Everything about Regional Television In Australia totally explained
Regional television is a term given to local television services in areas outside of the five main
Australian cities (
Sydney,
Melbourne,
Brisbane,
Adelaide and
Perth).
History
1960s
The first regional television stations were launched soon after the rollout of television to metropolitan
Sydney,
Melbourne,
Brisbane,
Adelaide and
Perth.
GLV-10 in
Traralgon,
GMV-6 in
Shepparton and
BCV-8 Bendigo were the first stations to commence operations, in
December,
1961.
Television continued to expand throughout
Victoria and the rest of the country in
1962, with new stations opening in
Ballarat (
BTV-6),
Newcastle (
NBN-3),
Launceston (
TNT-9),
Wollongong (
WIN-4),
Townsville (
TNQ-7),
Toowoomba (
DDQ-10),
Canberra (
CTC-7),
Lismore (
RTN-8), and
Orange (
CBN-8).
RTQ-7 Rockhampton launched in
1963, while in
Albury and
Wagga Wagga,
AMV-4 and
RVN-2 commenced broadcasting.
SEQ-8 Maryborough,
NEN-9 Tamworth,
NRN-11 Coffs Harbour,
CWN-6 Dubbo,
MTN-9 Griffith and
STV-8 Mildura began transmissions in
1965.
In
1966,
FNQ-10 Cairns,
ECN-8 Taree,
SDQ-4 Warwick and
SES-8 Mount Gambier commenced, followed in
1967 by
BTW-3 Bunbury and
GSW-9 Albany, both in
Western Australia. Finally, in
1968,
BKN-7 Broken Hill,
GTS-4 Port Pirie and
MVQ-6 Mackay were launched.
Many of the first stations produced their own local programming, supplemented to content from the capital city stations such as
GTV-9's
In Melbourne Tonight.
GLV-10 was amongst the first to make use of live 'off-air' relays of programes from metropolitan stations without the use of video recording equipment.
1970s
Similar to their metropolitan counterparts various stations began to form programming and operational partnerships in order to reduce operating costs and share the cost of imported programs. Examples of these included
Midstate 6, 8, 9 in
New South Wales, comprised of
CWN-6 Dubbo,
CBN-8 Orange and
MTN-9 Griffith,
RVN-AMV between
RVN-2 Wagga and
AMV-4 Albury,
NRN-11/ECN-8 between
NRN-11 Coffs Harbour and
ECN-8 Taree - later broken off and replaced with
NEN-9/ECN-8, with
NEN-9 Tamworth, and
Northern Rivers Television between NRN-11 Coffs Harbour,
RTN-8 Lismore
The final regional areas to begin receiving television were, in
1971 Darwin, with
NTD-8,
Kalgoorlie with
VEW-8, as well as
Mt Isa with
ITQ-8.
RTS-5A Riverland and
GTW-11 Geraldton began in
1976 and
1977, respectively.
All television stations in Australia, regional stations included, were required to convert to colour transmission in 1975.
1980s
Stations continued to form partnerships throughout the 1980s. The networks to emerge from this included
North Queensland Television, with
TNQ-7 Townsville and
FNQ-10 Cairns, as well
The SIX Network, later
Television Victoria, between
GMV-6 Shepparton,
BTV-6 Ballarat, and later on
STV-8 Mildura.
Others included
TV8 (later known as
Southern Cross TV8 and then
Southern Cross Network) with
GLV-8 Gippsland BCV-8 Bendigo and initially STV-8 Mildura, and
TasTV with
TVT-6 Hobart TNT-9 Launceston. TNT-9 split in
1989, to become Southern Cross. The
Golden West Network, between
BTW-3 Bunbury,
GSW-9 Albany VEW-8 Kalgoorlie, and
GTW-11 Geraldton, also began around this time.
In order for the metropolitan 0-10 Network to become Network 10, a number of regional stations were required to move to different frequencies. These included GLV-10 in Gippsland, who moved to channel 8 in order to allow ATV-0 Melbourne to move to channel 10 in
1980. DDQ-10 and TVQ-0 switched channels to become DDQ-0 and TVQ-10, and SEQ10 became SEQ55 in
1988.
