Television in Australia

Origins
In 1885, Henry Sutton developed a Telephane for closed circuit transmission of
pictures via telegraph wires, based on the Nipkow spinning disk system, so that
the Melbourne Cup could be seen in Ballarat. Reports differ on whether
the Telephane was successfully implemented.
The first television broadcast in Australia took place on 30 September 1929 at
the Menzies Hotel in Melbourne, using the electro-
mechanical Radiovision system.[11] Other transmissions took place in the city
over the next few weeks. Also in 1929, the Baird system was used on 3DB.
After 18 months of test transmissions, regular broadcasts began in Brisbane on
6 May 1934 using a 30-line system, to an estimated 18 receivers around
Brisbane. The test transmissions, which were of 1 hour duration each day, were
made by Thomas M. B. Elliott and Dr Val McDowall from the Wickham
Terrace Observatory Tower.The programs included news headlines, still pictures
and silent movies such as the temperance film Horrors of Drink. The
Commonwealth Government granted a special licence and permission to
conduct experimental television by VK4CM, in July 1934. By 1935, it
expanded to 180 lines. Other experimental transmissions followed in other
cities.
1940s50s

Melbourne "housewife" Edna Everage (a comic creation of performing

artist Barry Humphries), first appeared on Australian television in the 1950s.
Television commenced in the United States and in the United Kingdom after the
end of World War II. The two countries developed radically different industry
models, which were based on the models each used for radio broadcasting.
British TV was dominated by the government-created broadcasting corporation,
the BBC, which derived most of its revenue from compulsory viewer licence
fees, with some government allocation. The United States adopted a commercial
model, based on privately owned stations and networks that earned revenue by
charging for advertising time, with public broadcasting forming only a minor
component of the larger system.
In June 1948, the Chifley Labor government opted to follow the British model,
on the advice from the Postmaster General's department. It decided to establish
a government-controlled TV station in each capital city and called for tenders
for the building of the six TV transmitters. The Broadcasting Act
1948 specifically prohibited the granting of commercial TV licences, a decision
that the Liberal-Country Party opposition criticised as "authoritarian and
socialistic". This policy was never put into practice, however, because the Labor
government did not have the opportunity to establish the TV network before it
was defeated in December 1949. The incoming Menzies-led Liberal-Country
Party coalition, which was to hold power for the next 23 years, changed the
industry structure by also permitting the establishment of American-style
commercial stations.[21]
The economic situation at the time that TV was established in Australia exerted
a pivotal influence on the foundation and subsequent history of the industry.
When the decision was made to go ahead with granting the first licences for
broadcast TV in the early 1950s, Australia was in a recession,with severe
shortages of labour and materials and an underdeveloped heavy industrial base,
and in this context TV was seen as a drain away from more fundamental
projects. The Menzies government was concerned about the long-term viability
of the new industry and worried that it might be called on to bail out struggling
stations and networks if the economy deteriorated. Consequently, it decided to
grant the initial commercial TV licences to established print media proprietors,
with the expectation that these companies would, if necessary, be able to
subsidize the new TV stations from their existing (and highly profitable) press
operations.
Meanwhile, in 1949, the first large-scale public demonstrations of the medium
took place when the Shell company sponsored a series of closed-circuit
broadcasts in capital cities produced by Frank Cave.[24] These broadcasts were
elaborate, usually opened by a local politician, and featured many people
appearing on camera singing, playing instruments, and giving demonstrations
of cooking, sport, and magic tricks.
Buoyed by the success of these tests, in March 1950, Astor embarked upon a
tour of 200 regional towns with a mobile broadcast unit, giving a series of 45
minute demonstration programs, allowing local performers and members of the
public to appear on camera.[25]
In January 1953, in response to increasing pressure from the commercial lobby,
the Menzies government amended the Broadcasting Act 1948 to allow for the
granting of commercial licences, thus providing the legislative framework for a
dual system of TV ownership.[23] This structure was directly modeled on the
long-established two-tiered structure of Australian broadcast radioone tier
being the stations in a new national, government-funded TV network run by
the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), and the other tier being
privately owned commercial stations that drew their income from advertising
revenue.
Commercial TV licences were nominally overseen by the Australian
Broadcasting Control Board (ABCB), a government agency responsible for the
regulation of broadcasting standards and practices, while technical standards
(such as broadcast frequencies) were administered by the Postmaster-General's
Department. The ABC, as an independent government authority, was not subject
to the regulation of the ABCB and instead answered directly to the Postmaster-
General and ultimately to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (a situation that
provoked bitter complaints from commercial radio in the mid-1970s when the
ABC established its controversial youth station Double Jay).
In 1954, the Menzies Government formally announced the introduction of the
new two-tiered TV systema government-funded service run by the ABC, and
two commercial services in Sydney and Melbourne, with the 1956 Summer
Olympics in Melbourne being a major driving force behind the introduction of
television to Australia.
