C31 Melbourne 'Switch On Digital' subscriberthon information nights

While C31 Melbourne has been allocated $600,000 from the Federal Government to assist in the digital transition and enable simulcasting until 2013, an additional $750,000 is still needed before June 2010 to complete the works. This funding is required to enable the upgrading of essential digital facilities in the Ingest and Presentation Departments and to enable the simulcast digital signal to be sent to the main transmitter on Mount Dandenong. C31 cannot go digital until these works have been completed. The additional funds will also go towards upgrading C31's studio and production facilities, ensuring that Producers have the best equipment available to them and that their product being broadcast is of the best possible quality.

To help raise this money, C31 is running a two week subscriberthon called 'Switch On Digital', running from March 15th to 28th, 2010. For these two weeks, C31 Melbourne will be asking its audience, program makers and the wider community to become a subscriber of the station to help it reach its goal of $750,000 for the transition to digital. This will be done through on-air promotions in ad breaks, external publicity, the TVS and C31 websites - http://www.tvs.org.au and http://www.c31.org.au - and most importantly, through your programs.

C31 Melbourne is committed to making the subscriberthon a success. Should the desired outcome be achieved in 2010, it is envisaged that subscriberthons in following years will further concentrate on upgrading facilities and establishing resources that will directly benefit producers and all stake-holders in community television. We are very excited about this long-term commitment, as it will enable our community to continue producing high quality programs well into the digital future.

C31 Melbourne will be holding information sessions for program makers on Tuesday 9th February and Wednesday 10th February at 6.00pm at the station's office - Level 1 of 501 Swanston Street in Melbourne. These information sessions will explain more about what a subscriberthon is, how program makers can get involved and what your program should include to get the message across to your audience.

We are calling on all our program makers to help get this important and urgent message across through their programs during the two week period. The subscriberthon will be most effective if the community as a whole comes together to appeal to the audience. As such, it is vital that all producers and all on-air talent attend one of the two information sessions, so please pass this information on to your team.

To register your attendance at one of the two Melbourne information sessions, please RSVP to info@c31.org.au or by calling (03) 9660 3131 by Friday 5th February. Please specify which information session you will be attending.

'Switch On Digital' will also culminate in a live telethon on Sunday March 28th. The telethon will feature well-known community television personalities (to be decided in the coming weeks). If you would like to be involved in the telethon, either on-air or off-air, please send your expressions of interest to Alison Cairns at alison@c31.org.au by Wednesday 27th January at 5pm. Alison will then provide you with further details about what is required.

TVS Sydney and C31 Melbourne sincerely appreciates your continued support and hard work, and is excited to be nearing the digital switch-over. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact TVS Sydney on (02) 9852 5000 or C31 Melbourne on (03) 9660 3131. More information will be provided in the coming weeks and at the information sessions so please ensure you are available to atten