Regional television in Australia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Regional television is a term given to local television services in areas outside of the five main Australian cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth).

Contents

[edit] Three station markets

These markets are on the highly populated east coast. They have three stations each, with each station affiliated to either the Seven Network, the Nine Network or Network Ten. Aggregation in these areas occurred in the early 1990s. They are:

  • Southern New South Wales
    • Prime Television (Seven Network affiliate)
    • WIN Television (Nine Network affiliate)
    • Southern Cross Ten (Network Ten affiliate)
  • Regional Victoria
    • Prime Television (Seven Network affiliate)
    • WIN Television (Nine Network affiliate)
    • Southern Cross Ten (Network Ten affiliate)

[edit] Two station markets transitioning to three

These markets had two analog commercial stations, but after supplementary licences became available in 1998, a third digital-only channel became available. In order to not alienate viewers without digital equipment or outside the area of digital reception, popular programing belonging to the network the new station is affiliated to is also (and in some cases exclusively) broadcast on one of the other two stations. So for the moment at least, the new three channel licence areas don't follow the distinct three-network pattern found elsewhere in Australia.

  • Mildura/Sunraysia, Victoria and New South Wales
    • Prime Television (Seven Network affiliate)
    • WIN Television Mildura (mainly a Nine Network affiliate, takes Network Ten Sport)
    • Mildura Digital Television (Network Ten affiliate) (Supplementary)

[edit] Two station markets

Less populated areas have two commercial stations instead of three. Their conversion from single station markets occurred over a long period from the 1990s to the early 2000s. Those markets are:

  • Remote Eastern and Central Australia
    • Seven Central (Seven Network affiliate)
    • Imparja Television (Nine Network and Network Ten affiliate)
  • Griffith/MIA, New South Wales
    • Prime Television (Seven Network affiliate) (Supplementary)
    • WIN Television Griffith (mainly a Nine Network affiliate, takes some Network Ten programs)
  • South-Eastern South Australia and the Riverland
    • WIN Television (mainly a Nine Network affiliate, takes some Seven Network programs)
    • WIN Ten (Network Ten affiliate) (Supplementary)

[edit] Differences between metropolitan and regional television

Each commercial network (both regional and metropolitan) can be seen as being comprised of three layers, although there are exceptions to this analogy.

The first is the "national feed". This is the content that is broadcast to the entire country, more-or-less at the same time (accounting for timezones and minor rescheduling). This category is comprised of nearly all the non-news programs and (usually) the station IDs.

The second is the "state feed". This is the content that is broadcast to the entire state or territory (or in the case of New South Wales, to each of the northern and southern aggregated markets of that state). It comprises mainly of state news and sometimes current affairs programs and station IDs.

The third is the "local feed". This is the content this is broadcast to a specific market. Most local news programs and advertising is at this level.

1: Network feed. 2: State feed. 3: Local feed. 4: Programming aired on a television station
1: Network feed. 2: State feed. 3: Local feed. 4: Programming aired on a television station

[edit] Regional network content

Most regional networks produce and source programs that don't appear on the metropolitan networks. Such programs include:

  • Today Extra (NBN Television): variety show
  • State Focus (Southern Cross Ten): state based regional current affairs
  • The Saturday Club (Prime Television): children's program
  • Fishing Australia (WIN Television): fishing program
  • Destinations (WIN Television): travel program
  • A Little Bit of Country (Prime Television): country music program
  • On the Land (Prime Television): agricultural news
  • Yamba's Playhouse (Imparja): children's program
  • Hook, Line and Sinker (Southern Cross Tasmania): fishing program

[edit] News coverage

All regional stations have local news of some sort. The ABA has mandated this in most areas.

