The Australian Government recognises the valuable service provided by the community broadcasting sector.
Community broadcasting contributes to the diversity of the broadcasting sector, and serves local communities and interest groups, with content distinct from commercial, subscription or national broadcasters.
You can learn more about community broadcasting on the community radio page and the community television page.
The Community Broadcasting Program (CBP) is the government's program for providing financial support to the community broadcasting sector.
The CBP is administered by the Community Broadcasting Foundation (CBF), an independent, not-for-profit funding agency. The CBF supports the development, creativity and sustainability of community broadcasting by distributing funding to the sector. This funding helps services to broadcast to their communities. You can learn more on the CBF website.
Community Broadcasting Sector Sustainability Review
As part of the 2022 Federal Budget, the Australian Government committed to providing vital support for community broadcasting. This included working with the sector to identify a sustainable funding basis for the future. As a result, the government announced a two-phase CBP Evaluation and Sustainability Review.
Phase 1 commenced in March 2023 with an independent evaluation of the CBP. The evaluation found that while the CBP is mostly effective, has a range of positive impacts and funding has been vital for continuation of operation, it has not achieved significant impact in terms of promoting sustainability through reducing reliance on grant funding and building station resilience.
Phase 2 seeks to gather views and ideas on sustainable funding, administration and legislative environments for the CBP and the Indigenous Broadcasting and Media Program (IBMP).
The discussion paper is a key element of stakeholder consultation, and will help to inform options for government consideration.