TCN-9 Sydney began test transmissions on 16 September of that year, and
officially commenced broadcasting on 27 October. HSV7 Melbourne became
the first television station to broadcast to viewers in Melbourne on 4 November,
soon followed by ABV-2 then GTV9 on 19 January 1957. Sydney station ABN-
2 also started broadcasting in November. All of these stations were operational
in time for the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics opening ceremony, on 22
November 1956.[28] ATN-7 started in December.[29]
An interview with Mrs Edna Everage (a comic creation of performing
artist Barry Humphries) was one of the programmes screened on HSV-7's first
day of programming in 1956. The character went on to great success in the
United Kingdom and later, the United States.
Videotape technology was still in its infancy when Australian television was
launched in 1956 and video recorders did not become widely available to
Australian TV stations until the 1960s. For the first few years, the only available
method for capturing TV programs was the kinescope process, in which a fixed
movie camera filmed broadcasts screened on a specially adjusted TV monitor.
Similarly, the playback of pre-recorded programs to air was only possible at this
stage through the telecine process, in which films or kinescoped TV recordings
were played back on a movie screen which was monitored by a TV camera.
Because of these limitations, it was relatively difficult and expensive to record
and distribute local programming, so the majority of locally produced content
was broadcast live-to-air. Very little local programming from these first few
years of Australian TV broadcasting was recorded and in the intervening years
the majority of that material has since been lost or destroyed. Even the footage
of the 'first' Australian TV broadcast with Bruce Gyngell on Channel 9, Sydney
(see image above) is a fabricationaccording to Gerald Stone the kinescope
film of the actual Sep. 1956 broadcast was lost and the footage that exists today
is a considerably more polished re-enactment, made a year later.[
Most programs in this early period were based on popular radio formats
musical variety and quiz formats were the most popular.
In the first decade after the first TV licences were granted, the federal
government and the ABCB did not act to enforce local content quotas, and such
measures were resisted by the commercial sector. As a result, Australian TV was
soon dominated by material imported from the United States and (to a far
smaller extent) Great Britain. In this period nearly every TV drama screened in
Australia came from the USA and the few programs that were made locally
were almost all produced by the ABC. In other formats, the few locally
produced programs made by or for commercial stations were typically low-cost
copies of proven American talk/variety or quiz show formats. By the early
1960s at least 80% of all Australian TV content was sourced from the USA and
not surprisingly American programs consistently topped the ratings.[32]
These changes led to a significant concentration of cross-media ownership. By
1960, the Packer family's Consolidated Press group controlled Channels 9 in
Melbourne and Sydney (the flagship stations that formed the basis of the Nine
Network), Melbourne's Herald and Weekly Times group owned HSV-7, and
the Fairfax newspaper group controlled ATN-7 in Sydney. In the view of some
media historians, these arrangements established a pattern of "high-level
political allegiances between commercial broadcasters and Liberal-National
Party governments" and that, as a result, the ABCB "was left very weak and
uncertain in its capacity to control broadcaster conduct and exhibited strong
symptoms of regulatory capture, or over-identification with the industry it
regulated".
In 1963 the Senate Select Committee on the Encouragement of Australian
Productions for Television, chaired by Senator Victor Vincent (known as the
Vincent Committee) presented its report to federal parliament and its findings
painted a bleak picture for local producersthe Committee found that 97% per
cent of all television drama shown on Australian TV between 1956 and 1963
was imported from the United States, and it criticised the ABCB for failing to
use its powers to enforce local content standards on television broadcasters,
particularly the commercial stations. The Vincent Report recommended a
sweeping program of reforms but none were implemented by the Menzies
Government at that time.
The advent of TV effectively destroyed Australia's once thriving radio
production industry within a few years, and the absence of local production
quotas for TV in this formative period compounded the problem. Faced with
almost unbeatable competition from American-made programming, local
technical and creative professionals in radio were unable to make the transition
to the new medium, as many of their American and British counterparts had
done when TV was introduced there.
Those Australian producers who did try to break into TV faced almost
insurmountable challenges. Imported American and British programs benefited
from high budgets, an international talent pool and huge economies of scale,
thanks to their very large domestic markets (relative to Australia), established
worldwide distribution networks; additionally, since most American production
houses and networks were based in Los Angeles, they had access to resources
and expertise built up over decades by the Hollywood movie studios. These
disadvantages were further exacerbated by the fact that American producers and
networks offered Australian channels significant discount rates on bundled
programming. Taken as a whole, these factors meant that local producers were
faced with a relative production-cost ratio on the order of 10:1 or more in favour
of the imported product.[36]
Some sense of the scale of this "resource gap" can be gained by comparing the
budgets of contemporary American and Australian TV programs. The pilot of
the 1967 satirical sketch comedy series Laugh-In reportedly cost about
US$200,000.[37] At the top end of the scale, in 1966 Desilu Studios spent almost
US$1 million on the two pilot episodes for the renowned science fiction
series Star Trek the first pilot "The Cage" (which was rejected by NBC) cost
more than US$600,000 and the set for the bridge of the Enterprise alone
reportedly cost US$60,000; the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone
Before" cost around US$300,000.
