Regional television in Australia
Encyclopedia
Regional television is a term given to local television services in areas outside of the five main Australia
n cities (Sydney
, Melbourne
, Brisbane
, Adelaide
and Perth
).
, Melbourne
, Brisbane
, Adelaide and Perth
. GLV-10 in Traralgon
opened on 9 December 1961 and was followed 14 days later by GMV-6 in Shepparton
and BCV-8 Bendigo.
Television continued to expand throughout Victoria
and the rest of the country throughout the 1960s with no fewer than twenty five stations making their first transmissions between 1962 and 1968.
1962 station openings
1963 station opening
1964 station openings
1965 station openings
1966 station openings
1967 station opening
1968 station openings
Many of the first stations produced their own local programming, supplemented to content from the capital city stations such as GTV-9
Melbourne
's In Melbourne Tonight
. GLV-10 Traralgon was amongst the first to make use of live 'off-air' relays of programes from metropolitan stations without the use of video recording equipment.
Darwin
. The last regional stations to launch were GSW-9 Albany
(a relay of BTW-3 Bunbury) on 29 August 1974, RTS-5A Loxton
on 26 November 1976 and GTW-11 Geraldton on 21 January 1977.
Similar to their metropolitan counterparts, various stations began to form programming and operational partnerships in order to reduce operating costs and share the cost of imported programming.
Midstate 6-8-9 (later Midstate Television)
RVN-AMV
11-8 (later Northern Rivers Television)
A partnership between NRN-11 Coffs Harbour and ECN-8 Taree
was split up when NRN joined RTN-8 to form Northern Rivers Television in 1971. ECN later went into partnership with NEN-9 Tamworth
.
All television stations in Australia, including regional stations, were required to convert to colour transmission in 1975.
North Queensland Television
The SIX Network (later Television Victoria)
TV8 (later Southern Cross TV8 and then, Southern Cross Network)
TasTV
Golden West Network
In order for the metropolitan 0-10 Network to become Network 10, a number of regional stations were required to move to different frequencies. These included GLV-10 in Gippsland, who moved to channel 8 in order to allow ATV-0 Melbourne to move to channel 10 in 1980. DDQ-10 and TVQ-0 switched channels to become DDQ-0 and TVQ-10, and SEQ10 became SEQ55 in 1988.
The last regional station to launch before aggregation launched unofficially on 2 January 1988 - IMP-9, Imparja Television
in Alice Springs, began transmission via the AUSSAT
satellites, as well as a number of terrestrial transmitters.
of the 1980s introduced a system of regional equalisation, known as aggregation, which would provide regional viewers with the same viewing choice as their metropolitan cousins.
Local stations protested at this proposal, arguing that their profits would fall, and that local output would also decrease. They offered their own proposal, whereby the existing operator would be allowed to operate relays of the other two networks, allowing a combination of both viewer choice and local programming. If NBN were to take the Nine affiliation, for example, their two relays would offer programs from the Seven and Ten networks, direct from Sydney. This proposal was, however, rejected.
The new system would allow stations to transmit into neighbouring markets, as an affiliate of one of the three metropolitan networks. For instance, before aggregation, there were three separate licence areas in northern New South Wales
- Newcastle
, New England
, and the Mid North Coast, each served by a single commercial station. After aggregation, these three licence areas merged, with the three stations in direct competition for viewers.
Soon after realising they had lost their battle with the government, the stations began to organise affiliations with metro networks. Stations that hadn't joined forces beforehand began to merge and form new networks:
Vision Television (later Star Television)
The Prime Network (later Prime Television
)
Sunshine Television Network (callsign STQ)
Southern New South Wales was the first area to be formed, in two phases (as a result of problems in Orange and Wagga), starting on 31 March 1989. WIN Television
Wollongong (WIN-4) became an affiliate of the Nine Network
, The Prime Network
became a Seven
affiliate, and Capital Television Canberra
(CTC-7) became a Network Ten
affiliate.
The next area to be aggregated was Queensland, which took place on 31 December 1990. TVQ was to become a Nine affiliate, Star Television a Network Ten affiliate, and the Sunshine Television Network a Seven affiliate, however in the work before aggregation was due to take place, WIN Television
bought Star Television and gave them the Nine affiliation - meaning that TVQ was forced to change its affiliation to Network Ten. A year later, northern New South Wales was aggregated. NBN Television
became the Nine Network affiliate, while the Seven Network would be carried by Prime Television
. Northern Rivers Television became the Ten affiliate.
Aggregation in Victoria
took place between 1992 and 1993. VIC TV became a Nine Network affiliate, Prime Television the Seven affiliate, and SCN
the Ten affiliate. Tasmania
was aggregated in 1994, albeit with only two stations - Southern Cross
became a dual Seven and Ten affiliate, while TAS TV took programming from the Nine Network.
Remote and Central Australia was the final area to be aggregated - one of the largest geographical licence areas, taking in parts of the Northern Territory
, western Queensland
, and other areas in which terrestrial television
signals cannot be received. Stations broadcast to this area mainly through satellite
or re-transmission stations. Imparja Television
, based in Alice Springs, became a dual Nine and Ten affiliate, while Seven Central became a Seven affiliate.
A number of areas were not aggregated, due to their small size and relative inability to support more than one commercial station - these included Griffith, Mildura, Darwin and regional Western Australia.
NBN Television
made similar moves in 1993, when it launched a new logo based on that of the Nine Network
at the time. Sunshine Television was purchased by the Seven Network
in 1995 and became nearly identical to the network's metropolitan stations under the name Seven Queensland.
A second commercial licence was made available for single-licence areas such as Mildura, Griffith
, and Darwin
. Incumbent stations were permitted to apply for the new licence under Section 73 of the Broadcasting Services Act, 1992, however only if the Australian Broadcasting Authority
, at the time, felt that there was no other operator who would be interested or able to operate a new station in the area. The ABA initially denied all three stations the ability to operate the new licences.
A joint complaint to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal against the ABA and Imparja Television in 1996 found in favour of MTN-9 but against the other incumbent stations. In both the Darwin and Mildura cases, it was determined that Imparja satisfied the ABA's criteria of being in a position to run a second service in the area. Prime Television's applications in both Griffith and Mildura, for the purposes of the appeal, were rejected on the grounds of insufficient local coverage.
When the auction process ended in late 1996, however, Prime was awarded the Mildura licence for $3.2 million, and commenced broadcasting with the callsign PTV-32 in 1997. Telecasters Australia launched Seven Darwin using TND-34
in the same year, followed a $2.1 million bid for the licence.
In the same year, an amendment was made to the Broadcasting Services Act affirming the ability of existing broadcasters in one and two commercial station markets to apply for "supplementary licences". These new licences allowed either a single incumbent or group of incumbents working together to run an additional channel.
In the then-single station markets, applying existing broadcasters gained both analog and digital licences for a new channel. In two station markets, the two existing broadcasters were allowed to form joint ventures to later bid for digital-only licences following the introduction of digital terrestrial television in Australia in 2001. The new licences were known as section 38A and 38B licences, respectively, after the relevant sections in the Broadcasting Services Act. Remote Central and Eastern Australia remains the only licence area without one of these stations either proposed or currently available.
The name "Section 38A" refers to the applicable section of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 which grants such rights to solus operators.
Using its Section 38A licence, MTN-9 was able to begin their supplementary service in 1997 using the callsign AMN-31. The new station carried almost all of sister Prime Television
station CBN-8's Prime programming with the exception of local news and major sporting events broadcast by Network Ten
. This was allocated on 1996-07-18, and went to air in 1997, after being initially rejected by the Australian Broadcasting Authority
. It is a feed of the Central West NSW version of Prime Television, and is licensed as AMN, broadcasting on UHF 31. A second licence for remote Western Australia
, one of the last remaining solus markets, was put up for auction in 1998. WIN Television
won the ability to broadcast to the entire regional Western Australia market (as opposed to GWN
, which held separate licences in various areas), and subsequently launched its new station WOW
in 1999. In the same year, WIN purchased Griffith affiliate MTN-9
, as well as SES-8
Mount Gambier and RTS-5a Riverland.
bought out both Telecasters Australia and Central GTS/BKN, subsequently removing any remaining local references, and rebranding its new stations with the 'Southern Cross' name. Supplementary licences were also issued to SCB and WIN in parts of regional South Australia
and Broken Hill
, while at the same time, local programming was cut. The remote Eastern and remote Central licence areas were also merged at this time, amongst the last to be aggregated.