  • NBN:
    • All areas: 60 minute bulletin, Monday-Friday and 30 minute bulletin Saturday and Sunday
  • WIN:
    • All areas: 30 minute bulletin, Monday-Friday (repeated late night)
    • Tasmania only: 30 minutes bulletin, Monday-Sunday (repeated late night Monday-Friday)
  • Southern Cross Ten:
    • All areas: 2 minute bulletins, Monday-Friday (during the ratings period only)
  • Prime Television
    • Newcastle, Canberra, Wollongong, Victoria (except Mildura and Albury/Wodonga): 2 minute bulletins, Monday-Friday (during the ratings period only)
    • All other areas: 30 minute bulletin, Monday-Friday
  • Southern Cross Tasmania:
    • All areas: 30 minute bulletin, Monday-Sunday
  • Southern Cross GTS/BKN:
    • All areas: 30 minute bulletin, Monday-Friday
  • Imparja:
    • All areas: 30 minute bulletin, Monday-Friday
  • GWN:
    • All areas: 30 minute bulletin, Monday-Friday (repeated late night)

[edit] Broadcast schedules

Some programs aired in metropolitan markets are aired at different times in regional areas, often to fit in local news. For example, NBN and WIN air A Current Affair at 7pm, instead of 6.30pm, meaning the program screened between 7pm and 7:30 on Nine is not shown (except WIN Western Australia.) Prime Television stations that have 30 minute news bulletins similarly move and replace programming.

In Western Australia, WIN Television schedules Ten programming between 4.30pm and 6pm each weeknight with Neighbours and Ten News. WIN News follows at 6pm, then A Current Affair. Golden West Network on the other hand broadcasts Deal or No Deal at 5pm, followed by GWN News at 5.30pm. The remainder of the schedule remains the same as Seven Perth.

Prime and GWN also choose to replace nearly all Seven Network programs between midnight and 6am with infomercials. Prime, GWN and Southern Cross Ten replace some morning programs with infomercials as well. Southern Cross Ten also shows an informercial in the afternoon at 3pm instead of Ten programming.

Seven Queensland airs Today Tonight at 4:30pm weekdays (22 hours after airing on metro stations) due to local news in some markets and instead doesn't air Seven's 4:30pm news.

WIN has a radically different overnight schedule to Nine, containing their own late night news, Nine's evening programs it doesn't screen due to local news, programs from its archives and Nine overnight programs.

[edit] History

[edit] 1960s

In December 1961, the first regional television stations were launched, with GLV-10 Traralgon, GMV-6 Shepparton and BCV-8 Bendigo the first stations to commence operations.

Throughout the 1960s, station after station began operations, those being:

[edit] 1970s

In the 1970s, some stations began to form partnerships to reduce the costs of operating and importing programming. Some of these stations include:

  • Midstate 6,8,9 (CWN-6 Dubbo, CBN-8 Orange, MTN-9 Griffith)
  • RVN-AMV (RVN-2 Wagga, AMV-4 Albury)
  • NRN-11/ECN-8 (NRN-11 Coffs Harbour, ECN-8 Taree, later broken off)
  • NEN-9/ECN-8 (NEN-9 Tamworth, ECN-8 Taree)
  • Northern Rivers Television (NRN-11 Coffs Harbour, RTN-8 Lismore)

The final areas to get television stations in the 1970s were:

All television stations in Australia, regional stations included, were required to convert to colour transmission in 1975.

[edit] 1980s

Further station amalgamations occurred in the 1980s including:

  • North Queensland Television (TNQ-7 Townsville, FNQ-10 Cairns)
  • The SIX Network (later Television Victoria) (GMV-6 Shepparton, BTV-6 Ballarat, later STV-8 Mildura)
  • TV8 (later Southern Cross TV8, finally Southern Cross Network) (GLV-8 Gippsland, BCV-8 Bendigo, and initially STV-8 Mildura)
  • TasTV (TVT-6 Hobart, TNT-9 Launceston. TNT-9 split in 1989 to become Southern Cross)
  • Golden West Network (BTW-3 Bunbury, GSW-9 Albany, VEW-8 Kalgoorlie, GTW-11 Geraldton)

Also in the 1980s, some stations were required to change their frequencies due to interference from metropolitan stations. Those stations were:

  • GLV-10 Gippsland, who moved to channel 8, so ATV-0 in Melbourne could move to channel 10 (1980)
  • DDQ10 and TVQ0 switched channels, becoming DDQ0 and TVQ10, and SEQ10 became SEQ55 (1988)

In 1988, the last regional station to begin before aggregation was launched. Imparja Television, based in Alice Springs, began transmission via the AUSSAT satellites and terrestrial transmitters.

