| WIN Television | |
|---|---|
| Launched | 18 March 1962 |
| Owned by | WIN Corporation |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV) |
| Slogan | Welcome Home |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Broadcast area | Regional Queensland, Southern New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, Eastern South Australia, Regional Western Australia, Griffith and the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (M.I.A) |
| Website | wintv.com.au |
| Availability | |
| Terrestrial | |
| Analogue | Tuned to various frequencies |
| SD Digital | Channel 8 |
| HD Digital | Channel 80 |
| Satellite | |
| Optus C1 | Transponder 6 |
| Optus D1 | Transponder 3 |
| Intelsat 2 | Transponder 2 |
| HiTRON (Papua New Guinea) | Channel 6 |
| Cable | |
| TransTV Digital | Channel 9 |
| NC Digital | Channel 9 |
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 larger geographical area of Australia than any other television network.[1]
Throughout Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania, it is a Nine Network affiliate. In South Australia it is a Seven Network affiliate and in Western Australia it is an affiliate of both the Nine Network and Network Ten.
The network's name, WIN is a reference to its original Wollongong station WIN-4, itself an acronym of Wollongong Illawarra New South Wales. Through its news division, WIN News, WIN Television broadcasts a half-hour news service to twenty regional markets.[2]
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Television Wollongong Transmission Limited (TWT), was incorporated on 4 October 1955 by a group of local businessmen. Five years later, it was awarded a licence by the Postmaster-General's Department broadcast to the Illawarra and South Coast regions, over a number of other groups aligned to Sydney-based stations ATN-7 and TCN-9.[3] The new station was to broadcast on the VHF-4 frequency, using the callsign WIN (which stood for Wollongong (and the) Illawarra Network or alternatively Wollongong Illawarra New (South Wales), in line with other Australian callsigns). Soon after, a plot of land was purchased at Fort Drummond, approximately two kilometres south of the Wollongong central business district, for the station's television studios.
Prior to the opening night's transmissions, WIN-4 undertook a television conversion program, aimed at encouraging residents to acquire new tuning equipment and converting television sets in the area to receive the station's allocated frequency. A transmitter was to be erected on Knight's Hill, however test transmissions were delayed due to rain.[4]
WIN-4 commenced transmissions at 5:15 pm. on 18 March 1962. The first night was met with a number of technical issues, most notably the complete loss of audio.[3] TCN-9 and ATN-7 refused to sell programming to the station, leading to an unstable financial situation which, at its peak left the station with only 42 hours' programming.[5]
In April 1963, Media Securities, owned by Rupert Murdoch, acquired a controlling interest in the station (his second television station after NWS-9 Adelaide) and soon appointed a new general manager, Bill Lean. Both TCN-9 and ATN-7 began purchasing several hours of first-run American television programming from WIN-4, following contractual arrangements signed by Murdoch.[5] Throughout this period WIN-4 expanded its repeater transmissions to include Moruya, Batemans Bay, Narooma, Bega and Eden. Local programming and the station's near-monopoly in the area meant that by 1973, viewership had increased to occupy 63 percent of the audience.
Murdoch sold the station in 1979 to the head of Paramount Pictures' international distribution arm, Bruce Gordon, in order to purchase controlling interests in capital city stations TEN-10 Sydney and ATV-0 (now ATV-10) Melbourne.
During this period, WIN expanded to include new stations in Victoria, Queensland, and New South Wales. In 1984, WIN became the first regional television station to transmit in stereophonic sound.[6] Close links between WIN Television and the Nine Network, ensured it the Nine Network affiliation for southern New South Wales when aggregation took place in 1989. The changes meant that WIN expanded into the rest of southern New South Wales, launching new stations in Canberra, Orange, Bathurst, Dubbo and Wagga Wagga, amongst others in 1989, and at the same time acquiring new facilities in Orange, Wagga and Canberra. It also provided the network with two additional competitors, The Prime Network and Capital Television.
In 1990 WIN purchased Queensland station Star TV, shortly before regional Queensland was to be aggregated. The new station was set to become a Network Ten affiliate, however WIN's links with the Nine Network caused the Nine affiliation to move from QTV, which itself became affiliated to Ten.
