MEDIA
Newspapers & magazinesMelbourne’s two daily newspapers are the broadsheet The Age (the Sunday edition is called The Sunday Age) and the tabloid Herald-Sun. Two national newspapers are also available – the Australian (Monday to Saturday) and the Australian Financial Review (Monday to Saturday). All are widely distributed throughout regional Victoria.
In Melbourne, there’s a handful of good freebies, including Melbourne Events, a monthly listings publication, and Beat and Inpress, two jam-packed indie music and entertainment magazines out each Wednesday. Duck into any good cafe or music or clothes store and grab a copy. As well, the populist MX newspaper, available each afternoon from Monday to Friday, offers a gushy mix of entertainment, sport and juicy gossip. You’ll find it on railway platforms and outside train stations.
Aiming to raise awareness of social issues, The Big Issue Australia is sold in Melbourne, with part of the cover price supporting the homeless and unemployed. For international newspapers and magazines, head for McGills at 187 Elizabeth Street in the CBD, or Borders in The Jam Factory, 500 Chapel Street, South Yarra.
RadioMelbourne has a host of commercial and community radio stations. The best of a pretty broad bunch are the various Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) stations (try ABC Radio National on 621 for news and current affairs, or Triple J on 107.5 for alternative rock), and community stations 3RRR (102.7) and 3PBS (106.7) for funk, reggae, death metal, techno, esoterica, the works.
TelevisionCompared to the US or Italy, Australian TV won’t blow your mind. The commercial stations (Channel 7, Channel 9 and Channel 10) broadcast a steady diet of reality TV, chatty news reports, talk shows, soaps, game shows, sport (including live Aussie Rules), drama and movies. Slightly more upmarket, the national broadcaster ABC (Channel 2) is commercial-free, and screens mostly quality British drama and sitcoms, comedy and current affairs. Perhaps the most diverse station is SBS (Channel 28), which broadcasts innovative local comedies, in-depth current affairs, foreign-language drama and films, and has excellent coverage of international sport, especially soccer.
Melbourne and Victoria contribute to Australia’s local TV content: hugely popular series like The Secret Life of Us and SeaChange were filmed in the state, and of course, Melbourne is home to everyone's favourite, Neighbours. Victoria has also been used as a backdrop for some of Australia’s most popular films.
Australia’s two pay TV stations, Foxtel and Optus, attract a monthly fee, and offer myriad programming choices, although the majority mainly subscribe for the sport. A number of Melbourne pubs have pay TV subscriptions, and screen live sporting events, including Super 12 rugby and English Premier League soccer.