The solus operators in the regional licence areas of South Australia
have been granted an 38A licence, being allocated on 2002-04-24.Spencer Gulf
/Broken Hill
: Central GTS/BKN, owned by Southern Cross Broadcasting
was granted callsigns SGS and SCN, and branded as Southern Cross Ten
, carrying Ten Network programming.
In more recent years, the premise has been extended to allow for two station markets where there are two different owners to apply, either separately or jointly, to operate a digital
-only third station. These are known as "Section 38B" licences, and were created by the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Digital Television and Datacasting) Act 2000.
Section 38B allows current operators to apply for the additional licence either as a joint venture
company, or separately; in the case where both operators apply separately to ACMA, the licence is to be allocated via auction. However, as of 2007 all of the licences so far granted under section 38B have been to joint ventures between existing operators. These licences were awarded to Tasmania
(Tasmanian Digital Television
, owned by WIN and Southern Cross), Mildura (Mildura Digital Television
, owned by WIN and Prime), and Darwin
(Darwin Digital Television, owned by PBL Media and Southern Cross).
The axing of local news services by Prime Television
and Southern Cross Broadcasting
in Newcastle, Wollongong, Queensland, Darwin and remote Central & Eastern Australia triggered a review of local content regulations by the Australian Broadcasting Authority
. The ABA later ruled, in 2003, that a minimum level of local content should be provided in the four largest regional licence areas. Prime and Southern Cross responded to this by launching two-minute bulletins for all affected regions from areas in which local news was already produced, as well as in Southern Cross Ten
's case the current affairs program State Focus, and on Prime Television
, a Saturday morning children's programme Saturday Club.
In December 2003, the first digital-only commercial television station was launched, Tasmanian Digital Television
, operating on a supplementary licence owned jointly by WIN Television and Southern Cross. Similarly, Mildura Digital Television
(a similar joint venture between WIN and Prime) began broadcasting in 2006 to Mildura, offering exclusive Ten based programming for the first time in the area. It is a direct feed of Ten Melbourne
with local advertising. Darwin Digital Television opened transmission on 28 April 2008.
The Nine Network
's owner, PBL Media
, purchased affiliate station NBN Television
from its owners SP Telemedia, in May 2007.
, Nine Network
and Network Ten
from their respective capital cities. In addition to these, digital and analogue television channels from ABC Television
, SBS Television and Community TV are also available. The majority of these areas were aggregated in the early 1990s.
Northern New South Wales
Southern New South Wales
& ACT
Regional Victoria
Regional Queensland
-only. Although many of these areas are technically three-station markets, they are considered to have two stations due to the nature of the third, supplementary licence.
Mildura/Sunraysia
, Victoria
and New South Wales
Darwin
, Northern Territory
South-Eastern South Australia
and the Riverland
Regional and Remote Western Australia
Griffith
/MIA
, New South Wales
Spencer Gulf
/Broken Hill, New South Wales
Each commercial network (both regional and metropolitan) can be seen as being composed of three layers, with some exceptions. The first is the "national feed" - content that is broadcast to the entire country, more-or-less at the same time (accounting for timezones and minor rescheduling). This category is composed of nearly all the non-news programs and sometimes station promotions and branding.
The second is the "state feed", content that is broadcast to the entire state or territory. It comprises mainly state news, as well as current affairs programs and station promotions. This is usually the case in Victoria
, New South Wales
, Queensland
, South Australia
and Western Australia
. The third is the "local feed", content broadcast to a specific market, such as local news and advertising.
, the majority of regional networks are required to provide original, locally-targeted output such as news, current affairs, or children's programmes.
WIN Television
, Australia's largest regional network, produces a number of programs including sports magazine show Fishing Australia
, cooking show Alive and Cooking
, and travel shows Destinations
and Postcards Australia
. Southern Cross Television
in Tasmania
airs Hook, Line and Sinker alongside a range of other regional programs.
Both Prime Television
and Golden West Network
produce their own versions of The Saturday Club. Prime also produces country music show A Little Bit of Country as well as an agricultural news program, On the Land. Imparja Television
also produce various local indigenous programs, as well as Yamba's Playtime
, a daily show for pre-school children. Most Imparja-produced programming is also shown on National Indigenous Television
.
regulations have, since 2003, required stations to provide minimum levels of local news and other content.
In most cases, newsroom staff including reporters, camera crews and producers are based in newsrooms within the coverage area though the news program itself may be presented and broadcast from studios outside the region. For example, news staff for Seven and WIN's Mackay
bulletins are based in the city with the programs themselves presented from Maroochydore and Toowoomba respectively.
shows Today Tonight
at 4.30pm in place of the network's 4.30 News bulletin.
Many dual-network affiliates, such as WIN WA
, show a combination of two network's programming at differing times of the week. Prime and GWN choose to replace nearly all Seven Network programs between midnight and 6am with infomercials, and along with Southern Cross Ten also replace some morning programs with infomercials.
Recently, WIN Television
has begun to adopt a dramatically different overnight schedule to metropolitan counterpart the Nine Network
. In place of Nine's overnight programming, WIN show repeats of WIN News
, programs from its Crawfords Australia
archives, and some Nine programs not shown in their normal timeslot.
Commercial subchannels are unavailable in the rest of the regional areas.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n cities (Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
).
1960s
The first regional television stations were launched soon after the rollout of television to metropolitan SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Adelaide and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
. GLV-10 in Traralgon
Traralgon, Victoria
Traralgon is a regional city located in the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. Traralgon is a city within the City of Latrobe....
opened on 9 December 1961 and was followed 14 days later by GMV-6 in Shepparton
Shepparton, Victoria
Shepparton is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in the north east of Victoria, Australia approximately north-east of Melbourne. It is the fifth largest city in Victoria, Australia. The estimated population of Shepparton's statistical area is 48,926.It began as a sheep station...
and BCV-8 Bendigo.
Television continued to expand throughout Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
and the rest of the country throughout the 1960s with no fewer than twenty five stations making their first transmissions between 1962 and 1968.
1962 station openings
- 4 March: NBN-3 NewcastleNewcastle, New South WalesThe Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
- 17 March: CBN-8 OrangeOrange, New South WalesOrange is a city in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney, at an altitude of . Orange has an estimated population of 39,329 and the city is a major provincial centre....
- 18 March: WIN-4WIN (TV station)WIN is a television station serving southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. It is the flagship station of the WIN Television network.-WIN News:WIN News produces four regional news bulletins for the area markets covered by WIN....
Wollongong - 27 April: BTV-6 Ballarat
- 12 May: RTN-8 LismoreLismore, New South WalesLismore is a subtropical town in northeastern New South Wales, Australia. Lismore is the main population centre in the City of Lismore local government area. Lismore is a regional centre in the Northern Rivers region of the State.-History:...
- 26 May: TNT-9TNT-9TNT Launceston is a television station based in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. Originally broadcasting only to Launceston and Northern Tasmania, it has broadcast to the whole of Tasmania since aggregation of the Tasmanian television market in 1994...
LauncestonLaunceston, TasmaniaLaunceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart... - 2 June: CTC-7 CanberraCanberraCanberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
- 13 July: DDQ-10 Toowoomba
- 1 November: TNQ-7 Townsville
1963 station opening
- 7 September: RTQ-7 RockhamptonRockhamptonRockhampton can refer to:* Rockhampton, Queensland is a city in Queensland, Australia* Rockhampton City, Queensland, a suburb of Rockhampton, Queensland* Electoral district of Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia...
1964 station openings
- 19 June: RVN-2 Wagga Wagga
- 7 September: AMV-4 AlburyAlbury, New South WalesAlbury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...
1965 station openings
- 23 January: NRN-11 Coffs Harbour
- 10 April: WBQ-8 Wide BayWide Bay-BurnettWide Bay-Burnett is a region of the Australian state of Queensland, located between 170 and 400 kilometres north of the state capital, Brisbane. The area's population growth has exceeded the state average over the past 20 years, and it is forecast to grow to more than 430,000 by 2031...
/MaryboroughMaryborough, QueenslandMaryborough is a city located on the Mary River in South East Queensland, Australia, approximately north of the state capital, Brisbane. The city is serviced by the Bruce Highway, and has a population of approximately 22,000 . It is closely tied to its neighbour city Hervey Bay which is...