The last regional station to launch before aggregation began in
1988 -
Imparja Television (IMP-9), based in
Alice Springs, began transmission via the
AUSSAT satellites, as well as a number of terrestrial transmitters.
Aggregation
In an attempt to gain regional votes, the
Hawke Labor government of the 1980s introduced a system regional equalisation, known as aggregation, which would provide regional viewers with the same viewing choice as their metropolitan cousins.
Local stations protested at this proposal, arguing that their profits would fall, and that local content would also decrease. They offered their own proposal, whereby the existing operator would be allowed to operate relays of the other two networks, allowing a combination of both viewer choice and local content. If NBN were to take the Nine affiliation, for example, their two relays would offer programs from the Seven and Ten networks, direct from Sydney. This proposal was, however, rejected.
The new system would allow stations to transmit into neighbouring markets, as an affiliate of one of the three metropolitan networks. For instance, before aggregation, there were three separate license areas in northern
New South Wales -
Newcastle,
New England, and the
North Coast, each served by a single commercial station. After aggregation, these three license areas merged, with the three stations in direct competition for viewers.
Soon after realizing they'd lost their battle with the government, the stations began to organize affiliations with metro networks. Stations that hadn't joined forces beforehand began to merge, including RTQ-7 and DDQ-0, which became
Vision Television (later
Star Television), Midstate 6,8,9 and RVN-AMV, which became
The Prime Network, currently known as
Prime Television,
and SEQ-55 and MVQ-6 which became
The Sunshine Television Network.
Southern New South Wales was the first area to be formed, in two phases (as a result of problems in Orange and Wagga), starting on
March 31,
1989.
WIN Television in
Wollongong became an affiliate of the
Nine Network,
The Prime Network a
Seven affiliate, and
Capital Television in
Canberra a
Network Ten affiliate.
The next area to be aggregated was Queensland, which took place on
December 31 1990. QTV was to become a Nine affiliate,
Star Television a Network Ten affiliate, and the Sunshine Television Network a Seven affiliate, however in the work before aggregation was due to take place,
WIN Television bought Star Television and gave them the Nine affiliation - meaning that QTV was forced to change its affiliation to Network Ten. A year later, northern New South Wales was aggregated.
NBN Television became the Nine Network affiliate, while the Seven Network would be carried by
Prime Television.
Northern Rivers Television became the Ten affiliate.
Aggregation in
Victoria took place between
1992 and
1993.
VIC TV became a Nine Network affiliate, Prime Television the Seven affiliate, and
SCN the Ten affiliate.
Tasmania was aggregated in
1994, albeit with only two stations -
Southern Cross became a dual Seven and Ten affiliate, while
TAS TV took programming from the Nine Network.
Remote and Central Australia was the final area to be aggregated - one of the largest geographical license areas, taking in parts of the
Northern Territory, western
Queensland, and other areas in which
terrestrial television signals can't be received. Stations broadcast to this area mainly through
satellite or re-transmission stations.
Imparja Television, based in
Alice Springs, became a dual Nine and Ten affiliate, while
Seven Central became a Seven affiliate.
A number of areas were not aggregated, due to their small size and relative inability to support more than one commercial station - these included Griffith, Mildura, Darwin and regional Western Australia.
1990s
Throughout the 1990s a number of changes relating to local content and identity began to take place - the first of which was to occur for
NRTV, bought out by QTV's owners,
Telecasters Australia in
1993. Soon after, both stations took on generic Network Ten branding with the name
Ten Northern New South Wales and
Ten Queensland. Local news services were also axed in most of these areas with the exception of
Townsville and
Cairns. Similarly, the Southern Cross Network in Victoria changed its named and logo to a pseudo-Ten
SCN design. The same network later axed local news services and changed its name to
Ten Victoria, in line with moves taken by the Telecasters Australia-owned stations in New South Wales and Queensland.
