Australia’s Answer to BET

National Indigenous Television (NITV) began broadcasting on the Foxtel and Austar pay TV networks on the first of November this year.

Their mission statement, as taken from their website, is as follows:

NITV is a new 24 hour television service established by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to improve the lives of our peoples. With the very best of Australian content in our programs, we will inform, entertain and educate, preserve our languages, tell our stories and showcase the rich diversity of our cultures and creative talent from all over Australia.

Sounds great.  I'm all for the preserving of culture and language etc.  What I don't understand is how they feel any of that will happen on pay TV in a country which still considers pay TV a luxury -- in fact a luxury that only a small percentage of the Aboriginal market affords themselves.

I also don't understand how they intend to preserve their language and culture by broadcasting knockoffs of cheap daytime dramas, like Burned Bridge or the Marngrook Footy Show which are a carbon copy of the worst of western television.

If the intent is to give Aboriginal actors jobs they're otherwise unable to qualify for, then why not just say so?  I can appreciate the barriers to indigenous people in mainstream cinema and television, but those days are long gone.  Aboriginals feature prominently in locally produced content, often having leading roles as either presenters or actors, these days.

A racially-exclusive network launched now really should be culturally significant, rather than a perpetuation of anti-racism racism at a time when such racism isn't an issue anymore.  Using this network as an excuse to flood the nation with government-subsidised poor quality copies of culturally pointless content is just wrong.

Let me give you an example of viewer response.  This is a chat log from a person I'd consider quite tolerant of sub-standard television.

oh my gosh... now they've got an aboriginal days of our lives type program
it is so tacky, oh my goodness
ok im switching off, this is terrible
what a waste of bandwidth

Clearly this is Australia's answer to America's Black Entertainment Television (BET), except that at least over there they're honest about the reasons.

Being 2.5% of Australia's population, it seems to me that indigenous Australians are represented adequately in locally produced content.  With one Aboriginal in a cast of 30, that's 3% for you right there, but quite often it's more than that.  Our local writing and production talent often goes out of its way to pay homage to indigenous people.

To duplicate content for the sole purpose of predominantly featuring indigenous people is racist.  If NITV claims to be culturally significant, then it should screen content relating to indigenous culture.  If they do that, I'll support them whole-heartedly.  I might even watch and learn something.