QQQ

QQQ (also known as Southern Cross Central) is an Australian television station broadcasting in remote eastern, southern and central areas of Australia, owned by Macquarie Media Group (following their purchase of Southern Cross Broadcasting in 2007). The station is available via satellite and terrestrial platforms – mostly through community retransmission sites, although it also transmits into the town of Mount Isa, Queensland under the call sign ITQ. The station is primarily affiliated with the Seven Network, while carrying a limited amount of sport programming from Network Ten.

History

In December 1998 the ITQ and QQQ signals – then known as Queensland Satellite Television, or QSTV, and owned by Telecasters Australia Limited (previously Telecasters North Queensland) – were officially aggregated with that of Imparja Television into a Remote Eastern and Central Australia licence area. Previously, QSTV serviced remote Queensland and New South Wales, while Imparja serviced the Northern Territory (excluding Darwin), and remote South Australia and Victoria, plus far-western New South Wales. As part of the aggregation, the Australian Broadcasting Authority further extended the combined licence area to cover more remote areas of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, who were not fully served by regularly licensed terrestrial television services.^[2]

On 01-02-1999, QSTV changed its affiliation from predominantly Network Ten, in line with Telecasters' stations in regional Queensland (TNQ, now Southern Cross Ten), to the Seven Network, becoming Seven Central.^[3] This closely followed the introduction of a Seven Network-affiliated service, Seven Darwin (TND), to Darwin in 1998.

Telecasters Australia was purchased by Southern Cross Broadcasting (SCB) in July 2001,^[4] and its official name was eventually changed to Southern Cross Central. However, unlike other Southern Cross-owned stations – including TND, which is now a dual Seven/Ten affiliate under the Southern Cross Television brand – QQQ/ITQ simply carries the Seven Network branding unchanged, leading some people to continue to refer it as "Seven Central". The station carries a simple "SCTV" text watermark in lieu of independent branding, denoting the origin of the signal. (Previously, the watermark has read "TAL" and "SCB", denoting the previous owners. "MSCM" was used briefly after the Macquarie acquisition.)

On 19 May 2010, the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) approved a license for a third digital-only TV channel. This channel is a joint venture by Imparja and Southern Cross Central and is expected to be launched in 12 months.^[5]

Southern Cross News Update

Short Southern Cross News Update bulletins are aired from Monday-Friday, featuring local news headlines from the central regions of Australia. The updates consist of the anchor reading the day's relevant news, with no video footage. The weather for most central towns is also displayed during the update. The 60-second updates are currently presented by Caitlin Street.

Availability

Southern Cross Central is delivered through the VAST and Optus Aurora satellite platforms to areas in remote central and eastern Australia, though in some locations it is also broadcast terrestrially.

Southern Cross Central is also available in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea though the HiTRON subscription television service (shown on channel list as 7 Central).^[6]

References

See also

• Southern Cross Television