Free to Air Television Stations

24Apr07

Newcastle and the Hunter Valley has 5 free-to-air television stations.

Two of them are non-commercial national broadcasters, SBS and ABC, while the other three are commercial stations with a larger local presence; NBN, Southern Cross TEN and Prime.

NBN

NBN Television commenced broadcasting to the Newcastle and Hunter Valley region on Sunday, 4th March 1962.

NBN Television is an independent affiliate of the Nine Network, and the combination of its own locally produced programs, including the region’s number one news service, with the Nine Network’s strong line-up of Australian and international programs, has seen the NBN Group consistently achieve the highest ratings for any station in a major television market across Australia.

NBN produces more local programming than any other regional station with its weeknight hour of news; weekend 30 minute news bulletins and weekday morning program Today Extra.

NBN is a fully owned subsidiary of the ASX listed public company, SP Telemedia Limited, and the SPT Group is Australia’s first fully converged telecommunications / media company.

Southern Cross TEN

Southern Cross Broadcasting’s Network Ten affiliate stations operate in Victoria, southern and northern New South Wales and Queensland.

The company has agreed on affiliation rates with Network Ten, involving a stepped rise in fees, linked to revenue, over the next ten years

The network’s ratings grew substantially during the year across all demographics but especially with younger viewers. Coverage of AFL football and motorsport as well as several locally produced and overseas programs, including Big Brother III, Rove Live, All Aussie Adventures, Secret Life of Us, Law and Order and Everybody Loves Raymond, were big winners with viewers.

The growth in the core 16-39 demographic was particularly attractive to advertisers and resulted in revenue growth above the industry growth rate of 6.5%. 

Southern Cross Ten has centralised play out and presentation facilities to the Canberra studio complex in respect of 24 markets. Centralisation has allowed the company to convert analogue play out facilities to digital in an extremely cost effective way.

Enhancements in technology and the availability of broadband communications will now provide more efficient and effective play out and distribution operations.

Prime

Prime Television Limited is an Australian public listed company. It operates as a "free-to-air" television broadcaster in Australia and New Zealand.

The Prime Network was formed in Australia as a result of Australian Government legislation (beginning in 1989) designed to give all Australians equal access to "free-to-air" television. 

The major part of the programming on Prime Australia is supplied through an affiliation agreement with the Seven Network. This source furnishes entertainment programs such as the top rating Australian drama Blue Heelers, Better Homes & Gardens, The Great Outdoors and The Weakest Link. Nationally renowned Seven Nightly News plus local, national and international sporting programs complement the varied, wide-appeal programming mix.

The Prime Group produces a total of seven separate major local news bulletins each weekday. These are supplemented with News Updates and shorter bulletins throughout the day and night. All are entitled Prime News and deal with local stories.

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