(later SEQ-8) - 10 April: NEN-9 TamworthTamworth, New South WalesTamworth is a city in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Peel River, Tamworth, which contains an estimated population of 47,595 people, is the major regional centre for southern New England and in the local government area of Tamworth Regional Council. The city...
- 27 November: STV-8 Mildura
- 1 December: CWN-6 Dubbo (a relay of CBN-8 Orange)
- 15 December: MTN-9MTN-9MTN-9 and AMN-31 are television stations that are licensed to, and serve Griffith and the surrounding Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area . MTN-9 is a primary Nine Network affiliate via WIN Television and AMN-31 is a primary Seven Network affiliate via Prime Television...
GriffithGriffith, New South WalesGriffith is a city in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith local government area. Like the Australian capital, Canberra and the nearby town of Leeton, Griffith was designed by Walter Burley Griffin. Griffith was named after Sir Arthur Griffith the...
1966 station openings
- 25 March: SES-8SES/RTSSES/RTS, part of the WIN Television network, are Australian television stations licensed to, and serving Mount Gambier and Riverland in South Australia. The station commenced transmissions on 25 March 1966.-History:...
Mount GambierMount Gambier, South AustraliaMount Gambier is the largest regional city in South Australia located approximately 450 kilometres south of the capital Adelaide and just 17 kilometres from the Victorian border.... - 27 May: ECN-8 TareeTaree, New South WalesTaree is a city on the Mid North Coast, New South Wales, Australia. Taree and nearby Cundletown were settled in 1831 by William Wynter. Since then Taree has grown to a population of around 20,000 people and is the centre of a significant agricultural district. It is 16 km from the sea coast,...
- 7 September: FNQ-10 Cairns
1967 station opening
- 10 March: BTW-3 BunburyBunbury, Western AustraliaThe port city of Bunbury is the third largest city in Western Australia after the State Capital Perth and Mandurah. It is situated south of Perth's central business district...
1968 station openings
- 1 March: GTS-4 Port Pirie
- 9 August: MVQ-6 MackayMackay, QueenslandMackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
- 16 August: BKN-7 Broken HillBroken Hill, New South Wales-Geology:Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the...
Many of the first stations produced their own local programming, supplemented to content from the capital city stations such as GTV-9
GTV-9
GTV is a commercial television station in Melbourne, Australia owned by the Nine Network. The station is currently based at a new high-tech, purpose-built studios at 717 Bourke Street, Docklands.-History:...
Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
's In Melbourne Tonight
In Melbourne Tonight
In Melbourne Tonight, also known as "IMT", was a highly popular nightly variety television show produced at GTV-9 Melbourne from 6 May 1957 to 1970....
. GLV-10 Traralgon was amongst the first to make use of live 'off-air' relays of programes from metropolitan stations without the use of video recording equipment.
1970s
VEW-8 Kalgoorlie opened on 18 June 1971 and ITQ-8 Mount Isa commenced on 11 September 1971 before regional television reached the Northern Territory on 11 November 1971 with the launch of NTD-8NTD-8
NTD is an Australian television station, licensed to and serving Darwin, Palmerston and surrounds. The station is owned by the Nine Entertainment Co., and is an owned-and-operated station of the Nine Network, under the company name Territory Television Pty...
Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
. The last regional stations to launch were GSW-9 Albany
Albany, Western Australia
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
(a relay of BTW-3 Bunbury) on 29 August 1974, RTS-5A Loxton
Loxton, South Australia
Loxton is a town on the south bank of the River Murray in the Riverland region of South Australia. At the 2006 census, Loxton had a population of 3,431....
on 26 November 1976 and GTW-11 Geraldton on 21 January 1977.
Similar to their metropolitan counterparts, various stations began to form programming and operational partnerships in order to reduce operating costs and share the cost of imported programming.
Midstate 6-8-9 (later Midstate Television)
- CWN-6 Dubbo
- CBN-8 OrangeOrange, New South WalesOrange is a city in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney, at an altitude of . Orange has an estimated population of 39,329 and the city is a major provincial centre....
- MTN-9MTN-9MTN-9 and AMN-31 are television stations that are licensed to, and serve Griffith and the surrounding Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area . MTN-9 is a primary Nine Network affiliate via WIN Television and AMN-31 is a primary Seven Network affiliate via Prime Television...
GriffithGriffith, New South WalesGriffith is a city in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith local government area. Like the Australian capital, Canberra and the nearby town of Leeton, Griffith was designed by Walter Burley Griffin. Griffith was named after Sir Arthur Griffith the...
RVN-AMV
- RVN-2 Wagga Wagga
- AMV-4 AlburyAlbury, New South WalesAlbury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...
11-8 (later Northern Rivers Television)
- NRN-11 Coffs Harbour
- RTN-8 LismoreLismore, New South WalesLismore is a subtropical town in northeastern New South Wales, Australia. Lismore is the main population centre in the City of Lismore local government area. Lismore is a regional centre in the Northern Rivers region of the State.-History:...
A partnership between NRN-11 Coffs Harbour and ECN-8 Taree
Taree, New South Wales
Taree is a city on the Mid North Coast, New South Wales, Australia. Taree and nearby Cundletown were settled in 1831 by William Wynter. Since then Taree has grown to a population of around 20,000 people and is the centre of a significant agricultural district. It is 16 km from the sea coast,...
was split up when NRN joined RTN-8 to form Northern Rivers Television in 1971. ECN later went into partnership with NEN-9 Tamworth
Tamworth, New South Wales
Tamworth is a city in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Peel River, Tamworth, which contains an estimated population of 47,595 people, is the major regional centre for southern New England and in the local government area of Tamworth Regional Council. The city...
.
All television stations in Australia, including regional stations, were required to convert to colour transmission in 1975.
1980s
Stations continued to form various partnerships and networks throughout the 1980s.North Queensland Television
- TNQ-7 Townsville
- FNQ-10 Cairns
The SIX Network (later Television Victoria)
- GMV-6 Shepparton
- BTV-6 Ballarat
- STV-8 Mildura (joined network after purchase by Ent Ltd.)
TV8 (later Southern Cross TV8 and then, Southern Cross Network)
- GLV-8GLV-8GLV and BCV, better known collectively as Southern Cross Ten Victoria, are television stations in regional Victoria, Australia.-Early years:...
GippslandGippslandGippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south... - BCV-8 Bendigo
- STV-8 Mildura (split from network after purchase by Ent Ltd.)
TasTV
- TVT-6TVT-6TVT is the first provincial television station in Australia and Hobart's, and Tasmania's, first television station, delivering its first official broadcast on 23 May 1960. The callsign stood for "TeleVision Tasmania"....
HobartHobartHobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as... - TNT-9TNT-9TNT Launceston is a television station based in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. Originally broadcasting only to Launceston and Northern Tasmania, it has broadcast to the whole of Tasmania since aggregation of the Tasmanian television market in 1994...
LauncestonLaunceston, TasmaniaLaunceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...
(split from network in 1989 to become Southern Cross)
Golden West Network
- BTW-3 BunburyBunbury, Western AustraliaThe port city of Bunbury is the third largest city in Western Australia after the State Capital Perth and Mandurah. It is situated south of Perth's central business district...
- GSW-9 AlbanyAlbany, Western AustraliaAlbany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
- VEW-8 Kalgoorlie
- GTW-11 Geraldton
In order for the metropolitan 0-10 Network to become Network 10, a number of regional stations were required to move to different frequencies. These included GLV-10 in Gippsland, who moved to channel 8 in order to allow ATV-0 Melbourne to move to channel 10 in 1980. DDQ-10 and TVQ-0 switched channels to become DDQ-0 and TVQ-10, and SEQ10 became SEQ55 in 1988.
The last regional station to launch before aggregation launched unofficially on 2 January 1988 - IMP-9, Imparja Television
Imparja Television
Imparja Television is an Australian television network servicing remote eastern and central Australia, that began broadcasting on 2 January 1988. It is based in Alice Springs, where it has a studio and satellite uplink facility. Notably, it is controlled by Australian Aborigines through ownership...
in Alice Springs, began transmission via the AUSSAT
Optus fleet of satellites
This is a list of the satellites operated by Optus, an Australian telecommunications company. The satellite communications facility is located at Belrose on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.-A-Class:*Satellite Type: Hughes HS-376...
satellites, as well as a number of terrestrial transmitters.