NBN Television made similar moves in
1993, when it launched a new logo based on that of the
Nine Network at the time.
Sunshine Television was purchased by the
Seven Network in
1995 and became nearly identical to the network's metropolitan stations under the name
Seven Queensland.
A second commercial license was made available for single-license areas such as
Mildura,
Griffith, and
Darwin. Incumbent stations were permitted to apply for the new license under Section 73 of the
Broadcasting Services Act, 1992, however only if the
Australian Broadcasting Authority, at the time, felt that there was no other operator would be interested or able to operate a new station in the area. The ABA initially denied all three stations the ability to operate the new licences.
A joint complaint to the
Administrative Appeals Tribunal against the ABA and Imparja Television in
1996 found in favour of MTN-9 but against the other incumbent stations. In both the Darwin and Mildura cases, it was determined that Imparja satisfied the ABA's criteria of being in a position to run a second service in the area. Prime Television's applications in both Griffith and Mildura, for the purposes of the appeal, were rejected on the grounds of insufficient local coverage.
When the auction process ended in late 1996, however, Prime was awarded the Mildura licence for $3.2 million, and commenced broadcasting as with the callsign
PTV-32 in 1997. Telecasters Australia launched Seven Darwin using
TND-34 in the same year, followed a $2.1 million bid for the licence.
In the same year, an amendment was made to the Broadcasting Services Act affirming the ability of existing broadcasters in one and two commercial station markets to apply for "
supplementary licences". These new licences allowed either a single incumbent or group of incumbents working together to run an additional channel.
In the then-single station markets, applying existing broadcasters gained both analog and digital licences for a new channel. In two station markets, the two existing broadcasters were allowed to form joint ventures to later bid for digital-only licenses following the introduction of
digital terrestrial television in Australia in
2001. The new licenses were known as section 38A and 38B licences, respectively, after the relevant sections in the Broadcasting Services Act. Remote Central and Eastern Australia remains the only license area without one of these stations either proposed or currently available.
Using its Section 38A license, MTN-9 was able to begin their supplementary service in
1997 using the callsign
AMN-31. The new station carried almost all of sister
Prime Television station
CBN-8's Prime programming with the exception of local news and major sporting events broadcast by
Network Ten. A second license for remote
Western Australia, one of the last remaining solus markets, was put up for auction in
1998.
WIN Television won the ability to broadcast to the entire regional Western Australia market (as opposed to
GWN, which held separate licenses in various areas), and subsequently launched its new station
WOW in
1999. In the same year, WIN purchased Griffith affiliate
MTN-9, as well as
SES-8 Mount Gambier and
RTS-5a Riverland.
2000s-present
In
2000 Southern Cross Broadcasting bought out both
Telecasters Australia and
Central GTS/BKN, subsequently removing any remaining local references, and rebranding its new stations with the 'Southern Cross' name. Supplementary licenses were also issued to SCB and WIN in parts of regional
South Australia and
Broken Hill, while at the same time local content was cut. The remote Eastern and remote Central license areas were also merged at this time, amongst the last to be aggregated.
The axing of local news services by
Prime Television and
Southern Cross Broadcasting in Newcastle, Wollongong, Queensland, Darwin and remote Central and Eastern Australia triggered a review of local content regulations by the
Australian Broadcasting Authority. The ABA later ruled, in
2003, that a minimum level of local content should be provided in the four largest regional license areas. Prime and Southern Cross responded to this by launching two-minute bulletins for all affected regions from areas in which local news was already produced, as well as in
Southern Cross Ten's case the current affairs program
State Focus, and on
Prime Television Saturday Club.
In
December 2003, the first digital-only commercial television station was launched,
Tasmanian Digital Television, operating on a supplementary licenced owned jointly by WIN Television and Southern Cross. Similarly,
Mildura Digital Television (a similar joint venture between WIN and Prime) began broadcasting in
2006 to Mildura, offering exclusive Ten based programming for the first time in the area. It is a direct feed of
Ten Melbourne with local advertising.
Darwin is On-Air with transmission 28th April 2008.