ENT Limited, a Launceston-based company that owned a number of television and radio stations in regional Victoria and Tasmania, was bought in 1994.[7] Vic Television and TasTV were, as a result, incorporated into the WIN network and subsequently renamed WIN Television. The network further expanded to Griffith in 1998, when WIN purchased MTN-9 Griffith and its supplementary station AMN-31 from its local owners. Although station had previously been part of the Prime Television network, MTN already had links with WIN and took its feed from the network's Wollongong base.
WIN became regional Western Australia's second commercial television network on 26 March 1999.[8] Prior to the launch of the new station, GWN held a commercial monopoly on the market. GWN became an affiliate of the Seven Network, while WIN took a combination of Nine Network and Network Ten programming. Despite the Nine Network's traditional ratings dominance throughout most of the country, GWN has remained the market's most-watched station.[9] The second ratings survey of 2006 placed WIN Television with a 34.7% commercial audience share in prime time, compared to the Golden West Network with 65.3%.[10]
In the same year, WIN purchased two stations in South Australia, SES-8 in Mount Gambier and RTS-5a in the Riverland region. They became known as WIN South Australia and until recently featured news bulletins presented from studios at both stations (bulletins are now presented from the set of studios in Mount Gambier). In 2002 supplementary licences were granted under Section 38A of the Broadcasting Services Act, allowing the network to launch additional channels, using the callsigns MGS in Mount Gambier and LRS in the Riverland, and known as WIN Ten.[11]
WIN Television began to introduce digital television soon after it became available to metropolitan areas in January 2001. Under Section 38A of the Broadcasting Services Act, the network has been able to introduce, in partnership with other stations, additional digital-only Network Ten affiliates. These have included Tasmanian Digital Television, launched in late 2003 in partnership with Southern Cross Broadcasting, and Mildura Digital Television in January 2006, with Prime Television Limited.
On 30 May 2007, Southern Cross Broadcasting announced its sale of NWS to the WIN Corporation for A$105 million. Similarly, STW Perth, owned by Sunraysia Television and affiliated to the Nine Network, was purchased on 8 June 2007, when the station was sold to WIN Television's parent company, WIN Corporation, for A$163.1 million.[12]
Despite the station's ownership of Nine Perth, WIN in Western Australia broadcast Ten News Perth, produced for and shown on rival station Ten Perth up until 27 August 2007. Preceding this in June 2007, the network announced their intention to show National Nine News.[13]
A conflict between WIN and its long-time metropolitan counterpart the Nine Network arose in mid-2007. PBL Media, Nine's parent company, requested up to 40% of the network's advertising revenue in return for program supply. WIN's owner, WIN Corporation rejected this offer, expecting to pay only 29% (a 3% decrease from the previous contract and in line with many of the network's competitors, such as Prime Television and Southern Cross Ten).[14] The network's owner, Bruce Gordon, subsequently threatened to sever the network's affiliation after negotiations stagnated, stating that his previous position at the Paramount Pictures Corporation meant he could program the network independently.[15] On 16 August 2007 WIN Television dropped key Nine Network programs from its daytime television schedule, including Mornings with Kerri-Anne and National Nine News: Morning Edition.[16] An affiliation deal with the Seven Network was announced on 4 September 2007, for the network's eastern South Australian stations in Mount Gambier and the Riverland. The new program schedule is a mixture of Seven and WIN programming and commenced broadcasting on 1 October 2007.[17]
On 9 August 2009 WIN began transmission of the new digital channel GO! on channel 88 in Southern NSW, Regional Victoria, Tasmania and Regional Queensland.
In June 2010, playout was moved from WIN's Wollongong headquarters to a new facility shared with ABC Television at Ingleburn in Sydney's South-West.[18]
On 26 September 2010 WIN began transmission of the HD digital channel GEM on channel 80 in Southern NSW, Regional Victoria, Tasmania and Regional Queensland.
