About SMTV

SMTV

SMTV — Snowy Mountains Television — is the Snowy Mountains' community television station: the Jindabyne-based narrowcast channel serving the residents of Australia's alpine country. Broadcasting since 1992 as SMTV Channel 5 under an open narrowcast licence, it is one of Australia's longest-running narrowcast television services. The station broadcasts free-to-air 24/7: in high definition on Channel 350 and standard definition on Channel 351, while live-streaming from its website, snowymountains.tv. Its programming is the life of the mountains on screen: skiing and snow sport events from around the world, mountain biking, kayaking and outdoor adventure, and promotions of the local businesses of the Snowy Mountains region — the Jindabyne Valley's own television, on air for over three decades.

Overview

Snowy Mountains Television (SMTV) is an Australian community television station based in Jindabyne, New South Wales. The station began broadcasting in 1992 as SMTV Channel 5, servicing residents of the Snowy Mountains region under an open narrowcast licence. Today the station broadcasts free-to-air 24 hours a day: SMTV HD in 1080i high definition on logical channel number 350, and SMTV in 576i standard definition on channel 351. The station also live-streams from its website. Programming consists of skiing and snow sport events from around the world, outdoor adventure sports, and promotions of local businesses from within the Snowy Mountains region. The station's website is snowymountains.tv, which welcomes visitors to "Snowy Mountains Television — Broadcasting in Jindabyne" with a live stream front and centre: the mountain station, streaming to the world.

History

SMTV began broadcasting in 1992 as SMTV Channel 5 — a community television service for the Snowy Mountains, operating under an open narrowcast licence. Jindabyne, the station's home, is the gateway town to the Snowy Mountains: the service town for the ski resorts of Perisher, Thredbo and Charlotte Pass, and the commercial heart of Australia's alpine region. The town itself is a product of the Snowy Mountains Scheme: the original Jindabyne was drowned beneath Lake Jindabyne in the 1960s, and the town was rebuilt on higher ground — a community literally built twice, now living off snow. A local television service for the mountains made obvious sense: a community defined by snow, tourism and small business, with its own stories to tell — and SMTV has been telling them since 1992.

The analogue years were a low-power affair. According to ACMA records discussed by broadcast enthusiasts, the analogue service transmitted from Jinderboine Hill — a high-power open narrowcast (HPON) service at 667.224 MHz, 200 watts — which corresponds to UHF channel 48. The "Channel 5" name was the station's branding rather than its broadcast frequency: in the Snowy Mountains, it may simply have been the fifth channel on the dial, or an arbitrary number — much as Adelaide's original community station called itself by a channel number unrelated to its UHF frequency. What mattered was not the frequency but the footprint: a television service for the Jindabyne Valley, where the national networks' signals were never the whole story — and where a local station could do what the networks never would.

For more than a quarter of a century, SMTV broadcast as an analogue narrowcast service. In 2019, the station made the leap to digital: SMTV now broadcasts in high definition on Channel 350 and standard definition on Channel 351, while also live-streaming from its website — the little mountain station, gone digital, and now available 24/7. The digital channels sit in the 350s block of the electronic program guide — the narrowcast neighbourhood, alongside the Indigenous narrowcast services of the north. The station is operated by Snowy Mountains Television Pty Ltd, listed in the ACMA Register of Radiocommunications Licences — the company behind the mountains' television since 1992.

Programming and Content

SMTV's programming is the Snowy Mountains on screen. The schedule has always had a strong focus on sporting events and sports-related programming: winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding are a significant part of the line-up, with exhilarating coverage of ski races, snowboarding competitions and other winter sports events from around the world, allowing enthusiasts to experience the thrill from home. The Snowy Mountains are the home of Australian snow sports — Perisher is the largest ski resort in the Southern Hemisphere, Thredbo has the longest runs in Australia — and SMTV is the local window on that world. But SMTV doesn't stop at winter sports: the channel caters to a wide range of outdoor adventures, with live coverage of mountain bike races, kayak competitions and other adrenaline-pumping events in the Snowy Mountains — entertainment that also inspires viewers to explore these activities themselves. Alongside the sport, the station carries promotions of local businesses from within the Snowy Mountains region. For the businesses of Jindabyne, Thredbo, Perisher and the surrounding towns, SMTV is the local shopfront: a television channel that speaks directly to the mountain community and its visitors. For residents, it is a window on the wider world of snow sports, delivered from their own backyard — the mountains, on television, every day.

Coverage and Audience

SMTV services the residents of the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales: Jindabyne and the surrounding alpine towns, the ski resorts and the valleys — what the station calls the Jindabyne Valley. The station has been broadcasting for over 20 years to the valley. Today it broadcasts free-to-air 24/7: SMTV HD (1080i) on Channel 350 and SMTV (576i) on Channel 351, and live-streams from snowymountains.tv — meaning the mountains' television can now be watched anywhere. The audience is the Snowy Mountains community: the permanent residents of Jindabyne and the region, the seasonal workers who staff the ski fields each winter — the lift operators, instructors, hospitality workers and tradespeople who make the resorts run — and the tourists and snow enthusiasts who tune in for a taste of alpine Australia. The Snowy Mountains are a place apart in Australia — the only part of the continent with a true alpine winter, home to Mount Kosciuszko, the Snowy Hydro scheme and a ski industry that defines the region's economy — and SMTV is its television mirror.

Ownership

Snowy Mountains Television is operated by Snowy Mountains Television Pty Ltd, the holder of the station's open narrowcast licence, as recorded in the ACMA Register of Radiocommunications Licences. It is a community television service in the narrowcast tradition: a local station, for a local community, run as a local business — the visual equivalent, as one observer put it, of a low-power open narrowcast radio station. Few licences of this type exist in Australia outside the Indigenous television services of the north; SMTV is a rare southern example of the form. The open narrowcast licence is the key to its existence: a licence class designed for niche, targeted broadcasting services, held by a local company for a local audience.

Digital Presence

SMTV's website is snowymountains.tv, where the station live-streams its programming — "LIVE STREAM NOW SHOWING" greets visitors to the homepage, with the stream playing front and centre. The station broadcasts free-to-air 24/7: high definition on Channel 350, standard definition on Channel 351. SMTV: the Snowy Mountains' television — snow sports, outdoor adventure and local business, from Jindabyne to the world. On air since 1992: from SMTV Channel 5 on the analogue spectrum to SMTV HD on Channel 350 — three decades of mountain television, still broadcasting from the Jindabyne Valley.