GWN7

GWN7
Launched	10 March 1967
Owned by	Prime Media Group
Picture format	576i (SDTV)
Audience share	29.0% (2013, )
Slogan	GottaLoveIt on GWN7
Country	Australia
Language	English
Broadcast area	Regional Western Australia
Formerly called	Golden West Network (1986 - 2011)
Website	gwn7.com.au
Availability
Terrestrial
SD Digital	Channel 6
Satellite
VAST	Channel 6

GWN7 is an Australian television network owned by the Prime Media Group serving all of Western Australia outside of metropolitan Perth. It launched on 10 March 1967 as BTW-3 in Bunbury, where it is still based.^[1] An affiliate of the Seven Network, it serves one of the largest geographic television markets in the world—almost half the continent.

History

Origins

GWN began life as a group of smaller, independent stations - BTW-3 Bunbury, launched on 10 March 1967 (with a relay in Mount Barker commencing the next year), VEW-8 Kalgoorlie, which began on 18 June 1971, and relay station GSW-9 Albany, opened on 29 August 1974. GTW-11 Geraldton was the last station to launch, on 21 January 1977. Prior to these stations signing on, remote Western Australia had been one of the few areas of Australia without local television; the only television outlets in the area were relays of ABC Television out of Perth.

Jack Bendat purchased South West Telecasters (owner of BTW/GSW) in the early 1980s, and changed the company’s name to Golden West Network.^[2]

GWN's mascot, Doopa Dog.

GWN applied to broadcast an additional service on 31 October 1984, when the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal called for applications to broadcast to Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands via satellite as part of the Remote Commercial Television License (RCTS) scheme. GWN was granted the Remote Commercial Television License (RCTS) in June 1985^[3] and the service went to air on 18 October 1986 using the call-sign WAW.

Not long after, GWN continued to expand within Western Australia, acquiring Mid-Western Television (owner of VEW-8 Kalgoorlie) in December 1985 for A$7 million,^[4] and Geraldton Telecasters (owner of GTW-11) in March 1987 for an undisclosed amount.^[5] The takeovers gave the network a monopoly over all commercial television services in regional Western Australia. In 1987, Bendat and Kerry Stokes merged their media interests into joint company BDC Investments.^[6] Later that year, Northern Star Holdings purchased BDC for A$206 million.^[7] Northern Star were forced to sell GWN to satisfy existing media regulations. GWN was sold back to Stokes in December 1988 for A$54 million,^[8] who upgraded equipment throughout the network. In April 1990, the callsigns BTW and GSW were merged, to become SSW.

1990s to the 2000s

Kerry Stokes gained control of the Seven Network in 1995, and attempted to sell GWN to Seven in return for more shares. Seven Network shareholders agreed to the trade in April 1996 - a deal which would have seen Seven acquire GWN for A$72.8 million.^[9] The arrangement was called off when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found that a 15 year exclusive programming deal GWN made with the Nine Network was anti competitive and opposed the acquisition. The Seven Network subsequently dropped their plans to purchase GWN.^[10]

Prime Television purchased GWN in November 1996 from Stokes for A$71 million.^[11] Remote Western Australia was one of the few areas of regional Australia that was not aggregated, given its small population. This ended in 1997, when WIN Television was granted the rights to a second television license in regional Western Australia, ending GWN's monopoly of all three Australian commercial channels. In March 1999, GWN opted to become a sole Seven Network affiliate, in-line with its eastern sister, Prime Television. As a result, WIN Television WA picked up both the and Network Ten affiliations.^[12]

The network's transmission operations were moved from Bunbury to Prime Media Group's digital broadcast facility in Canberra in April 2005. Programming is delivered to regional Western Australia via a satellite feed.^{[citation needed]}

A proposal for a third television station - a joint venture between GWN7's parent company Prime Media Group and WIN Corporation - was submitted to the Australian Communications and Media Authority in 2006. Similar to Mildura Digital Television, the new channel will operate under a Section 38B license,^[13] as a Network Ten affiliate named Ten West.