The
Nine Network's owner,
PBL Media, purchased affiliate station
NBN Television from its owners
SP Telemedia, in
May 2007.
Broadcasting
Three-station Markets
The majority of these license areas are on the more densely-populated east coast, which three commercial stations, each affiliated to the
Seven Network,
Nine Network and
Network Ten from their respected capital cities. In addition to these digital and analogue television channels from the
ABC Television and
SBS Television are also available. The majority of these areas were aggregated in the early 1990s.
- Northern New South Wales
- Southern New South Wales
- Prime Television (Seven Network)
- WIN Television (Nine Network)
- Southern Cross Ten (Network)
- Regional Victoria
- Prime Television (Seven Network)
- WIN Television (Nine Network)
- Southern Cross Ten (Network Ten)
- Regional Queensland
- Seven Queensland (Seven Network)
- WIN Television (Nine Network)
- Southern Cross Ten (Network Ten)
Two-station Markets
In these license areas, two commercial stations, one with a single affiliation to a network and the other with a combination of two metropolitan networks, are available as well as, in some areas, a joint-venture third channel owned by the two existing stations, typically digital-only. Although many of these areas are technically three-station markets, they're considered to have two stations due to the nature of the third, supplementary license.
Areas with supplementary licenses
- Tasmania
- Mildura/Sunraysia, Victoria and New South Wales
- Darwin, Northern Territory
Regional and Remote Western Australia
Remote Eastern and Central Australia
Griffith/MIA, New South Wales
Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill, New South Wales
- Southern Cross GTS/BKN (Seven Network and Nine Network)
- Southern Cross Ten (Network Ten affiliate) (Network Ten, supplementary)
South-Eastern South Australia and the Riverland
- WIN Television (Nine Network and Network Ten)
- WIN Ten (Network Ten, supplementary) SA Regional
Programming
Each commercial network (both regional and metropolitan) can be seen as being composed of three layers, with some exceptions. The first is the "national feed" - content that's broadcast to the entire country, more-or-less at the same time (accounting for timezones and minor rescheduling). This category is composed of nearly all the non-news programs and sometimes station promotions and branding.
The second is the "state feed", content that's broadcast to the entire state or territory. It comprises mainly state news, as well as sometimes current affairs programs and station promotions. This is usually the case in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. The third is the "local feed", content broadcast to a specific market, such as local news and advertising.
Original Content
In order to fulfil regulations put in place by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the majority of regional networks are required to provide original, locally-targeted programming such as news, current affairs, or children's programmes.
WIN Television, Australia's largest regional network, produces a number of programs including weekday talk show Susie, from its Wollongong studios, Fishing Australia, and travel show Destinations. Southern Cross Ten produce a weekly regional current affairs program, State Focus, while Southern Cross Television in Tasmania air Hook, Line and Sinker.
Prime Television air children's program The Saturday Club, country music show A Little Bit of Country as well as an agricultural news program, On the Land. Yamba's Playhouse, produced by Imparja Television, is shown in its own station and also National Indigenous Television.
News
ACMA regulations have, since 2003, required stations to provide minimum levels of local news and other content.Scheduling
The majority of programming in regional areas is shown at the same time as its metropolitan counterpart, with some exceptions, mainly for local news programs. For instance, A Current Affair is shown at 7.00pm rather than 6.30pm on WIN and NBN stations. For similar reasons, Seven Queensland shows Today Tonight at 4.30pm in place of the network's 4.30 News bulletin.
Many dual-network affiliates, such as WIN WA, show a combination of two network's programming at differing times of the week. Prime and GWN choose to replace nearly all Seven Network programs between midnight and 6am with infomercials, and along with Southern Cross Ten also replace some morning programs with infomercials.
Recently, WIN Television has begun to adopt a dramatically different overnight schedule to metropolitan counterpart the Nine Network. In place of Nine's overnight programming, WIN show repeats of WIN News, programs from its Crawfords Australia archives, and some Nine programs not shown in their normal timeslot.
Further Information
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