Aggregation
The Hawke Labor governmentBob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
of the 1980s introduced a system of regional equalisation, known as aggregation, which would provide regional viewers with the same viewing choice as their metropolitan cousins.
Local stations protested at this proposal, arguing that their profits would fall, and that local output would also decrease. They offered their own proposal, whereby the existing operator would be allowed to operate relays of the other two networks, allowing a combination of both viewer choice and local programming. If NBN were to take the Nine affiliation, for example, their two relays would offer programs from the Seven and Ten networks, direct from Sydney. This proposal was, however, rejected.
The new system would allow stations to transmit into neighbouring markets, as an affiliate of one of the three metropolitan networks. For instance, before aggregation, there were three separate licence areas in northern New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
- Newcastle
Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
, New England
New England (Australia)
New England or New England North West is the name given to a generally undefined region about 60 kilometres inland, that includes the Northern Tablelands and the North West Slopes regions in the north of the state of New South Wales, Australia.-History:The region has been occupied by Indigenous...
, and the Mid North Coast, each served by a single commercial station. After aggregation, these three licence areas merged, with the three stations in direct competition for viewers.
Soon after realising they had lost their battle with the government, the stations began to organise affiliations with metro networks. Stations that hadn't joined forces beforehand began to merge and form new networks:
Vision Television (later Star Television)
- RTQ-7 RockhamptonRockhamptonRockhampton can refer to:* Rockhampton, Queensland is a city in Queensland, Australia* Rockhampton City, Queensland, a suburb of Rockhampton, Queensland* Electoral district of Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia...
- DDQ-0 Toowoomba
The Prime Network (later Prime Television
Prime Television
PRIME7 is an Australian television network owned by Prime Media Group Limited. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as CBN/CWN in Orange and Dubbo, New South Wales, and has since expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as a Seven Network...
)
- CWN-6 Dubbo (previously part of Midstate 6-8-9)
- CBN-8 OrangeOrange, New South WalesOrange is a city in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney, at an altitude of . Orange has an estimated population of 39,329 and the city is a major provincial centre....
(previously part of Midstate 6-8-9) - MTN-9MTN-9MTN-9 and AMN-31 are television stations that are licensed to, and serve Griffith and the surrounding Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area . MTN-9 is a primary Nine Network affiliate via WIN Television and AMN-31 is a primary Seven Network affiliate via Prime Television...
GriffithGriffith, New South WalesGriffith is a city in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith local government area. Like the Australian capital, Canberra and the nearby town of Leeton, Griffith was designed by Walter Burley Griffin. Griffith was named after Sir Arthur Griffith the...
(previously part of Midstate 6-8-9, split from network in 1989 to affiliate with WIN TelevisionWIN TelevisionWIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
) - RVN-2 Wagga Wagga (previously part of RVN-AMV)
- AMV-4 AlburyAlbury, New South WalesAlbury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...
(previously part of RVN-AMV)
Sunshine Television Network (callsign STQ)
- SEQ-8 MaryboroughMaryborough, QueenslandMaryborough is a city located on the Mary River in South East Queensland, Australia, approximately north of the state capital, Brisbane. The city is serviced by the Bruce Highway, and has a population of approximately 22,000 . It is closely tied to its neighbour city Hervey Bay which is...
- MVQ-6 MackayMackay, QueenslandMackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
Southern New South Wales was the first area to be formed, in two phases (as a result of problems in Orange and Wagga), starting on 31 March 1989. WIN Television
WIN Television
WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
Wollongong (WIN-4) became an affiliate of the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
, The Prime Network
Prime Television
PRIME7 is an Australian television network owned by Prime Media Group Limited. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as CBN/CWN in Orange and Dubbo, New South Wales, and has since expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as a Seven Network...
became a Seven
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
affiliate, and Capital Television Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
(CTC-7) became a Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
affiliate.
The next area to be aggregated was Queensland, which took place on 31 December 1990. TVQ was to become a Nine affiliate, Star Television a Network Ten affiliate, and the Sunshine Television Network a Seven affiliate, however in the work before aggregation was due to take place, WIN Television
WIN Television
WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
bought Star Television and gave them the Nine affiliation - meaning that TVQ was forced to change its affiliation to Network Ten. A year later, northern New South Wales was aggregated. NBN Television
NBN Television
NBN Television is a television station based in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. The station was inaugurated on 4 March 1962 as the first regional commercial television station in New South Wales, and has since expanded to 39 transmitters throughout the northern half of New South Wales and...
became the Nine Network affiliate, while the Seven Network would be carried by Prime Television
Prime Television
PRIME7 is an Australian television network owned by Prime Media Group Limited. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as CBN/CWN in Orange and Dubbo, New South Wales, and has since expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as a Seven Network...
. Northern Rivers Television became the Ten affiliate.
Aggregation in Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
took place between 1992 and 1993. VIC TV became a Nine Network affiliate, Prime Television the Seven affiliate, and SCN
Southern Cross Ten
Southern Cross Ten is an Australian television channel broadcast by the Macquarie Media Group in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia. The channel is owned by the Macquarie Media Group as is affiliated to Network Ten...
the Ten affiliate. Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
was aggregated in 1994, albeit with only two stations - Southern Cross
Southern Cross Television
Southern Cross Television, or Southern Cross, is an Australian television network available in Tasmania, Darwin, Regional South Australia, and Central Australia. Although the programming varies from region to region, all areas are affiliated with the Seven Network and, in some areas, have a dual...
became a dual Seven and Ten affiliate, while TAS TV took programming from the Nine Network.
Remote and Central Australia was the final area to be aggregated - one of the largest geographical licence areas, taking in parts of the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
, western Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, and other areas in which terrestrial television
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
signals cannot be received. Stations broadcast to this area mainly through satellite
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
or re-transmission stations. Imparja Television
Imparja Television
Imparja Television is an Australian television network servicing remote eastern and central Australia, that began broadcasting on 2 January 1988. It is based in Alice Springs, where it has a studio and satellite uplink facility. Notably, it is controlled by Australian Aborigines through ownership...
, based in Alice Springs, became a dual Nine and Ten affiliate, while Seven Central became a Seven affiliate.
A number of areas were not aggregated, due to their small size and relative inability to support more than one commercial station - these included Griffith, Mildura, Darwin and regional Western Australia.
1990s
Throughout the 1990s, a number of changes relating to local programming and identity began to take place - the first of which was to occur for NRTV, bought out by QTV's owners, Telecasters Australia in 1993. Soon after, both stations took on generic Network Ten branding with the name Ten Northern New South Wales and Ten Queensland. Local news services were also axed in most of these areas with the exception of Townsville and Cairns. Similarly, the Southern Cross Network in Victoria changed its name and logo to a pseudo-Ten SCN design. The same network later axed local news services and changed its name to Ten Victoria, in line with moves taken by the Telecasters Australia-owned stations in New South Wales and Queensland.NBN Television
NBN Television
NBN Television is a television station based in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. The station was inaugurated on 4 March 1962 as the first regional commercial television station in New South Wales, and has since expanded to 39 transmitters throughout the northern half of New South Wales and...
made similar moves in 1993, when it launched a new logo based on that of the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
at the time. Sunshine Television was purchased by the Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
in 1995 and became nearly identical to the network's metropolitan stations under the name Seven Queensland.
A second commercial licence was made available for single-licence areas such as Mildura, Griffith
Griffith, New South Wales
Griffith is a city in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith local government area. Like the Australian capital, Canberra and the nearby town of Leeton, Griffith was designed by Walter Burley Griffin. Griffith was named after Sir Arthur Griffith the...
, and Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
. Incumbent stations were permitted to apply for the new licence under Section 73 of the Broadcasting Services Act, 1992, however only if the Australian Broadcasting Authority
Australian Broadcasting Authority
The Australian Broadcasting Authority was an Australian government agency whose main roles were to regulate broadcasting, radiocommunications and telecommunications....
, at the time, felt that there was no other operator who would be interested or able to operate a new station in the area. The ABA initially denied all three stations the ability to operate the new licences.
A joint complaint to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal against the ABA and Imparja Television in 1996 found in favour of MTN-9 but against the other incumbent stations. In both the Darwin and Mildura cases, it was determined that Imparja satisfied the ABA's criteria of being in a position to run a second service in the area. Prime Television's applications in both Griffith and Mildura, for the purposes of the appeal, were rejected on the grounds of insufficient local coverage.
