewish programming on Channel 31, saying none of the well-known philanthropic organisations in the local Jewish community have offered financial assistance.

PETER KOHN

Henry Greener of The Shtick.

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