Prime Television

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Prime Television Limited

Type of Company	Public
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Canberra, Australia
Key people	Warwick Syphers, CEO Paul Ramsay, Chairman
Industry	Television network Radio broadcasting
Products	Prime Television Golden West Network (GWN)
Revenue	$207 million AUD (2006)
Employees	512 (2005) [1]
Website	www.primetv.com.au

For the New Zealand television network, see Prime Television New Zealand.

Prime Television is an Australian television network affiliated to the Seven Network in regional New South Wales, the ACT, and Victoria and in Western Australia as Golden West Network. It also broadcasts to Griffith under license through WIN Television.

The stations that combined to form Prime Television were:

AMV-4 Albury/Wodonga
RVN-2 Wagga Wagga
CBN-8 Orange/Central Tablelands
CWN-6 Dubbo/Central Western Slopes
NEN-9 Tamworth
ECN-8 Taree

One station has historically been part of the Prime network of stations, however is now owned by another group:

MTN-9 Griffith (now part of WIN Television)

1 Northern New South Wales
2 Southern New South Wales
3 Victoria
4 Western Australia
5 International
6 Post-aggregation
7 Programming
8 Prime News
9 Digital Broadcasting
10 Radio
11 External links

[edit] Northern New South Wales

NEN-9 Tamworth began on 27 September 1965, with a relay in Armidale (NEN-1, later NEN-10) on 15 July 1966. ECN-8 Taree began on 27 May 1966.

At one stage, ECN-8 was merged with NRN-11 Coffs Harbour (now part of Southern Cross Ten Northern NSW), but they broke away, later merging with NEN-9, forming NEN-9/ECN-8. Before 1991, their logo was a silhouette of an Aboriginal standing one-legged leaning on spears.

Prime Television purchased the station, aligning it with the Seven Network (like its Southern NSW counterparts) and changing ECN-8's call sign to NEN-8. On 31 December 1991, Prime Television became the Northern NSW affiliate of the Seven Network, in competition with NRTV (now Southern Cross Ten) and NBN.

[edit] Southern New South Wales

CBN-8 Orange began on 17 March 1962, and CWN-6 Dubbo began on 1 December 1965, becoming the first station to relay another station's programming completely, and the first regional television network. RVN-2 Wagga Wagga began on 19 June 1964, MTN-9 Griffith began on 15 December 1965.

In the early 1970s, due to the financial difficulties many single-stations faced, MTN-9 joined CWN-6 and CBN-8, forming Television 6, 8, 9, later on becoming Midstate 6, 8, 9. Relays were launched in Portland (4), Lithgow (6), Mudgee (9), Cobar, Kandos and Rylstone (10) and Bathurst (11).

In 1986, RVN/AMV and Midstate 6, 8, 9 merged to become The Prime Network, later to become Prime Television, in readiness for aggregation, and began an affiliation with the Seven Network.

There were problems with aggregation, with transmission problems in the old Orange/Dubbo and Wagga areas. This caused the aggregation to be handled in two stages, the ACT and the South Coast on March 31, 1989, and in the Orange/Dubbo and Wagga on December 31, 1989. It forced the de-merger of RVN-AMV, and RVN-2 became CBN-2.

Griffith wasn't included in aggregation, and as a result, MTN-9 became an affiliate of the Nine Network, the feed came from WIN Television. In 1996, MTN-9 successfully bid for a supplementary license, AMN-31, which is a feed from Prime Television Canberra. In 1996, WIN Television brought MTN/AMN, MTN-9 becoming WIN Television Griffith. AMN-31, though owned by WIN Television, is still branded as Prime Television.

[edit] Victoria

AMV-4 Albury/Wodonga began on 7 September 1964. In 1971, RVN-2 and AMV-4 merged to become the Riverina and North East Victoria Television Service, known on air as RVN-AMV. Five years later, RVN took over transmission of AMV from its Wagga studios. Relays in Young (6) and a second Wagga channel (11) were started in this time.

In 1983, daylight saving time caused problems for RVN-AMV, since NSW and Victoria ended their daylight saving periods at different times. To combat this, RVN's output was recorded, and shown an hour later on AMV for three weeks. Until aggregation, RVN-AMV was in the unique situation of showing different programs in Wagga and in Albury, on what was effectively the one station. Wagga took news and sport (namely rugby league) from Sydney, while Albury received news and sport (Australian rules football) from Melbourne.

In 1986, RVN-AMV and Midstate 6, 8, 9 merged to become The Prime Network, later to become Prime Television, in readiness for aggregation, and began an affiliation with the Seven Network. In December 1989, RVN-AMV de-merged, and AMV became Prime Television Victoria.

Prime became the Seven Network affiliate in Victoria in 1992, competing with Southern Cross Network (later SCN, Ten Victoria, and now Southern Cross Ten Victoria) and Television Victoria (otherwise known as VIC TV, now WIN Television Victoria).

In 1997, Prime won the second license for Mildura, which hadn't been aggregated, in competition with WIN Television. Its callsign is PTV-31.