WIN Television is a sole Nine Network affiliate in most broadcast areas, with Network Ten affiliation in regional Western Australia (combined with a predominant Nine Network affiliation), and Seven Network affiliation in eastern South Australia. WIN Television has always produced regional programming, including the flagship local news service WIN News, that supplement programs sourced from affiliates.
Since inception, the network has produced and broadcast notable programs including Sportsview and Sportsworld, a review of international, national and local sporting events.[4] From the first week of transmissions, children's television series The Channel 4 Club was produced, with children's television program Stopwatch beginning in 1979.[4] English-language educational programme You Say the Word began in 1971, catering to non-English-speaking immigrants. Short-lived cooking show Variety Italian Style premiered in 1972, with Malcom Elliott initially hosting the long-running Tonight Show in 1981 being replaced by John Tingle years later. To commemorate WIN Television's 21st year of broadcasting, a one-and-half-hour retrospective montage special was produced in 1983. WIN Television also co-produced telemovie Last Chance in 1986 with a Canadian television production company.[4] Spanning close to a decade, children's television series Goodsports was produced by WIN Television from 1991 to 2000.
WIN Television's current Australian programming productions consists of television shows including; Susie, Destinations, Fishing Australia and Postcards Australia. On 17 May 2007, WIN Television announced a new midday program called Susie, however this was subsequently moved to a morning timeslot.[16][19] WIN Television also broadcasts a range of exclusive overseas and domestically sourced programming including The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Alive and Cooking.
WIN News is the network's local news service. Twenty regional bulletins are presented from studios in Wollongong, Canberra, Ballarat, Rockhampton, Toowoomba, Mount Gambier, Hobart and Perth,[20] in addition to Nine News bulletins presented and produced from the network's metropolitan stations, STW in Perth, Western Australia and NWS in Adelaide.[2] Although in most areas it is the only local news bulletin, WIN News may compete in some markets with Prime News, Seven Local News, GWN News, or Southern Cross Nightly News.
WIN has produced independent news reports and bulletins since 1962 for its original Wollongong station. As well as the flagship nightly bulletin, WIN Television has in the past produced current affairs programming including community affairs program Roving Eye, and Sunday Review, a weekly review of international, national and local stories.[4]
WIN Television simulcasts in analogue and standard definition in all areas except Western Australia where only analogue and digital transmissions are currently available.[1] Free-to-air transmissions are available from both terrestrial transmitters in major regional centres, and satellite transmissions across remote and regional Western Australia on the free-to-view Optus Aurora platform. Subscription cable is also provided by TransACT in the Australian Capital Territory, and Neighbourhood Cable in Ballarat and Mildura.[21][22]
WIN broadcasts to a larger geographical area than any other television network,[1] in the world, through owned-and-operated stations including RTQ Queensland, WIN Southern New South Wales, VTV Victoria, TVT Tasmania, MTN Griffith, STV Mildura, SES Mount Gambier, RTS Riverland, and WOW Western Australia. NWS Adelaide and STW Perth, both owned by WIN Corporation, follow a schedule similar to that of the network's regional stations.
The original WIN Television logo was used by the station until 1980, featuring the word WIN TV, derived from the station's call sign. In 1980, the logo was updated with the TV removed, and the WIN placed inside a blue rectange. Coinciding with the network's aggregation in 1989, WIN added nine dots into a new logo designed similarly to the Nine Network, and also began using Nine's on-air promotion, with the WIN logo replacing Nine's. In 1998, the dots were changed to spheres.[23]
Three-dimensions were added to the letters WIN in 2002, coinciding with a revamp of the network's on-air identity, concurrently with Nine Network.[23] On 30 January 2006, the station relaunched its logo to coincide with the Nine Network's fiftieth year of broadcasting. The new logo designed by Bruce Dunlop Associates saw the removal of the nine dots, with a blue rectangle added to behind the letters WIN. Following this in 2008, as a part of the Nine Network relaunch, WIN dropped the rectangle, however, it did not revive Nine Network's nine dots. However the blue rectangle can also be featured on News, Sports & Current Affairs.[24]
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