WOW (TV station)

This article is about an Australian television station. For the former "WOW-TV" in Omaha, Nebraska, please see WOWT.
WOW
Remote and Regional Western Australia
Branding WIN
Slogan Entertaining Australia
Channels Analog: see table below
Digital: see table below
Affiliations Nine
Owner WIN Corporation
(WIN Television WA Pty Ltd)
First air date 26 March 1999
Transmitter power see table below
Height see table below
Transmitter coordinates see table below
Website www.wintv.com.au

WOW is an Australian television station licensed to WIN Television, serving regional and remote Western Australia. The station officially commenced transmissions on 26 March 1999 as the second commercial regional broadcaster in Western Australia, alongside former monopoly, Golden West Network (GWN7).[1][2]

History

Prior to WIN Television's expansion into Western Australia, the Golden West Network was the sole commercial network operating in regional areas, and carried programming from all three privately owned networks-- Seven, Nine and Ten.[3] On 26 March 1999, WIN Western Australia officially commenced transmissions as a dual affiliate of Nine and Ten. This in turn left GWN to become a sole Seven affiliate.[4]

WIN has struggled for ratings success in remote Western Australia, in part due to GWN/GWN7's 30-year run as the sole commercial television outlet in the region. WIN WA has run second to GWN7 in every ratings survey to date. The second ratings survey in 2005 placed WIN WA with only a 38.3% commercial audience share in prime time, compared to GWN7 with 61.7%.[5]

A proposal for a third television station - a joint venture between WIN Corporation and Prime Media Group, owner of GWN7 - 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,[6] 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 GWN7, WIN WA and the new Ten West in standard definition at each location.[7]

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 Go! and Gem.[8] On 30 July 2011, the regional networks began broadcasting on the Viewer Access Satellite Television platform.[9] Analogue transmissions ceased broadcasting statewide on 25 June 2013.

Programming

WIN Western Australia originally sourced programming from the Nine Network and Network Ten.[10] However, the introduction of Ten West and the increase in digital television penetration in 2012[11] has turned WIN WA into a sole Nine Network affiliate, with almost identical programming to STW-9 Perth.

News

WIN Western Australia was initially created with no local news service. At the same time, the then-owners of STW-9 Perth, Sunraysia Television, was not prepared to simulcast news programming with WIN. As a result, WIN formed a deal with Network Ten affiliate NEW-10 to carry a delayed broadcast of Ten News' main 5pm program each night.[10]

WIN began its own regional news service, WIN News Western Australia, on Monday 13 November 2006. Initially presented from WIN's Wollongong headquarters by Kerryn Johnston, and latterly Amy Taylor, studio presentation moved to Perth a year later following the sale of STW-9 to WIN Corporation. Presenters of the regional bulletin included Nine News weather presenter Natalia Cooper, former ABC News journalist Deborah Kennedy and latterly Matt Tinney.[12] Reporters and video journalists were based at district newsrooms in Albany, Broome, Bunbury, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie and STW-9's Perth studios.

In March 2012, WIN announced it would axe its weeknight Western Australia bulletin with regional news coverage incorporated into a localised edition of Nine Afternoon News at 4:30pm, produced and presented from Perth.[13] As a result, news bureaus in Geraldton, Albany and Broome were closed down, with only Bunbury and Kalgoorlie retained. The last edition of WIN News Western Australia aired on Friday 9 March 2012. The localised Nine Afternoon News edition was axed on 1 July 2013.[14]

In addition to STW-9's local bulletins, WIN WA has carried Nine News' national bulletins from Sydney since 2007.

Availability

The area allotted to WOW for television broadcasting (shown in orange). The Perth license area is shown in black.

WIN Television is available statewide in digital terrestrial and digital satellite format. The full suite of digital services, including GEM, GO!, GOLD and Extra, are available in all areas with digital transmissions.

Below is a table showing the Logical Channel Numbers (LCN) for the full suite of digital services.

LCN Service
8 WIN
80 GEM
82 Extra
84 GOLD
88 GO!

Terrestrial

Digital terrestrial transmissions are available in all populated cities and major towns of regional Western Australia. Analogue terrestrial services ceased transmission statewide 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.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "WIN TV: A new rural view". The West Magazine. 21 March 1999. Retrieved 2007-10-08.
  2. ↑ "The History of Australian Television". Television.au. Retrieved 2007-10-08.
  3. ↑ "TelevisionAU: TV Extra Programme Guide (The Sunday Times)". The Sunday Times. 4 April 1993. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  4. ↑ "GWN Corporate: Company History". Golden West Network. Archived from the original on 23 April 2003. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
  5. ↑ "Regional WA Ratings Survey #2 (July 24 - August 20)". Neilsen Media Research. 20 August 2005. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
  6. ↑ "Commercial Digital Channel Plans – Remote Western Australia – Explanatory Paper" (PDF). Australian Communications and Media Authority. February 2007. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  7. ↑ Brown, Pam (11 June 2010). "Digital signal for viewers in Kalgoorlie newspaper". The West Australian. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
  8. ↑ Knox, David (6 July 2011). "Regional WA ready to switch on new multi-channels". TV Tonight. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  9. 1 2 "Viewer Access Satellite Television service for Western Australia" (PDF). Digital Ready Taskforce (DBCDE). March 2013. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  10. 1 2 "WIN's ten years out west". Television.AU. 25 March 2009. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  11. ↑ "Digital Tracker: Summary Report for Quarter 4, October to December 2012" (PDF). Digital Ready Taskforce (DBCDE). January 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  12. ↑ Knox, David (13 April 2011). "Matt Tinney to present WIN News (WA)". TV Tonight. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  13. ↑ Trenwith, Courtney (12 March 2012). "WIN cancels WA news bulletin". WAtoday.com.au. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
  14. ↑ Knox, David (1 July 2013). "Nine Perth axes local 4.30 news". TV Tonight. Retrieved 6 July 2013.

External links

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