[edit] Western Australia

Main article: Golden West Network

Golden West Network (GWN) began as four smaller stations; BTW-3 Bunbury, VEW-8 Kalgoorlie, GSW-9 Geraldton and GSW-9 Albany.

In the early 1980s, Jack Bendant purchased BTW/GSW and changed the name to Golden West Network. In 1985, GWN was granted a license to broadcast to remote Western Australia via satellite. GWN acquired VEW-8 in 1985 and GTW-11 in 1987. Current Seven Network chairman Kerry Stokes purchased GWN in 1988.

Prime Television purchased GWN in December 1996. GWN became the Seven affiliate in Western Australia in 1999 following the introduction of WIN Television WA, who acquired the Nine Network and Network Ten affiliations.

[edit] International

In 1997, Prime Television expanded internationally with the purchase of the Canal 9 television network in Argentina, renaming the network Azul Televisión. The collapse of the Argentine economy caused problems for foreign countries, and Prime sold Azul Televisión in 2002.

Prime also expanded into New Zealand and began broadcasting Prime Television New Zealand on 30 August 1998. In 2002, Prime Television New Zealand went into a joint venture with Australian company Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (owners of the Nine Network). Under the agreement, Prime Television was given access to Nine Network programs, expertise and an amount of money. In return, PBL was given the option to acquire 50% of Prime Television New Zealand in five years time. Following this deal, the ratings and profits of Prime Television New Zealand increased significantly. In November 2005, Sky Television purchased Prime for NZ$30 million, subject to Commerce Commission approval and undisclosed conditions.

[edit] Post-aggregation

From 1991 to 1995, Prime used local versions of Seven's IDs, and the "Your Local Station". From 1995 to 2001, Prime used IDs featuring local people and locations, and the slogan "This is Where We Live".

In 2001, Prime began using "7 on Prime" branded IDs, later dropped, and a new logo.

In 2004, Prime finally began using new IDs and a new slogan "Bringing It Home to Me".

[edit] Programming

Prime Possum

Prime's programming schedule is based on that of the Seven Network, aside from limited local programming. Currently, the only regular local programming is:

Prime News (see below)
The Saturday Club, a children's program shown on Saturday mornings at 9.00am featuring network mascot Prime Possum
X:Press, a music program broadcast late Friday nights, repeated Saturday afternoons.

Prime also broadcast Prime InfoNet, short updates listing local community events.

Prime's post-midnight television schedule also differs from the Seven Network feed, containing infomercials from Danoz Direct, Home Shopping, and a feed from pay television channel Expo. Prime rejoin the Seven Network feed at 6.00am for Sunrise.

Past programming from Prime Television has been recognised nationally, with some local productions winning Logie Awards for 'Outstanding Contribution by a Regional Television Station'. Logies were presented for:

Goin' Down The Road (CBN-8, 1979)
Naturally (NEN-9/ECN-8, 1984)
Stranded (Prime Television, 1993)
Rest in Peace (Prime Television, 1994)
No Time For Frailty (Prime Television, 1996)

[edit] Prime News

Prime News is the title of Prime Television's local news service. Only some stations receive full news bulletins, others have short news updates. Markets with full news bulletins include:

Albury/Wodonga

Presenters: Helen Ballard (news and weather), David McHugh (sport)

Orange/Dubbo

Presenter: Alison Reis (news, sport and weather).

Tamworth/Taree

Presenters: Fiona Ferguson (news and weather), John Hyde (sport), Reena Ganga (fill-in presenter)

Wagga Wagga

Presenters: Doug Hogan (news and weather)

Western Australia (under the title Golden West News)

Presenters: Noel Brunning (news), Troy Hynam (sport), Shauna Willis/Chris Mills (weather)

Most bulletins are presented live from local studios. In Orange/Dubbo, Tamworth/Taree and Wagga Wagga, Prime News is broadcast weeknights at 6.00pm, followed by a delayed bulletin of Seven News. In Albury/Wodonga and Western Australia, the bulletin airs at 5.30pm weeknights.

In 2001 Prime stopped news services in Newcastle, Wollongong and Canberra, citing poor ratings, and replaced it with Seven News and Today Tonight. All other services were maintained. Later that year the Australian Broadcasting Authority launched an investigation into the axing of local news programs by Prime and rival Southern Cross Ten. The investigation found that not enough locally produced programs and so the ABA set out new rules forcing all stations in aggregated markets to produce at least 45 minutes of local programming per week. In early 2004, Prime recommenced local news in Newcastle, Wollongong and Canberra in the form of two minute updates.

News Updates Newcastle, Canberra, Wollongong and Victoria (except Albury/Wodonga)

Presenters: Natalie Forrest (news and sport), Daniel Gibson (weather), Kate Mitchell (fill-in presenter)

Weekend Weather Updates

Presenter: Craig Moore

[edit] Digital Broadcasting

Prime has been criticised for its slow roll out of Digital Television. In areas such as Bendigo in central Victoria, Prime is several years behind schedule and will be the last network to begin digital transmissions.