2010 and beyond

The new decade saw the introduction of digital television, with the Central Wheatbelt, Kalgoorlie, Karratha and Mingenew digital transmitters launching on 10 June 2010. The broadcasters shared a single digital transmitter for GWN, WIN WA and the new Ten West in standard definition.^[14]

On 15 January 2011, Prime Media Group reported that GWN and Prime were to rebrand to GWN7 and Prime7 respectively. The news bulletins will be renamed as GWN7 News and Prime7 News. They relaunched on 16 January 2011 at 5:57pm.^[15]

Digital transmitter upgrades continued on 28 July 2011, with Bunbury and surrounds being introduced to the full suite of digital channels for the first time, including 7TWO and 7mate.^[16] On 30 July 2011, the regional networks began broadcasting on the Viewer Access Satellite Television platform.^[17]

Programming

GWN7's on-air schedule is almost identical to that of its metropolitan counterpart, TVW in Perth. Seven News Perth and Today Tonight are aired live across the network direct from Perth. GWN7 also produces a weeknightly local news service, GWN7 News, shown live at 5:30pm.^[18] Since the network's inception it has featured a broad range of original regional programming, currently including the children's program Doopa's Club with station mascot Doopa Dog;^[19] as well as community service strand GWN7 InfoNet, a series of short updates listing local community events.^[20]

GWN7 News

The current GWN7 news logo

GWN7 News is the network's regional news service.^[18] Its main 30-minute program, airing at 5:30pm on weeknights before Seven News Perth, deals primarily with local news and current affairs. As of March 2012, GWN7 produces the only dedicated local news program for regional Western Australia.^[21]

The bulletin is produced and broadcast from GWN7's main studios in Bunbury with reporters and camera crews also based at newsrooms in Perth, Albany, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Karratha, Geraldton and Broome, Western Australia.

GWN7 News is currently presented by Noel Brunning and weather presented by either Chris Mills or Shauna Willis. Brunning was the main anchor until 2007, when he took long service leave to run for an independent seat in the Forrest electorate. After failing to win the seat, he resumed his role as news presenter. Shauna Willis presented during this time and continues to stand in for Brunning. Alex Cullen previously presented the sport segment for GWN7 News, before leaving to join Seven News Sydney.

GWN7 News updates are aired in conjunction with Seven News updates on weekdays until 8:30pm, after which time only Seven News updates are aired. The main weekday bulletin is also repeated at around 12:30am each weekday morning.

Presenters and Reporters

News anchor
Noel Brunning

Weather presenters
Chris Mills
Shauna Willis (also stand-in for Noel Brunning)

Bunbury reporters
Eliza Fussell
Scott Cunningham
Rachel Cary

Elle Commack

Perth reporter
Corrie Fitch

Meilin Chew

Kalgoorlie-Boulder reporter
Jordan Cutts

Geraldton reporter
Natalie Browning

Albany reporter
Monique Dirksz

Broome reporter
Stacey Kelly

Financial Editor
TBA

Sports Editor
Jasmine Homer

Availability

GWN7 broadcast areas: SSW (green), VEW (blue), GTW (purple), WAW (yellow)

GWN7 is available state wide in digital terrestrial and digital satellite format. The full suite of digital services, including 7TWO, 7mate and 4ME, are available in all areas with digital transmissions.

Terrestrial

Digital terrestrial transmissions are available in all populated cities and major towns of regional Western Australia. Analog terrestrial services ceased transmission state wide on 25 June 2013.

Satellite

Digital satellite transmissions are available direct-to-home on the Viewer Access Satellite Television platform in areas that are not covered by adequate terrestrial transmissions.^[17]

Logos

The Golden West Network became a network in 1986, with a shared logo produced and used across the regional stations, featuring the letters GWN inside an outlined oval surrounded by an orbiting ring.^[22] This logo was used across the network until 1995, when a new logo was introduced with the removal of outlined oval surrounding the letters GWN.^[22] Following this, 2001 saw the launch of a new simplified yellow logo, with the removal of the orbiting ring. This logo was launched concurrently with a similarly design logo on Prime Television.^[22] Following the 2011 relaunch, a new logo was introduced which features the Seven Network logo. The relaunch logo featuring Seven Network was revised in 2013 from multi colour to be a single colour logo.

• 

  1986–1995

• 

  1995–2001

• 

  2001–16 January 2011

• 

  16 January 2011 – present

See also

• Prime7
• Seven Network
• Television broadcasting in Australia
• Regional television in Australia

References

External links

• GWN7
• Prime Media Group
• PRIME7