By comparison, the budget for the pilot episode of the 1964 Australian topical
revue series The Mavis Bramston Show was just AU1500. Adjusted for
inflation, this was around A$3500 in 1967 figures; given that US-Australian
dollar exchange rate in 1967 was A$1.00 = US$1.12, this still would have only
equated to around US$400050 times less than Laugh-In.
Although by the end of the 1950s television had expanded to also
include Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, it was estimated that less than 5% of the
residents in Melbourne, and fewer than 1% in Sydney owned a television set,
which at the time cost, on average, six to ten weeks' wages. During these early
years broadcast days were very shortall stations including the ABC only
broadcast programs for a few hours each day and broadcast the test pattern for
the rest of the time they were on air. Broadcast times were gradually increased
over succeeding decades, although the ABC did not commence 24-hour
broadcasting until 1993.
A TV series The Adventures of Long John Silver was made in the Pagewood
Studios, Sydney for the American and British market; it was shown on the ABC
in 1958. Local content was limited to talk and variety shows, and news and
current affairs. Notable programs of the 1950s included TCN-9's music
program Bandstand, hosted by radio presenter Brian Henderson, HSV-7's
weekly sport program World of Sport, and the ABC's Six O'Clock Rock, hosted
by Johnny O'Keefe. The first Australian serial drama, Autumn Affair, ran for a
10-month run on ATN-7. Several programs in the 1950s were simply
adaptations of established radio programs, such as Pick a Box.
1960s
The 1960s saw the continued growth of television in Australia, particularly into
regional areas. The first regional TV services began in Victoria in 1961 with the
first being Gippsland's GLV-10 followed by Shepparton's GMV-
6 and Bendigo's BCV-8. NBN-3 in Newcastle was the first regional service
in New South Wales commencing broadcast in 1962.
While the first television services were being established in regional areas,
larger cities including Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth began
to receive their second and, in the mid-1960s, third stations. In order to reduce
costs, networks began to merge originally in 1957 between HSV-7 and TCN-
9, but later between almost all the metropolitan stations of a certain frequency.
This led to the formation of the National Television Network (forerunner to
the Nine Network) and Australian Television Network (later known as
the Seven Network) in 1962. Not all stations became a part of their respective
networks TVW-7 in Perth remained independent for a number of years as the
sole commercial station in the city. Throughout the decade the ABC expanded
transmissions to several major centres including Adelaide,
Perth, Hobart and Canberra.
Beginning in 1964, the federal government tried to address concerns about
competition and local production by licensing a third station in major cities,
beginning with Channel 0 in Melbourne and Channel 10 in Sydney. More third-
licence stations were established in other capitals and regional cities[citation
needed]
over the next few years and by the late Sixties these stations joined forces
to create Australia's third commercial network, originally known as the
Independent Television System (ITS), then later changed to the 010 Network,
and now called Network Ten.
Channel 0 in Melbourne took an early lead in catering for teenage viewers and
quickly became the preeminent network in pop music programming,
commissioning a sequence of popular and influential local pop shows
including The Go!! Show and Kommotion (196467), Uptight (196870)
and Happening '70 and its successors (197072).

Don Lane appearing split-screen with Graham Kennedy via coaxial cable, live
on In Melbourne Tonight.
The establishment of a coaxial cable link between Sydney and Melbourne in
1963 marked the first step in the establishment of effective national networking
for Australian TV stations.
The introduction of satellite broadcasting in the late 1960s allowed news stories
and programs to be accessed from around the world. The first live satellite
transmission occurred between Australia and the United Kingdom in 1966. The
first direct telecast across the Pacific from North America to Australia took
place on 6 June 1967 when "Australia Day" at Expo 67 in Montreal was
broadcast live to Australia via a US satellite link. Prime Minister Harold
Holt officially opened the Australian pavilion and visitors watched events
including boomerang throwing, sheep-dog trials, wood chopping contests and
tennis matches with members of the Australian Davis Cup team. In the
afternoon a variety concert, 'Pop goes Australia', featured musicians Normie
Rowe, Bobby Limb, Rolf Harris and The Seekers. The entire 10-hour program
was televised live and several hundred thousand people across Australia sat up
through the night to watch it. One newspaper reported that the picture was so
clear that hundreds of viewers rang a Sydney television station to seek
assurance that the pictures really were being broadcast live from Canada.[41]
Two weeks later, on 25 June 1967, Australia participated in the historic "Our
World" broadcast, the first live global satellite television hookup involving
fourteen countries. The event is now chiefly remembered for the participation
of The Beatles, who performed their new song "All You Need Is Love" live
from the Abbey Road Studios in London. Australia's contribution showed a
Melbourne tram leaving the depot for its early morning run, which caused some
controversy as people felt that it was not a very exciting image of Australia.
