VTV (TV station)

VTV is an Australian television station broadcasting in regional Victoria in Australia. The network was owned by ENT Ltd., before being purchased by the WIN Corporation.

Network history

Vic Television began as a network of several stations serving northern and western Victoria:

• GMV-6 Shepparton (launched on 23 December 1961)
• BTV-6 Ballarat (launched on 27 April 1962)
• STV-8 Mildura (launched on 27 November 1965).

Vic Television was owned and operated by Ent Ltd., a company which already owned TVT-6 Hobart as well as GMV-6 and BTV-6. Shortly after they purchased STV-8 in 1990, the three Victorian stations took on the on-air identity of Television Victoria, providing a single programming service across all three stations with separate regional news services for each area. As each of the 3 stations aired mostly Nine Network programming especially in the lead up to the VIC TV launch, the new network became, in preparation for the 1992 aggregation of broadcasts, the state level Nine affiliate. Until 1987 these stations aired HSV's Seven News and from that year onward these stations began to broadcast Nine News from 9 Melbourne.

On 1 January 1992, aggregation of regional television took place in Victoria. VIC Television extended their transmission area to incorporate the Bendigo, Albury and Gippsland area markets. VIC Television had already entered into a program supply agreement with the Nine Network but continued to maintain news services in each of the six regional markets in which it now operated. The official callsigns of GMV and BTV were consolidated into a single callsign of VTV. STV-8 kept its own callsign as it was excluded from the area affected by aggregation.

In October 1994, ENT Ltd. sold VIC Television to the WIN Corporation which already operated WIN Television stations in New South Wales, Canberra and Queensland. The stations are now part of the WIN Television network and on the day of its transition, the VIC logo was replaced to mark the change of ownership for the channels with the golden WIN logo used in the eastern states while the 9 dots from the Nine Network logo, which debuted in 1992, were retained until 2006.

BTV-6 Ballarat & Western Victoria

BTV-6 opened at 7pm on Friday 27 April 1962 with the documentary "This is BTV Channel 6".^[1] The station produced a wide range of local and part-networked TV programming through its history, most notably the chat show Six Tonight, which aired from 1971 to 1983, eventually also being carried on the Six (BTV6 Ballarat and GMV6 Shepparton) and TV8(now Southern Cross) Networks across much of Victoria, as well as parts of South Australia and New South Wales.

BTV placed a strong emphasis on local news, with the first news bulletin read by Arthur Scuffins on 27 April 1962. The nightly news program, Six News, was extended to 30 minutes in 1980 in response to the ABC dropping their regional news service in the late 1970s. The bulletin was rebranded as News Centre 6 in the mid-1980s.

On-air talent included Arthur Scuffins, Eric Gracie, Val Sarah, Craig Campbell, Peter Gamble, Gary Rice, John Garland, Glenn Ridge, Rob Gaylard, Glenn Driscoll and Fred Fargher.

GMV-6 Shepparton & Goulburn Valley

GMV-6, one of the first regional television stations in Australia, began transmission from Shepparton on 23 December 1961 (the same launch date as BCV-8 Bendigo), broadcasting from a transmitter at Mount Major. Originally, the station was owned in conjunction with local radio station 3SR.

The callsign of GMV referred to its coverage area which included the Goulburn River and Murray River catchment areas. The 'V' refers to Victoria as is the normal protocol for commercial TV station callsigns, where the third letter indicates the state in which the service is licensed.

By the late 1960s, various low powered relay transmitters began operation in the fringes of the GMV region including GMV-3 Eildon, GMV-8 Jerilderie NSW, GMV-10 Deniliquin NSW and GMV-10 Alexandra (later changed to GMV-11).

GMV-6 converted to full scale colour TV transmission on 1 March 1975. By the mid-1980s, transmission hours had extended to commence at 7.00am weekdays, broadcasting until around midnight. Programming included regional news and children's programmes, mixed with programs selected from the three commercial networks in Melbourne; HSV-7 (Seven), GTV-9 (Nine) and ATV-10 (Ten). The evening local news bulletin was supplemented by a relay of the nightly Seven National News from HSV-7 until 1987, and then National Nine News from GTV-9

WIN News

WIN News produces regional news bulletins for five of the six area markets covered by VTV. Reporters and camera crews are based locally at newsrooms in Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Traralgon and Albury. Studio presentation for the Bendigo, Gippsland, Shepparton, and Albury bulletins is pre-recorded from VTV's Ballarat studios with the Ballarat bulletin broadcast live.

Main transmitters

Notes:

• 1. HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.
• 2. The Ballarat station was an independent station with the callsign BTV from its 1962 sign-on until aggregation in 1992.
• 3. The Ballarat station was on VHF channel 6 from its 1962 sign-on until 2001, moving to its current channel in order to accommodate digital television in Melbourne.
• 4. The Goulburn Valley station was an independent station with the callsign GMV from its 1961 sign-on until aggregation in 1992.
• 5. The Western Victoria station was a relay of BTV Ballarat (with the BTV callsign) until aggregation in 1992.
• 6. Analogue transmissions ceased as of 5 May 2011 as part of the conversion to digital television.

See also

• Television broadcasting in Australia
• Regional television in Australia

References

External links

• WIN Television web site
• ABA radio and TV licensing web site