History
The WA Short Story
Formed in 1994 CTV was a pioneer in community television in Western Australia. From small beginnings, this not for profit, member based television production service has successfully grown and now broadcasts a wide range of both local and international programmes made with the community, for the community!
Access 31 was formed in 1998 and first broadcast in 1999, with programming provided exclusively by CTV Perth. CTV Perth withdrew providing programmes to Access 31 in 2005 due to disputes over programme copyright and exclusivity issues.
Access 31 were forced to declare voluntary administration in 2003 due to inappropriate management of station finance. Coming out on top, the Channel was forced into their second financial meltdown and ceased transmission in August 2008, unable to continue serving Perth's community despite the millions of dollars of state government funding they received.
Regardless of Access 31's troubles, CTV Perth inc. as an independent body, has continued to produce programmes for Australia based channels such as Foxtel's Aurora and AMTV(Free to air satellite) as well as internationally for IOWA community Telvision in the U.S.A. This successful production company, which relies solely on enthusiastic volunteers, is continuing its 15 yr track record, now producing top quality material for the upcoming WTV Ltd.
WTV was awarded the community television license for Perth after putting forward their proposal to ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) alongside three other applicants. WTV's strong application paid off and they were awarded a trial license for a period of two years in December 2008 and an apparatus license at the end of April 2009.
Since then WTV Ltd. has been working constantly to ensure community television will be successfully restored for the Perth metropolitan area. WTV Ltd is scheduled to commence broadcasting in the last quarter of 2009. With a wealth diverse programmes lined up and a strong marketing and administration team doing all the fine tuning, WTV will be an exciting channel to watch!