  • 1988: IMP-9 Alice Springs (and others)

[edit] Aggregation

In an attempt to gain regional votes, the Hawke Labor government of the late 1980s introduced regional equalisation, known as aggregation, which would provide regional viewers with the same choice in viewing as their metropolitan cousins.

The local stations protested at this proposal, arguing that their profits would fall, and that local content would also decrease. They offered their own proposal, where the existing operator would be allowed to operate relays of the other two networks, thereby allowing a mix between viewer choice and local content. For example, if NBN were to take the Nine affiliation, their two relays would offer Seven and Ten network programs on other channels, direct from Sydney. The proposal was rejected.

Labor's system would allow networks from nearby markets to begin to transmit into neighbouring markets, as an affiliate of a metro network. For example, before aggregating, Northern New South Wales was made up of three different license areas: Newcastle, New England and North Coast, served by three different stations. After aggregation, these three areas became one large license area, with three competitors.

After realizing they had lost their battle with the government, the stations began to organize affiliations with metro networks. Stations that hadn't joined forces beforehand began to merge, including:

  • RTQ-7 and DDQ-0 became Vision Television, later Star Television
  • Midstate 6,8,9 and RVN-AMV became The Prime Network, later Prime Television
  • SEQ-55 and MVQ-6 became The Sunshine Television Network

The first area to be aggregated was Southern New South Wales. In two phases (due to problems in Orange and Wagga), beginning 31 March 1989, WIN Television became the affiliate of the Nine Network in that area, with Capital Television becoming the Ten Network affiliate, and Prime Television becoming the Seven Network affiliate.

The next area to be aggregated was Queensland, which occurred on December 31, 1990. This wasn't without controversy however, as a week before aggregation was due to take place, WIN Television purchased the soon-to-be Ten affiliate, Star Television, and gave them the Nine affiliation. The former Nine affiliate, QTV, was forced to change its affiliation to the Ten Network. So, when aggregation occurred, QTV became the Ten affiliate, Star Television became WIN Television Queensland, and hence became the Nine affiliate, and Sunshine Television Network became the Seven affiliate.

Northern New South Wales was the next to be affiliated, occurring on December 31, 1991. NBN Television became the Nine Network affiliate, while the Seven Network would be carried by affiliate Prime Television, and NRTV became the Ten affiliate.

Victoria had its aggregation pushed forward from 1993 to 1 January 1992, although the Seven affiliate, Prime Television, didn't expand until March of that year. VIC TV became the Nine Network affiliate, and Southern Cross Network took on the Ten affiliation.

Tasmania would be next to be aggregated in 1994, however only two stations would be aggregated, rather than the three that the previous markets had. Southern Cross Tasmania would become an affiliate of both the Seven and Ten networks, and TAS TV would take on the Nine Network affiliation.

The final area to be aggregated was Remote and Central Australia, an area which takes in parts of remote Australia where traditional television signals can not be received, mainly in the Northern Territory, far western New South Wales and far western Queensland. These areas either receive signals via free-to-air satellite or via re-transmission stations. The stations involved were Imparja Television, who took the Nine and Ten network affiliations, and QSTV, which became Seven Central, and took a Seven Network affiliation.

Some areas weren't aggregated, as it was determined that they lacked the population required to support more than one commercial station. Such areas included Griffith, Mildura, Darwin and the remote regions.

[edit] 1990s

As viewers came to grips with having three commercial stations to choose from, the next major change would come in the forms of local identity, content and ownership.

The first change was that of NRTV, who were bought out by Telecasters Australia, who owned QTV. This occurred around 1993. Around a year later, both stations changed their names to Ten Northern New South Wales and Ten Queensland, and took on generic Ten branding. Telecasters also axed local news services in Northern New South Wales and most areas of Queensland except Townsville and Cairns.

In Victoria, Southern Cross Network changed its name and logo to "SCN", using a pseudo-Ten style logo. A few months later, SCN changed its name to Ten Victoria, and axed local news services.

Capital Television in 1992 changed its logo to a completely original design, incorporating the Southern Cross. The identification was a modified version of Ten's current identification at the time.