When the auction process ended in late 1996, however, Prime was awarded the Mildura licence for $3.2 million, and commenced broadcasting with the callsign PTV-32 in 1997. Telecasters Australia launched Seven Darwin using TND-34
TND-34
TND is the call-sign for the Southern Cross Television station in Darwin, Northern Territory. The station, launched in 1998 as Seven Darwin and broadcasting to the greater Darwin region, serving around 100,000 people, is owned by the Macquarie Media Group...
in the same year, followed a $2.1 million bid for the licence.
In the same year, an amendment was made to the Broadcasting Services Act affirming the ability of existing broadcasters in one and two commercial station markets to apply for "supplementary licences". These new licences allowed either a single incumbent or group of incumbents working together to run an additional channel.
In the then-single station markets, applying existing broadcasters gained both analog and digital licences for a new channel. In two station markets, the two existing broadcasters were allowed to form joint ventures to later bid for digital-only licences following the introduction of digital terrestrial television in Australia in 2001. The new licences were known as section 38A and 38B licences, respectively, after the relevant sections in the Broadcasting Services Act. Remote Central and Eastern Australia remains the only licence area without one of these stations either proposed or currently available.
The name "Section 38A" refers to the applicable section of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 which grants such rights to solus operators.
Using its Section 38A licence, MTN-9 was able to begin their supplementary service in 1997 using the callsign AMN-31. The new station carried almost all of sister Prime Television
Prime Television
PRIME7 is an Australian television network owned by Prime Media Group Limited. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as CBN/CWN in Orange and Dubbo, New South Wales, and has since expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as a Seven Network...
station CBN-8's Prime programming with the exception of local news and major sporting events broadcast by Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
. This was allocated on 1996-07-18, and went to air in 1997, after being initially rejected by the Australian Broadcasting Authority
Australian Broadcasting Authority
The Australian Broadcasting Authority was an Australian government agency whose main roles were to regulate broadcasting, radiocommunications and telecommunications....
. It is a feed of the Central West NSW version of Prime Television, and is licensed as AMN, broadcasting on UHF 31. A second licence for remote Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, one of the last remaining solus markets, was put up for auction in 1998. WIN Television
WIN Television
WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
won the ability to broadcast to the entire regional Western Australia market (as opposed to GWN
Golden West Network
GWN7 is an Australian television network owned by the Prime Media Group that is based in Bunbury, Western Australia. The Golden West Network launched on 10 March 1967 as BTW-3 in Bunbury, and has since expanded to cover regional and remote Western Australia, servicing all areas except metropolitan...
, which held separate licences in various areas), and subsequently launched its new station WOW
WOW (TV station)
WOW is an Australian television station licensed to WIN Television, serving regional and remote Western Australia. The station officially commenced transmissions on 26 March 1999 as the second commercial regional broadcaster in Western Australia, alongside former monopoly, Golden West Network...
in 1999. In the same year, WIN purchased Griffith affiliate MTN-9
MTN-9
MTN-9 and AMN-31 are television stations that are licensed to, and serve Griffith and the surrounding Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area . MTN-9 is a primary Nine Network affiliate via WIN Television and AMN-31 is a primary Seven Network affiliate via Prime Television...
, as well as SES-8
SES/RTS
SES/RTS, part of the WIN Television network, are Australian television stations licensed to, and serving Mount Gambier and Riverland in South Australia. The station commenced transmissions on 25 March 1966.-History:...
Mount Gambier and RTS-5a Riverland.
2000s-present
In 2000 Southern Cross BroadcastingSouthern Cross Broadcasting
Southern Cross Broadcasting Limited was a diversified Australian media company, that owned and operated a variety of media businesses, primarily radio and television.-History:...
bought out both Telecasters Australia and Central GTS/BKN, subsequently removing any remaining local references, and rebranding its new stations with the 'Southern Cross' name. Supplementary licences were also issued to SCB and WIN in parts of regional South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
and Broken Hill
Broken Hill, New South Wales
-Geology:Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the...
, while at the same time, local programming was cut. The remote Eastern and remote Central licence areas were also merged at this time, amongst the last to be aggregated.
The solus operators in the regional licence areas of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
have been granted an 38A licence, being allocated on 2002-04-24.Spencer Gulf
Spencer Gulf
The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost of two large inlets on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. The Gulf is 322 km long and 129 km wide at its mouth. The western shore of the Gulf is the Eyre Peninsula, while the eastern side is the...
/Broken Hill
Broken Hill, New South Wales
-Geology:Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the...
: Central GTS/BKN, owned by Southern Cross Broadcasting
Southern Cross Broadcasting
Southern Cross Broadcasting Limited was a diversified Australian media company, that owned and operated a variety of media businesses, primarily radio and television.-History:...
was granted callsigns SGS and SCN, and branded as Southern Cross Ten
Southern Cross Ten
Southern Cross Ten is an Australian television channel broadcast by the Macquarie Media Group in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia. The channel is owned by the Macquarie Media Group as is affiliated to Network Ten...
, carrying Ten Network programming.
- RenmarkRenmark, South AustraliaRenmark is a town in South Australia's rural Riverland area, and is located 254 km northeast of Adelaide, on the banks of the River Murray. The Sturt Highway between Adelaide and Sydney runs through the town; Renmark is the last major town encountered in South Australia when driving this route. It...
/LoxtonLoxton, South AustraliaLoxton is a town on the south bank of the River Murray in the Riverland region of South Australia. At the 2006 census, Loxton had a population of 3,431....
and Mount GambierMount Gambier, South AustraliaMount Gambier is the largest regional city in South Australia located approximately 450 kilometres south of the capital Adelaide and just 17 kilometres from the Victorian border....
: WIN TelevisionWIN TelevisionWIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
South Australia, owners of existing stations SES-8SES/RTSSES/RTS, part of the WIN Television network, are Australian television stations licensed to, and serving Mount Gambier and Riverland in South Australia. The station commenced transmissions on 25 March 1966.-History:...
and RTS-5A. Granted callsigns LRS and MGS, branded as WIN Ten, carrying Ten Network programming.
In more recent years, the premise has been extended to allow for two station markets where there are two different owners to apply, either separately or jointly, to operate a digital
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
-only third station. These are known as "Section 38B" licences, and were created by the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Digital Television and Datacasting) Act 2000.
Section 38B allows current operators to apply for the additional licence either as a joint venture
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...
company, or separately; in the case where both operators apply separately to ACMA, the licence is to be allocated via auction. However, as of 2007 all of the licences so far granted under section 38B have been to joint ventures between existing operators. These licences were awarded to Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
(Tasmanian Digital Television
Tasmanian Digital Television
Tasmanian Digital Television is a digital television station in Tasmania, Australia. It is jointly owned by the WIN Corporation and Macquarie Media Group, and largely managed by WIN Television.-Introduction:...
, owned by WIN and Southern Cross), Mildura (Mildura Digital Television
Mildura Digital Television
Ten Mildura is a joint venture television station between Prime Media Group and Win Television. Based in Mildura, Victoria, Australia, it is a digital-only Network Ten affiliate, and began broadcasting on 1 January 2006....
, owned by WIN and Prime), and Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
(Darwin Digital Television, owned by PBL Media and Southern Cross).
The axing of local news services by Prime Television
Prime Television
PRIME7 is an Australian television network owned by Prime Media Group Limited. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as CBN/CWN in Orange and Dubbo, New South Wales, and has since expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as a Seven Network...
and Southern Cross Broadcasting
Southern Cross Broadcasting
Southern Cross Broadcasting Limited was a diversified Australian media company, that owned and operated a variety of media businesses, primarily radio and television.-History:...
in Newcastle, Wollongong, Queensland, Darwin and remote Central & Eastern Australia triggered a review of local content regulations by the Australian Broadcasting Authority
Australian Broadcasting Authority
The Australian Broadcasting Authority was an Australian government agency whose main roles were to regulate broadcasting, radiocommunications and telecommunications....
. The ABA later ruled, in 2003, that a minimum level of local content should be provided in the four largest regional licence areas. Prime and Southern Cross responded to this by launching two-minute bulletins for all affected regions from areas in which local news was already produced, as well as in Southern Cross Ten
Southern Cross Ten
Southern Cross Ten is an Australian television channel broadcast by the Macquarie Media Group in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia. The channel is owned by the Macquarie Media Group as is affiliated to Network Ten...