[42]
By 1970 as many as thirty-one programs were received via this manner.
[43]
GTV-9 in Melbourne broke records in 1969 with the longest live television
broadcast with its coverage of the Apollo moon landing.[43]
Even though the dominance of imported American and British programming
continued, local production gradually increased in the 1960s and several
important new Australian programs were launched. Crawford Productions'
Melbourne-based police drama Homicide premiered on 20 October 1964
on HSV-7, soon followed on 11 November by the ATN-7 satirical sketch
comedy series The Mavis Bramston Show (which at its peak drew an
unprecedented 59% of the audience), the rural soap opera Bellbird on the ABC
(1967), and for interstate viewers Graham Kennedy's In Melbourne Tonight or
the Graham Kennedy Channel Nine Show.[39] In addition to these, many
programs still seen today were launched at this time including the ABC's
acclaimed current affairs program Four Corners (1961) and Play School now
the country's longest-running children's showas well as the Nine
Network's Here's Humphrey,[39] which both premiered in 1966.
Veteran actor-producer John McCallum and filmmaker Lee Robinson created
the children's adventure series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo which premiered in
1968 on the Nine Network. At a reported cost of A$6000 per episode it was said
to have been the most expensive Australian TV series yet produced up to that
time[44] (by comparison, the first series of Star Trek reportedly cost around
US$200,000 per episode). Although Australian TV was still in black-and-white
at the time, Skippy was filmed in colour with a view to overseas sales and it was
the first Australian-made series to achieve significant international success, with
sales to more than 80 countries worldwide,[45] and it became the first Australian
TV show to be widely screened in the USA.[44]
Winners of the first nationally shown TV Week Logie Awards included In
Melbourne Tonight host Graham Kennedy twice, Pick-a-box host Bob
Dyer, Lorrae Desmond from ABC's The Lorrae Desmond Show, Four
Corners reporter Michael Charlton, Bobby Limb, Jimmy Hannan, Gordon
Chater, Brian Henderson and Hazel Philips.[43]
Numerous television stations were launched, mainly concentrated around
southern and eastern parts of the country. By the turn of the decade, the takeup
of television had increased dramatically by 1960 up to 70% of homes
in Sydney and Melbourne had a television set. Following its introduction to
regional centres and other capital cities through the late 1950s and 1960s over
90% of Australian homes in established markets had a television set.[31] The new
medium had also become highly lucrative to advertisers.
In 1967 the NSWRFL grand final became the first football grand final of any
code to be televised live in Australia. The Nine Network had paid $5,000 for the
broadcasting rights.[46]
Test broadcasting of colour began in the late 1960s. In 1967 ATV-0 telecast the
Pakenham races in colour under the supervision of the Broadcasting Control
Board.[47] The full changeover to colour transmission did not occur until 1975.
1970s
Following the new medium's establishment in most major metropolitan and
regional centres, television continued to expand to remote areas, most notably
those in the northern and western parts of Australia Darwin, for example, did
not receive television until ABD-6 and NTD-8 launched in 1971.
Similarly, VEW-8 launched in Kalgoorlie on 18 June 1971, and ITQ-8 launched
in Mount Isa on 11 September 1971. The youngest network, the 0/10 Network,
as it was then known, launched the controversial sex-melodrama serial Number
96 in March 1972. The success of this program led to this third network
becoming commercially viable.
In 1972 it was announced that all stations would move to colour on 1 March
1975, using the European PAL standard mandated in 1968.[43][48][49] The slogan
used to sell colour television to the Australian public was 'March first into
colour'. Australia was to have one of the fastest change-overs to colour
television in the world by 1978 over 64% of households
in Sydney and Melbourne had colour television sets.

Malcolm Thompson and Suzanne Church in the soap operaNumber 96.

Government subsidies provided for the production of local series led to a boom
in Australian-produced content. Some of the most popular series
included Crawford Productions police dramas Homicide, Division 4 which
started during the 1960s and Matlock Police which began in 1971; variety
series Young Talent Time; comedy/variety series Hey Hey It's Saturday, which
ran for 28 years until 1999, music show Countdown; soap operas Bellbird which
had started in late 1967, Number 96 and The Box, and the World War II-
themed The Sullivans. Against the Wind, the first major mini-series produced for
commercial television, was shown on the Seven Network. Later hospital
drama The Young Doctors ran for 1396 episodes between 1976 and 1983,
becoming at the time it ended Australia's longest running drama series.
Graham Kennedy returned to the Nine Network after his departure from In
Melbourne Tonight with The Graham Kennedy Show in 1973, but was banned
from appearing from television in 1975 after an infamous 'crow-call' incident.