In 1993, NBN Television launched a new logo, based upon the Channel 9 and WIN logos. In 1995, Sunshine Television in Queensland was purchased by the Seven Network, and became Seven Queensland, taking on the generic Seven branding.

In 1995, a second commercial licence was made available for the previously-solus licence areas of Mildura, Griffith/MIA, and Darwin. All incumbent stations, STV-8 (then owned by WIN Television), MTN-9 (which was still under independent ownership, albeit also aligned with WIN) and NTD-8 (owned by Nine Network owners PBL), intended to apply for the new licences, which they were allowed to under section 73 of the then-current Broadcasting Services Act, 1992. At the time, this section provided the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) the ability to refuse the application, and send the licence to auction, "if [it] is satisfied that it is unlikely that another person would be interested in, and likely to be in a position to, operate another commercial television broadcasting service in the licence area". The ABA initially denied all three stations the ability to operate the new licences [1][2].

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 two 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. [3]

However, when the auction process concluded in 1996, Prime was awarded the Mildura licence, bidding $3.2 million, and commenced broadcasting as PTV-32 in 1997. Telecasters Australia commenced broadcasting Seven Darwin on TND-34 the same year, bidding $2.1 million for the licence. [4]

Also in January 1996 [5], 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 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 the then two station markets, the two existing broadcasters banded together and were given digital only licences. These were known as section 38A and 38B licences, respectively, after the relevant sections in the Broadcasting Services Act. (To date, only Darwin and the two remote licence areas are the only places where no-one has taken up the offer, although the application process for a section 38B licence for Darwin began in 2006[6].)

With its licence eventually granted under section 38A of the Act, MTN-9 commenced their supplementary service in 1997 on AMN-31, carrying almost all of CBN-8's Prime programming; exceptions being local news, and major sporting events broadcast by Network Ten (currently, for example, the AFL and the V8 Supercar series).

In 1998, it was decided to turn the solus regional WA markets and the Remote Western Australia market into two channel ones. A new licence area spanning all these licences was created, and was won by WIN. It gained Nine Network and Network Ten affiliation. The incumbent, Golden West Network, was purchased by Prime and had Seven Network affiliation. WIN also bought its long-time affiliate in Griffith's MTN-9.

In 1999, WIN purchased SES-8 Mount Gambier and RTS-5a Riverland.

[edit] 2000s and beyond

In the early 2000s, Southern Cross Broadcasting bought both Telecasters Australia and Central GTS/BKN. This greatly expanded its collection of TV stations. It soon rebranded all its regional TV stations with the "Southern Cross" name, removing any local references. As of 2006, the last regional Southern Cross station broadcasting under another name is Seven Central, the Seven-affiliated service in the Remote Eastern and Central Australia licence area, although even that is referred to internally as Southern Cross Central.

Also at the time, supplementary licence services were launched by SCB and WIN throughout regional SA and Broken Hill, while at the same time cutting local content.

Additionally, the Remote Eastern and Remote Central licence areas were merged. Now everyone in these areas could receive two commercial services.

In 2001, Prime Television and Southern Cross Broadcasting axed local news services in Newcastle, Wollongong, Canberra, North Queensland, Darwin, Central and Remote Australia. This triggered a review of local content regulations by the Australian Broadcasting Authority.

In 2003, the ABA decreed that there should be a minimum amount of local content on each commercial channel in the four largest regional markets. In 2004, Prime and Southern Cross responded by producing 2 minute bulletins for all regions affected from their bases, both in Canberra, as well as occasional local programs, such as Southern Cross Ten's State Focus, and Prime's Saturday Club.

In December 2003, the first digital-only commercial television station was launched, Tasmanian Digital Television, operating on a supplementary licenced owned by WIN and Southern Cross. It is yet to be available to all of Tasmania, however.

In January 2006, Mildura Digital Television (a similar joint venture between WIN and Prime) began broadcasting 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.

As of 2005, the regional networks have started rolling out digital services. NBN is leading the way in producing digital content. They began using a new set designed for digital television, and acquired an outside broadcast unit for producing sports and other events in digital, and is so far the only unit of its type in Australia. WIN Television in Southern NSW will be the next to launch a digital-friendly set.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../r/e/g/Regional_television_in_Australia_072c.html"
In other languages