's case the current affairs program State Focus, and on Prime Television
Prime Television
PRIME7 is an Australian television network owned by Prime Media Group Limited. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as CBN/CWN in Orange and Dubbo, New South Wales, and has since expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as a Seven Network...
, a Saturday morning children's programme Saturday Club.
In December 2003, the first digital-only commercial television station was launched, Tasmanian Digital Television
Tasmanian Digital Television
Tasmanian Digital Television is a digital television station in Tasmania, Australia. It is jointly owned by the WIN Corporation and Macquarie Media Group, and largely managed by WIN Television.-Introduction:...
, operating on a supplementary licence owned jointly by WIN Television and Southern Cross. Similarly, Mildura Digital Television
Mildura Digital Television
Ten Mildura is a joint venture television station between Prime Media Group and Win Television. Based in Mildura, Victoria, Australia, it is a digital-only Network Ten affiliate, and began broadcasting on 1 January 2006....
(a similar joint venture between WIN and Prime) began broadcasting in 2006 to Mildura, offering exclusive Ten based programming for the first time in the area. It is a direct feed of Ten Melbourne
ATV-10
ATV is a television station in Melbourne, Australia, part of Network Ten - one of the three major Australian commercial television networks.-History:...
with local advertising. Darwin Digital Television opened transmission on 28 April 2008.
The Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
's owner, PBL Media
PBL Media
Nine Entertainment Co. is a media company owned by CVC Asia Pacific.Originally a 50/50 joint venture with Consolidated Media Holdings, in June 2007 PBL announced that it would sell a further 25% to CVC for A$ 515 million...
, purchased affiliate station NBN Television
NBN Television
NBN Television is a television station based in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. The station was inaugurated on 4 March 1962 as the first regional commercial television station in New South Wales, and has since expanded to 39 transmitters throughout the northern half of New South Wales and...
from its owners SP Telemedia, in May 2007.
Three-station Markets
The majority of these licence areas are on the more densely-populated east coast, in which three commercial stations are each affiliated to the Seven NetworkSeven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
, Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
and Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
from their respective capital cities. In addition to these, digital and analogue television channels from ABC Television
ABC Television
ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas....
, SBS Television and Community TV are also available. The majority of these areas were aggregated in the early 1990s.
Northern New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
- Prime TelevisionPrime TelevisionPRIME7 is an Australian television network owned by Prime Media Group Limited. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as CBN/CWN in Orange and Dubbo, New South Wales, and has since expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as a Seven Network...
(Seven) - NBN TelevisionNBN TelevisionNBN Television is a television station based in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. The station was inaugurated on 4 March 1962 as the first regional commercial television station in New South Wales, and has since expanded to 39 transmitters throughout the northern half of New South Wales and...
(Nine) - Southern Cross TenSouthern Cross TenSouthern Cross Ten is an Australian television channel broadcast by the Macquarie Media Group in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia. The channel is owned by the Macquarie Media Group as is affiliated to Network Ten...
(Ten)
Southern New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
& ACT
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
- Prime TelevisionPrime TelevisionPRIME7 is an Australian television network owned by Prime Media Group Limited. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as CBN/CWN in Orange and Dubbo, New South Wales, and has since expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as a Seven Network...
(Seven) - WIN TelevisionWIN TelevisionWIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
(Nine) - Southern Cross TenSouthern Cross TenSouthern Cross Ten is an Australian television channel broadcast by the Macquarie Media Group in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia. The channel is owned by the Macquarie Media Group as is affiliated to Network Ten...
(Ten)
Regional Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
- Prime TelevisionPrime TelevisionPRIME7 is an Australian television network owned by Prime Media Group Limited. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as CBN/CWN in Orange and Dubbo, New South Wales, and has since expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as a Seven Network...
(Seven) - WIN TelevisionWIN TelevisionWIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
(Nine) - Southern Cross TenSouthern Cross TenSouthern Cross Ten is an Australian television channel broadcast by the Macquarie Media Group in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia. The channel is owned by the Macquarie Media Group as is affiliated to Network Ten...
(Ten)
Regional Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
- Seven QueenslandSeven QueenslandSeven Queensland is an Australian television station, licensed to, and serving the regional areas of Queensland. The station is owned and operated by the Seven Network from studios located in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, using the callsign STQ, which stands for Sunshine Television,...
(Seven) - WIN TelevisionWIN TelevisionWIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
(Nine) - Southern Cross TenSouthern Cross TenSouthern Cross Ten is an Australian television channel broadcast by the Macquarie Media Group in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia. The channel is owned by the Macquarie Media Group as is affiliated to Network Ten...
(Ten)
Two-station Markets
In these licence areas, two commercial stations, one with a single affiliation to a network and the other with a combination of two metropolitan networks, are available as well as, in some areas, a joint-venture third channel owned by the two existing stations, typically digitalDigital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
-only. Although many of these areas are technically three-station markets, they are considered to have two stations due to the nature of the third, supplementary licence.
Areas with supplementary licences
TasmaniaTasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
- Southern Cross Tasmania (Seven)
- WIN Television (Nine)
- Tasmanian Digital TelevisionTasmanian Digital TelevisionTasmanian Digital Television is a digital television station in Tasmania, Australia. It is jointly owned by the WIN Corporation and Macquarie Media Group, and largely managed by WIN Television.-Introduction:...
(Ten, digital-only)
Mildura/Sunraysia
Sunraysia
Sunraysia is an area of northwestern Victoria and southwestern New South Wales in Australia, known for its sunshine, grapes and oranges. Its main centre is Mildura....
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
and New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
- Prime Television (Seven)
- WIN MilduraSTV (TV station)STV is an Australian television station licensed to and serving the regions surrounding Mildura, Victoria, owned and operated by the WIN Corporation and part of the WIN Television network. The station commenced transmissions on November 27, 1965...
(Nine) - Mildura Digital TelevisionMildura Digital TelevisionTen Mildura is a joint venture television station between Prime Media Group and Win Television. Based in Mildura, Victoria, Australia, it is a digital-only Network Ten affiliate, and began broadcasting on 1 January 2006....
(Ten, digital-only)
Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
, Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
- Southern Cross DarwinTND-34TND is the call-sign for the Southern Cross Television station in Darwin, Northern Territory. The station, launched in 1998 as Seven Darwin and broadcasting to the greater Darwin region, serving around 100,000 people, is owned by the Macquarie Media Group...
(Seven) - Channel Nine DarwinNTD-8NTD is an Australian television station, licensed to and serving Darwin, Palmerston and surrounds. The station is owned by the Nine Entertainment Co., and is an owned-and-operated station of the Nine Network, under the company name Territory Television Pty...
(Nine) - Darwin Digital Television (Ten, digital-only)
South-Eastern South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
and the Riverland
Riverland
The Riverland, is a region of South Australia. It covers the area near the Murray River from where it flows into South Australia downstream to Blanchetown.The major town centres are Renmark, Berri, Loxton, Waikerie and Barmera...
- WIN SA (Seven)
- WIN Nine (Nine, supplementary)
- WIN TenWIN TelevisionWIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
(Ten, supplementary)
Regional and Remote Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
- Golden West NetworkGolden West NetworkGWN7 is an Australian television network owned by the Prime Media Group that is based in Bunbury, Western Australia. The Golden West Network launched on 10 March 1967 as BTW-3 in Bunbury, and has since expanded to cover regional and remote Western Australia, servicing all areas except metropolitan...
(Seven) - WIN TelevisionWOW (TV station)WOW is an Australian television station licensed to WIN Television, serving regional and remote Western Australia. The station officially commenced transmissions on 26 March 1999 as the second commercial regional broadcaster in Western Australia, alongside former monopoly, Golden West Network...
(Nine/Ten) - Ten WestTen WestTen West is the official name for a digital television station broadcasting in rural Western Australia. It is jointly owned by the WIN Corporation and Prime Television Limited and is an affiliate of Network Ten, broadcasting a direct feed of NEW-10 from Perth....
(Ten, digital-only)
Areas without supplementary licences
Remote Eastern and Central Australia- Southern Cross Central (Seven)
- Imparja TelevisionImparja TelevisionImparja Television is an Australian television network servicing remote eastern and central Australia, that began broadcasting on 2 January 1988. It is based in Alice Springs, where it has a studio and satellite uplink facility. Notably, it is controlled by Australian Aborigines through ownership...