[48]
Kennedy subsequently returned in 1977 as the host of Blankety Blanks. In
1979, commercial stations were mandated to provide 'C'-classified
programming targeted at children between 4-5pm, and a minimum of 30
minutes of pre-school programming prior to that. These regulations saw the
establishment of a number of children's series including Simon Townsend's
Wonder World and Shirl's Neighbourhood.[48]
News and current affairs, particularly on commercial television, grew
significantly the Nine Network's A Current Affair, hosted by Mike
Willesee began in November 1971, while 60 Minutes, on the same network,
began in 1979. In March 1972, Brisbane station BTQ-7 claimed the first one-
hour newscast in Australia[48] The one-hour newscast format was also later
adopted by regional station NBN, Newcastle, and capital city television
stations TEN-10 Sydney and ATV-0 Melbourne.
A special Gold Logie Award was awarded to the Apollo 11 crew in 1970,
alongside actors Barry Crocker and Maggie Tabberer. Other Gold Logie
winners included Gerard Kennedy, Tony Barber, Graham Kennedy, Pat
McDonald, Ernie Sigley and Denise Drysdale in the first awards presentation
shown in colour, Don Lane, Jeanne Little, and Bert Newton.
Sports broadcasting became increasingly sophisticated through the 1970s. ABC,
the Seven Network and the Nine Network joined together to broadcast the 1976
Olympic Games in Montreal, with the opening and closing ceremonies telecast
live, and highlights packages shown each night. During November of the same
year, RTS-5a commenced transmissions in Riverland, with GTW-11 launching
in Geraldton on 21 January 1977.
In 1977 the Victorian Football League Grand Final was shown live
to Melbourne viewers for the first time.[48] As with the Olympics, the
1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada were shown in the form of
highlights packages on ABC TV.
The Special Broadcasting Service, originally a group of radio stations
broadcasting government information to ethnic minorities in Sydney and
Melbourne, began test transmissions on ABC in the two cities mainly showing
foreign-language programming on Sunday mornings.
1980s
The country's second national public broadcaster, the Special Broadcasting
Service, launched Channel 0/28 in Sydney and Melbourne in October 1980. The
new station, aimed at Australia's growing multicultural population, placed a
much heavier emphasis on subtitled or foreign-language content. The network
expanded to cover Canberra and Goulburn in 1983, followed
by Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle, Wollongong and the Gold Coast in June
1985. It is now available in most areas.
Although Australia had seen the introduction of the satellite in the 1960s, 1986
saw the introduction of a new, domestic satellite called AUSSAT. The
Australian Broadcasting Corporation and other commercial broadcasters were
able to broadcast to the more remote areas of Australia without needing to set up
a new station, and by the end of 1986 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
were broadcasting both television and radio to remote areas of Australia.[51] By
1980, commercial television in Australia accounted for 33% of all
mainstream advertising; this was a significant rise from the introduction of
television in 1960 when it was accountable for only 15% of advertising revenue.
The newly relaunched Network Ten, with Rupert Murdoch controlling the
flagship stations TEN-10 and ATV-10, aggressively challenged the long-held
dominance of the Seven and Nine networks with the commissioning of several
large-budget mini-series, many produced by the Kennedy-Miller partnership;
the expansion of news and current affairs coverage; securing the exclusive
Australian television rights to the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympic Games; and
a strong line-up of Hollywood blockbuster movies and mini-series.[52] The 1980s
were a huge step up for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, sealing the
contracts for both Live Aid and the 1986 Commonwealth Games, live
from Edinburgh.
In 1983 a two-hour experiment was conducted, in which the Seven
Network televised a series of 3D films.[52]
The Australian soap opera Neighbours was first broadcast on the Seven
Network on 18 March 1985. The show's storylines concern the domestic and
professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional suburb
of Erinsborough, Melbourne. Seven decided to commission the show following
the success of Watson's other soap opera, Sons and
Daughters. Neighbours underperformed in the Sydney market and it struggled
for four months before Seven cancelled it. The show was immediately bought
by rival network, Ten. Ten began screening Neighbours on 20 January
1986. Neighbours has since become the longest running series in Australian
television and attained great success in the United Kingdom and launched the
careers of several international stars, including Kylie Minogue and Guy Pearce.
The soap opera Home and Away has been produced in Sydney by the Seven
Network since July 1987. It premiered in January 1988 and is the second
longest-running drama on Australian television, winning more than 30 Logie
Awards.[53] The show initially focused on the characters of Pippa and Tom
Fletcher who ran the Summer Bay Caravan Park and lived there with a
succession of foster children, most notably their adopted daughter Sally, played
by Kate Ritchie. Other notable actors who have starred in the series
include Heath Ledger, Julian McMahon and Naomi Watts.