(Nine) - Ten Central (Ten, digital-only)
Griffith
Griffith, New South Wales
Griffith is a city in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith local government area. Like the Australian capital, Canberra and the nearby town of Leeton, Griffith was designed by Walter Burley Griffin. Griffith was named after Sir Arthur Griffith the...
/MIA
Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area
The Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area is geographically located within the Riverina area of New South Wales was created to control and divert the flow of local river and creek systems for the purpose of food production...
, New South Wales
- Prime Television (Seven, supplementary)
- WIN Griffith (Nine)
- Channel Ten Griffith (Ten, digital only)
Spencer Gulf
Spencer Gulf
The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost of two large inlets on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. The Gulf is 322 km long and 129 km wide at its mouth. The western shore of the Gulf is the Eyre Peninsula, while the eastern side is the...
/Broken Hill, New South Wales
Broken Hill, New South Wales
-Geology:Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the...
- Southern Cross GTS/BKN (Seven)
- Channel Nine western South Australia (Nine)
- Southern Cross Ten (Ten, supplementary)
Programming
The second is the "state feed", content that is broadcast to the entire state or territory. It comprises mainly state news, as well as current affairs programs and station promotions. This is usually the case in Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
and Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. The third is the "local feed", content broadcast to a specific market, such as local news and advertising.
Original Programming
In order to fulfil regulations put in place by the Australian Communications and Media AuthorityAustralian Communications and Media Authority
The Australian Communications and Media Authority is an Australian government statutory authority within the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy portfolio...
, the majority of regional networks are required to provide original, locally-targeted output such as news, current affairs, or children's programmes.
WIN Television
WIN Television
WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
, Australia's largest regional network, produces a number of programs including sports magazine show Fishing Australia
Fishing Australia
Fishing Australia is an Australian fishing television program, produced by WIN Television.The informative program first premiered in 2001 and is broadcast on WIN Television each Saturday...
, cooking show Alive and Cooking
Alive and Cooking
Alive and Cooking is an Australian television cooking show hosted by James Reeson. It is produced by WIN Television and airs on a number of television channels within Australia.- History :...
, and travel shows Destinations
Destinations
Girl Scout Destinations, formerly Wider Opportunities or Wider Ops, are events for individual Girl Scouts hosted by GSUSA or individual Girl Scout councils...
and Postcards Australia
Postcards (TV series)
Postcards Australia and Postcards are Australian holiday and travel television series. The shows are produced by WIN Television and Channel 9 Adelaide...
. Southern Cross Television
Southern Cross Television
Southern Cross Television, or Southern Cross, is an Australian television network available in Tasmania, Darwin, Regional South Australia, and Central Australia. Although the programming varies from region to region, all areas are affiliated with the Seven Network and, in some areas, have a dual...
in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
airs Hook, Line and Sinker alongside a range of other regional programs.
Both Prime Television
Prime Television
PRIME7 is an Australian television network owned by Prime Media Group Limited. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as CBN/CWN in Orange and Dubbo, New South Wales, and has since expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as a Seven Network...
and Golden West Network
Golden West Network
GWN7 is an Australian television network owned by the Prime Media Group that is based in Bunbury, Western Australia. The Golden West Network launched on 10 March 1967 as BTW-3 in Bunbury, and has since expanded to cover regional and remote Western Australia, servicing all areas except metropolitan...
produce their own versions of The Saturday Club. Prime also produces country music show A Little Bit of Country as well as an agricultural news program, On the Land. Imparja Television
Imparja Television
Imparja Television is an Australian television network servicing remote eastern and central Australia, that began broadcasting on 2 January 1988. It is based in Alice Springs, where it has a studio and satellite uplink facility. Notably, it is controlled by Australian Aborigines through ownership...
also produce various local indigenous programs, as well as Yamba's Playtime
Yamba's Playtime
Yamba's Playtime is Australian children's television program, was broadcast on Imparja Television, Yamba the Honey Ant is much-loved pre-school show from the Alice Springs.The program is currently screens on Friday afternoons...
, a daily show for pre-school children. Most Imparja-produced programming is also shown on National Indigenous Television
National Indigenous Television
National Indigenous Television, commonly referred to as NITV, is an Australian television network broadcasting throughout Australia via satellite.-History:...
.
News
ACMAAustralian Communications and Media Authority
The Australian Communications and Media Authority is an Australian government statutory authority within the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy portfolio...
regulations have, since 2003, required stations to provide minimum levels of local news and other content.
- WIN TelevisionWIN TelevisionWIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
produces 30-minute local bulletins on weekdays for each of its 20 coverage areas, followed by the 6pm edition of Nine News relevant to their state. In TasmaniaTasmaniaTasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
however, WIN News covers local, national and international news on weeknights with the Melbourne edition of Nine News airing at weekends. WIN also produces state-wide late news programs for regional Queensland and southern New South Wales & the ACT on weeknights. - NBN TelevisionNBN TelevisionNBN Television is a television station based in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. The station was inaugurated on 4 March 1962 as the first regional commercial television station in New South Wales, and has since expanded to 39 transmitters throughout the northern half of New South Wales and...
produces an hour-long bulletin for its entire coverage area, NBN News, which includes regional, national & international on weekdays alongside opt-outs for its six markets. A half-hour bulletin is shown on weekends. - Prime7 produces 30-minute local bulletins on weekdays in AlburyAlbury, New South WalesAlbury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...
-WodongaWodonga, VictoriaWodonga is a small city on the Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, north-east of Melbourne, Australia. Adjacent to Wodonga across the border is the New South Wales city of Albury. Wodonga is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Wodonga LGA...
, OrangeOrange, New South WalesOrange is a city in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney, at an altitude of . Orange has an estimated population of 39,329 and the city is a major provincial centre....
/Dubbo, TamworthTamworth, New South WalesTamworth is a city in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Peel River, Tamworth, which contains an estimated population of 47,595 people, is the major regional centre for southern New England and in the local government area of Tamworth Regional Council. The city...
and Wagga Wagga, as well as in Western AustraliaWestern AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
under the name GWN7 News. In other broadcast areas, it produces two-minute news updates to fulfil quota requirements. - Seven QueenslandSTQSTQ is the call sign of a regional television station in Queensland, Australia.It can also mean:*STQ, the IATA airport code for St. Marys Municipal Airport in Pennsylvania*STQ, the ISO language code for the Saterland Frisian language*Skill testing question...
produces 30-minute local bulletins in six of its seven coverage areas (Cairns, Townsville, MackayMackay, QueenslandMackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
, Central QueenslandCentral QueenslandCentral Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast and the area extends west to the Central Highlands at Emerald, north to the Mackay Regional...
, Wide Bay-BurnettWide Bay-BurnettWide Bay-Burnett is a region of the Australian state of Queensland, located between 170 and 400 kilometres north of the state capital, Brisbane. The area's population growth has exceeded the state average over the past 20 years, and it is forecast to grow to more than 430,000 by 2031...
and the Sunshine CoastSunshine Coast, QueenslandThe Sunshine Coast is an urban area in South East Queensland, north of the state capital of Brisbane on the Pacific Ocean coastline. Although it does not have a central business district, by population it ranks as the 10th largest metropolis in Australia and the third largest in...
. - The Nine Network's Brisbane affiliateQTQ-9QTQ is an Australian television station, licensed to, and serving Brisbane, Queensland. It is owned by the Nine Entertainment Co., and is part of the Nine Network. It broadcasts on VHF channel 9 and VHF channel 8 . QTQ began broadcasting on 16 August 1959, the first of the Brisbane stations to...
produces a 30-minute bulletin on weeknights for the Gold CoastGold Coast, QueenslandGold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
, airing as an opt-out on the station's Gold Coast transmitters. - Southern Cross TelevisionSouthern Cross TelevisionSouthern Cross Television, or Southern Cross, is an Australian television network available in Tasmania, Darwin, Regional South Australia, and Central Australia. Although the programming varies from region to region, all areas are affiliated with the Seven Network and, in some areas, have a dual...
in Tasmania produces a 30-minute nightly bulletin incorporating local, national & international news and a 30-minute local bulletin on weeknights for the Spencer Gulf/Broken HillBroken Hill, New South Wales-Geology:Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the...
area of South AustraliaSouth AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. For the remote central and eastern Australia licence area, Southern Cross Central and Imparja TelevisionImparja TelevisionImparja Television is an Australian television network servicing remote eastern and central Australia, that began broadcasting on 2 January 1988. It is based in Alice Springs, where it has a studio and satellite uplink facility. Notably, it is controlled by Australian Aborigines through ownership...
both air short news updates each weekday. - Southern Cross TenSouthern Cross TenSouthern Cross Ten is an Australian television channel broadcast by the Macquarie Media Group in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia. The channel is owned by the Macquarie Media Group as is affiliated to Network Ten...
, similar to Prime7 in some areas, air two-minute local news updates for each of its coverage areas.
In most cases, newsroom staff including reporters, camera crews and producers are based in newsrooms within the coverage area though the news program itself may be presented and broadcast from studios outside the region. For example, news staff for Seven and WIN's Mackay
Mackay, Queensland
Mackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
bulletins are based in the city with the programs themselves presented from Maroochydore and Toowoomba respectively.
Scheduling
The majority of programming in regional areas is shown at the same time as its metropolitan counterpart, with some exceptions, mainly for local news programs. For instance, A Current Affair is shown at 7.00pm rather than 6.30pm on WIN and NBN stations. For similar reasons, Seven QueenslandSeven Queensland
Seven Queensland is an Australian television station, licensed to, and serving the regional areas of Queensland. The station is owned and operated by the Seven Network from studios located in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, using the callsign STQ, which stands for Sunshine Television,...
shows Today Tonight
Today Tonight
Today Tonight is a controversial Australian News and Current Affairs program, produced by the Seven Network and shown weeknightly at in direct competition with rival Nine Network program A Current Affair....
at 4.30pm in place of the network's 4.30 News bulletin.
Many dual-network affiliates, such as WIN WA
WIN Television
WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
, show a combination of two network's programming at differing times of the week. Prime and GWN choose to replace nearly all Seven Network programs between midnight and 6am with infomercials, and along with Southern Cross Ten also replace some morning programs with infomercials.
Recently, WIN Television
WIN Television
WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
has begun to adopt a dramatically different overnight schedule to metropolitan counterpart the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
. In place of Nine's overnight programming, WIN show repeats of WIN News
WIN News
WIN News is a local television news service in parts of regional Australia, produced by WIN Television. 20 regional bulletins are presented from studios in Wollongong, Canberra, Ballarat, Rockhampton, Toowoomba, Mount Gambier, Hobart and Perth.-History:As well as its flagship nightly...
, programs from its Crawfords Australia
Crawford Productions
Crawford Productions is an Australian television production company founded by Hector Crawford; the present incarnation of the company, Crawfords Australia, is now a subsidiary of the WIN television corporation.-History:...
archives, and some Nine programs not shown in their normal timeslot.
Digital television
Since 2007, commercial broadcasters in Australia have been broadcasting additional programming on their HD feeds and, from 2009, on additional SD channels, however access to these new services varies considerably in regional areas.| Region | 7mate 7mate 7mate is an Australian free-to-air high definition digital television channel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 25 September 2010.The network stated that 7mate would contain sport and regular programs aimed primarily at a male audience, with programming drawn from a combination of new... |
7Two 7Two 7TWO is an Australian free-to-air standard definition digital television channel which was launched by the Seven Network on Sunday 1 November 2009 at 12pm.... |
GEM GEM (Australian TV channel) GEM is an Australian free-to-air high definition digital television channel, launched by the Nine Network on Sunday 26 September 2010 at 6am... |
GO | One | Eleven Eleven (TV channel) Eleven is an Australian free-to-air standard definition digital television channel, which was launched by ElevenCo, on 11 January 2011.-Joint venture:... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regional Queensland (STQ STQ STQ is the call sign of a regional television station in Queensland, Australia.It can also mean:*STQ, the IATA airport code for St. Marys Municipal Airport in Pennsylvania*STQ, the ISO language code for the Saterland Frisian language*Skill testing question... , RTQ RTQ RTQ is an Australian television station broadcasting in regional Queensland in Australia. The network was owned by Star Television, before being purchased by the WIN Corporation on 5 October 1988.-Network history:... and TNQ TNQ TNQ is an Australian television station, licensed to, and serving the regional areas of Queensland. The station is owned and operated by Southern Cross Ten.-History:... ) |
Now Available | Available on launch | Available in HD only | Now Available | ||
| Northern NSW (NEN, NBN and NRN NRN NRN is a television station originating in Coffs Harbour, Australia as part of the Southern Cross Ten network. The station was formally a partnership between NRN-11 Coffs Harbour and RTN-8 Lismore .-Origins:... ) |
Now Available | Available since 23 December 2009 | Available on launch | Available in HD only | Now Available | |
| Southern NSW and the ACT (CBN, WIN WIN (TV station) WIN is a television station serving southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. It is the flagship station of the WIN Television network.-WIN News:WIN News produces four regional news bulletins for the area markets covered by WIN.... and CTC CTC (TV station) CTC is a television station in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The station was the tenth to begin transmission in regional Australia, and the 26th station in Australia as a whole.-Origins:... ) |
Now Available | Available since 23 December 2009 | Available on launch | Available in HD only | Now Available | |
| Regional Victoria (AMV, VTV VTV (TV station) VTV is an Australian television station broadcasting in regional Victoria in Australia. The network was owned by ENT Ltd., before being purchased by the WIN Corporation.-Network history:... and GLV/BCV) |
Now Available | Available since 23 December 2009 | Available on launch | Available in HD only | Now Available | |
| Tasmania (AMV, VTV VTV (TV station) VTV is an Australian television station broadcasting in regional Victoria in Australia. The network was owned by ENT Ltd., before being purchased by the WIN Corporation.-Network history:... and TDT) |
Now Available | Available since 1 December 2009 | Available on launch | Available in HD only | Now Available | |
| Darwin (TND TND TND can mean multiple things:* Tomorrow Never Dies, James Bond 007 movie* Tunisian dinar, the ISO 4217 code for the currency of Tunisia* Traditional Neighborhood Development , a form of development associated with New Urbanism... , NTD and DTD DTD (TV station) Darwin Digital Television is a digital television station in Darwin, Northern Territory. It is jointly owned by Nine Entertainment and the Macquarie Media Group .-History:... ) |
Now Available | Available since 1 December 2009 | Available on launch | Available in HD only | Not Available | |
| Mildura (PTV PTV (TV station) PTV is an Australian television station licensed to, and serving the regions surrounding Mildura in Australia. The station commenced transmissions in 1997, when Prime Television won the second television license for Mildura, a non-aggregated market, in competition with WIN Television.Analogue... , STV STV (TV station) STV is an Australian television station licensed to and serving the regions surrounding Mildura, Victoria, owned and operated by the WIN Corporation and part of the WIN Television network. The station commenced transmissions on November 27, 1965... and MDV) |
Now Available | Available since 1 December 2009 | Available on launch | Available in HD only | Now Available | |
| Western S.A. (GTS/BKN) |
Not Available | Not Available | Not Available | Not Available | Available Since January 2011 | |
| Bunbury W.A. (SSW, WOW WOW (TV station) WOW is an Australian television station licensed to WIN Television, serving regional and remote Western Australia. The station officially commenced transmissions on 26 March 1999 as the second commercial regional broadcaster in Western Australia, alongside former monopoly, Golden West Network... and SDW) |
Available Since 28 July 2011 | |||||
| Kalgoorlie W.A. (VEW, WOW WOW (TV station) WOW is an Australian television station licensed to WIN Television, serving regional and remote Western Australia. The station officially commenced transmissions on 26 March 1999 as the second commercial regional broadcaster in Western Australia, alongside former monopoly, Golden West Network... and VDW) Karratha and Margaret River W.A. (WAW, WOW WOW (TV station) WOW is an Australian television station licensed to WIN Television, serving regional and remote Western Australia. The station officially commenced transmissions on 26 March 1999 as the second commercial regional broadcaster in Western Australia, alongside former monopoly, Golden West Network... and WDW) |
Available Since End of October 2011 | |||||
| Mt Burr, Mt Benson, Bordertown, Naracoorte and Keith S.A. | Available Since 10 November 2011 | |||||
Commercial subchannels are unavailable in the rest of the regional areas.