The late 1980s saw the ownership changeover for many commercial and
regional stations. Six main ownership groups emerged, three for commercial
broadcasters and three for regional broadcasters[51] This was the beginning
of aggregation for Australian television.
1990s
The 1990s saw a boom in Australian-made drama, which included Halifax
f.p., Stingers, Water Rats, SeaChange, All Saints, and the long running police
drama Blue Heelers which ran from 1993 to 2006, one of the longest running
Australian programs, equaling Homicide's record of 510 episodes; a record set
two decades earlier. A number of successful comedy programs also aired during
the 1990s, including Fast Forward, Full Frontal, The Late Show and Good
News Week. Hey Hey It's Saturday ended its 28-year run in November 1999.One
of the most significant developments in terms of high quality Australian
programming was the establishment by the Federal Government of the
Commercial Television Production Fund.

Prime Television was one of the first television networks to be aggregated.

One of the most significant changes for regional television in Australia began in
the 1990s with the introduction of aggregation. Instead of being covered by a
single commercial channel, regional license areas would combine to provide
two or three stations in line with metropolitan areas. As a result, most regional
areas went from one to three channels, although some, particularly outside
eastern states New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, remained with two or
even only one commercial station. The first license area to aggregate was that of
southern New South Wales, on 31 March 1989, followed by Queensland on 31
December 1990, northern New South Wales on 31 December 1991, Victoria on
1 January 1992 and Tasmania in 1994 (two stations only). Some areas too small
to be properly aggregated, such as Darwin, Mildura or rural South Australia,
however, either applied for a second license or introduced a supplementary
second service run by the existing local station. Following aggregation in
1995, Sunshine Television was purchased by Seven Network Limited.
Community television was introduced
to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in 1994. The stations,
which all broadcast on channel 31, were allocated long-term temporary licences
until new legislation introduced in 1997 permitted permanent licences to be
granted. Briz 31 was the first community television station to launch in
Australia, on 31 July 1994. C31 Melbourne and Access 31 in Perth followed in
1994 and 1999 respectively, along with a number of other stations in some
capital and regional cities. The most recent to launch was Sydney's TVS.
Throughout the early 1990s, SBS TV coverage continued to expand to include
the Latrobe Valley, Spencer Gulf, Darwin,
northeast Tasmania, Cairns and Townsville.
During the 1990s the first subscription television services were introduced to
Australia. The first license was issued to Galaxy Television, which started in
1993, providing services to most metropolitan areas by 1995. Other major
providers include Foxtel, Optus Television and AUSTAR, all of which were
introduced in 1995.
Subscription television allowed customers to have access to more channels. For
example, PSN (later Fox Sports) was launched in 1995 and ESPN in 1996,
featuring Super 12 (rugby union), NFL (American football)
and NBA (basketball).
The advent of pay television in Australia resulted in the Super League
war which was fought in and out of court during the mid-1990s by the News
Ltd-backed Super League and Kerry Packer-backed Australian Rugby
League organisations over broadcasting rights, and ultimately control of the top-
level professional rugby league football competition of Australasia. This
resulted in the greatest and most costly set-piece confrontation to shake the
corporate landscape of Australia.
Galaxy folded in 1998 and was subsequently absorbed by Foxtel. Despite recent
growth, subscription television in Australia still has relatively few subscribers.
2000s
The Seven Network's telecast of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics' opening
ceremony was one of the highest-rating programs in Australian television
history.
The 2000 Summer Olympics resulted in huge ratings for its broadcaster (the
event was hosted in Sydney) for the Seven Network over 6.5 million
Australians watched the telecast of opening and closing ceremonies, which were
amongst the most-watched programs in television history and helped Seven
defeat the Nine Network in ratings terms for the first time in more than two
decades. The broadcast also ran on the short-lived C7 Sport subscription
channel. The Dream with Roy and HG was a sports/comedy talk show,
broadcast every night during the Sydney 2000 (and subsequent Salt Lake 2002
and Athens 2004 Olympics) presented by Australian comedy duo Roy and
HG which achieved great popularity during the Games.
The turn of the millennium introduced digital television to Australia, as well as
the transition to widescreen standard-definition and high-definition
television production. Community stations also began to receive permanent
transmitter licences, replacing temporary licences that were renewed yearly. At
this time it was thought that allowing Commercial Multicasting would be
detrimental so the publicly owned networks (ABC and SBS) were the only
networks that were allowed to create new digital SD Channels. This was only
revised after Digital Television Uptake was not as high as expected in many
areas, and from 1 January 2009, Network Ten, Nine and Seven were allowed to
create alternative SD channels.
Many successful Australian shows were created during the 2000s,
including ABC comedies like Kath & Kim, Spicks and Specks and The Chaser's
War on Everything, Network Ten's Thank God You're Here & The Secret Life of
Us, which led to the creation of many local versions throughout the world, and
the growth of reality television, especially Big Brother Australia and Australian
Idol. Australian content on subscription television also grew, with shows such as
the Logie Award winning Love My Way. Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, a
television interview show broadcast on ABC, aired from 2003 to 2008.
Amongst the new digital 'multichannels', one of the earliest was the SBS World
News Channel in 2002, providing news bulletins in languages other than
English. In 2003 Tasmanian Digital Television launched,
providing Tasmanian viewers a third commercial station, and nationally
available stations Fly TV and the ABC Kids launched, later to be eventually
shut down due to funding issues and replaced in 2005 by ABC2. Mildura
Digital Television, similar to TDT, launched at the start of 2006. Sydney also
began testing datacasting transmissions with Digital 44 in 2003. While digital
television boomed in areas that received a third channel and with the
subscription television services, growth in other areas has been slow, with
analogue shut-down dates pushed back several times. A number of new
community stations were also opened, including C31 Adelaide in April 2004
and Television Sydney in February 2006.
In October 2005, Network Ten announced that the morning show entitled Good
Morning Australia would be cancelled at the end of the year, after a 14-year run.
Although Bert Newton was offered ongoing employment at Network Ten, he
joined the Nine Network to host the short-lived game show Bert's Family Feud,
until 23 May 2007 when the program was axed.
Port Jackson and its surroundings feature in an ident on ABC2.
The Nine Network, the traditional ratings leader, suffered ratings losses by the
mid-2000s, losing out to the Seven Network, which became the most popular
Australian network by early 2007, thanks to its "Seven in '07" campaign.[62] This
was not the only loss by the network: the death of its CEO Kerry Packer in late
2005 led to network personality Eddie McGuire becoming the head of the
network,[63] and the network lost AFL broadcast rights to the Seven and Ten
networks in the largest Australian television rights deal in history, worth A$780
million.
In mid-2007, National Indigenous Television launched as Australia's 'third
public broadcaster', after the ABC and SBS, replacing Indigenous Community
Television on the Optus Aurora remote satellite service.[65] The move to High
Definition Television broadcasting came to the forefront when Network TEN
announced its intentions to create the first dedicated HD multichannel Ten
HD on 14 September 2007 with a December 2007 Launch date.
Although Ten HD was initially expected to be the first new commercial
television channel in metropolitan areas of Australia since 1988, it was instead
beaten to the punch by 7HD. Following the announcement by the Ten Network,
Network Seven also announced its previously hidden plans to launch a
dedicated HD channel on 15 September 2007 and pushed the launch date
forward to 10 October. 7HD was the first dedicated HD multichannel launched,
2 months earlier than the Channel 10 equivalent. The Nine Network's move to a
HD channel was considered sluggish by industry insiders, taking until March
2008. The Network was more excited by its plans to introduce a new SD
channel in 2009 called GO!, which is when digital multicasting restrictions were
scheduled to be lifted from the commercial stations. GO! was released to the
public on 9 August, spelling the end of 9HD which was replaced by the
previous HD version of Nine. 2009 also saw the launch of four other
channels, 7TWO, a general entertainment channel, SBS Two available in
SD, ABC3 a dedicated children's television channel available in SD, and One, a
dedicated 24 hour sport channel and a subsidiary of Network Ten available in
both HD and SD, replacing Ten HD. ABC3, unlike commercial channels, is not
constrained by local content quotas.
2010s
In the early stages of the 2010s, several governmental analysts observed that
commercial networks were having trouble making the transition to digital
television and subsequently, a $250m rebate was implemented on their licensing
fees. The government funded stations, ABC and SBS, received increased
funding in the closing stages of the 2000s to enable them to make the transition
to digital TV. Meanwhile, the community station C31 received no government
assistance or funding to make the transition; this still remains a source of
controversy.]
Other issues were noted such as the increased cost of producing local content on
commercial networks. For example: it costs roughly $800,000 to produce one
hour of local content such as Underbelly and Packed to the Rafters, in
comparison to a mere $100,000 to purchase one hour of the US produced Two
and a Half Men, the former example screening very often during the off ratings
period 200910. The cost disparity has led many to question to viability of
commercial networks in the future at delivering and investing in locally
produced content and has also brought their financial arrangements with
business and industry groups into question. Meanwhile, ABC and SBS quickly
began producing very successful local content with shows such
as Review, Lawrence Leung's Choose Your Own Adventure, Hungry Beast and
many more publicly funded local programs, produced in Australia, with
Australian cast and crews, adding to the increasing health of Australian film and
television industries.
During January 2010, the ABC announced its long-awaited 24 hour news
channel, ABC News 24 to launch in mid-2010.[69] It will broadcast on the
current ABC HD channel and according to the ABC, "Australia's first free-to-air
24-hour television news channel". Following technical issues at ABC's new
playout facility MediaHub, ABC News 24 launch date was pushed to 22 July
2010.[70] ABC News 24 began to broadcast a three-minute loop promo on
Channel 24 on 6 July 2010.
On 19 August 2010, the Seven Network announced their third digital
channel, 7mate, which is to replace 7HD. 7mate is aimed at males between 16
49, and launched with the AFL Grand Final on 25 September.[71] The Nine
Network has also launched a third digital channel called GEM, broadcasting
only in HD and replacing 9HD. GEM is targeted at middle aged women. On 26
August Network Ten announced their plans for a channel to replace One SD.
The new channel, Eleven, will be aimed at a youth audience and will carry
flagship TEN programming including Neighbours and The Simpsons. Eleven
launched on 11 January 2011
On 12 December 2012, NITV started its free-to-air broadcasts under SBS'
wings.]
On 10 December 2013, the analogue TV shutdown completed all around
Australia.[73]
On 19 August 2015, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced a
bill retracting the legal obligation for broadcasters to broadcast their primary
channel in SD.[74]
On 29 August 2015, Racing.com has been launched owned by Racing Victoria
and Seven West Media.
In October 2015, The Nine Network announced their fourth digital
channel, 9Life launched on 26 November, which is a dedicate to lifestyle and
reality channel on Channel 94 and relaunch 9HD on Channel 90.
On 28 February 2016, The Seven Network launches a fifth digital
channel, 7flix, which is a dedicate to Movies and Entertainment channel on
Channel 76.
On 2 March 2016, Network Ten relaunches Ten HD on Channel 13.
On 10 May 2016, The Seven Network relaunches 7HD on Channel 70 only in
Melbourne and Adelaide.

Broadcasting
Television broadcasting in Australia, Regional television in Australia, and List
of Australian television callsigns

The Seven Network's broadcast centre in the Melbourne Docklands area

Television broadcasting in Australia is available in a colour digital format, via a
range of means including terrestrial television, satellite television as well as a
number of cable services. Both free-to-air and subscription channels and
networks are available. The analogue network has been phased out, with the last
service being switched off in December 2013.[73]
In most areas there is a choice of three free-to-air commercial broadcasters as
well as two national public broadcasters, the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation and the Special Broadcasting Service. A third, recently
established, National Indigenous Television service is available in many remote
areas.[75]
Commercial television is dominated by three major metropolitan-based
networks, the Seven Network and Network Ten, which own stations
in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and the Nine Network which
owns stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin with affiliates in
Adelaide and Perth. In addition to its metropolitan assets, Seven also owns
regional station Seven Queensland.
Regional television in Australia consists of independently owned networks
'affiliated' to metropolitan stations. WIN Television is the country's largest
regional broadcaster in terms of population reach, followed by Southern Cross
Ten, Prime Television, NBN Television, the Golden West Network, Southern
Cross Television, and Imparja Television.[76] Some regional centres have three
commercial broadcasters, while others such as regional Western
Australia and remote central & eastern Australia have two, and others
such as Mount Gambier and Broken Hill have only one commercial
broadcaster. In two broadcaster markets, the two incumbent commercial
broadcasters applied for and were granted a third, digital-only license, while in
single broadcaster markets, the incumbent commercial broadcaster was granted
a second, and later a third license, to provide additional programming. This has
resulted in the establishment of a number of channels including Tasmanian
Digital Television, Mildura Digital Television, and Darwin Digital Television.
Subscription television in Australia consists of Foxtel in metropolitan areas and
throughout Western Australia, AUSTAR in the regional areas of eastern and
central states, and Optus Television in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. A
number of smaller operators including SelecTV, TransACT, UBI World TV,
and Neighbourhood Cable provide niche or local services. Most operators
provide the same or similar channels. There are few genuine local channels and
few independent channels. One exception is the World Movies channel owned
by a consortium including SBS Television and companies owned by Kerry
Stokes and the Australian Radio Network.
Community television progressively launched between the 1980s to the 2000s.
The sector is represented nationally by the Community Broadcasting
Association of Australia. Community stations include TVS, C31 Melbourne, 31
Brisbane, C31 Adelaide and Access 31; many recognisable mainstream
personalities originated from community television, including Rove
McManus and Wil Anderson and Kayne Tremills

Pay television
Cable television has been available in Australia since the early 1990s,
with Galaxy TV being the first. It became insolvent in 1997, due to decreasing
popularity after the launch of Foxtel and Austar in May 1995, two cable
services that offered more variety than Galaxy TV. Foxtel commenced by
supplying programs to Galaxy's subscribers on an interim basis. In 1999 Foxtel
was able to significantly boost its customer base by acquiring Galaxy TV's
subscribers from the Australis Media liquidator and commenced offering its
services on a satellite television platform. There is currently one major
subscription television provider in Australia, Foxtel. Foxtel bought Austar in
2012 and has now completed the merger of its operations. Other minor
providers include TransACT, Neighbourhood Cable & SelecTV.