Fiktiv Australia - Prime Media Group

Prime Media Group Limited (formerly Prime Television Limited) is an Australian-based media corporation, owner of regional television network Prime7 in eastern Australia and GWN7 in regional Western Australia. Prime Media Group's primary source of revenue is television advertising revenue, driven by its metropolitan sales teams "Seven Affiliate Sales" servicing major national advertisers.

Prime Media Group head office and ASX registered office is located in Watson, Canberra. A secondary corporate office is located at Jones Bay Wharf, Pyrmont, Sydney (which is also the Seven Network's head office).

Prime7 have sales offices located in each regional sub-market. There are also national regional sales offices at the Seven Network's metropolitan offices/studios in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Prime7's national broadcast facility is located in Canberra, with playout facilities located at MediaHub (within the Sydney suburb of Ingleburn) Australia.

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Prime Television Limited began life in 1970, when mineral explorer Altarama Minerals was incorporated and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Following its movement into the automotive industry, the business changed its name to Altarama Ltd in 1973.

Paul Ramsay gained control of Altarama in 1985, subsequently renaming it once again to Ramcorp Ltd. As part of a diversification into television, advertising, and healthcare, Ramcorp appointed Allan Hoy as founding media CEO who spearheaded the purchase of regional television stations CBN-8 Orange, CWN-6 Dubbo, AMV-4 Albury, and RVN-2 Wagga Wagga in 1987. Soon after, the stations began to be known collectively as The Prime Network.

In the lead-up to television aggregation, Ramcorp signed a 10-year programming affiliation agreement with the Seven Network – the start of a close relationship between the two networks. In 1991 the business changed its name to Prime Television Limited, reflecting its new nature as a television broadcaster in regional Victoria and New South Wales.

Throughout the early 1990s, Ramcorp had incurred significant debts as a result of loans taken out throughout the 1980s in order to expand the company – Ramcorp's healthcare and media interests in Australia and the United States failed to turn a proft, resulting in falling share prices for the business. By 1993, Prime Television made a $7.4 million profit following accumulated losses of $47 million between 1989 and 1991, as well as a further $200 million expanding Prime Television's audience reach to 17%, as part of aggregation.

Prime expanded into Western Australia when it purchased the Golden West Network from current Seven Network owner Kerry Stokes in 1996. At the time, GWN was the monopoly commercial television network in the regional Western Australia license area, however WIN Television, Prime's competitor in parts of New South Wales and Victoria was granted a license by the Australian Broadcasting Authority a year later in 1997.

In the same year, Prime Television expanded internationally with the purchase of the Canal 9 television network in Argentina. Prime paid A$224 million for the network, later renamed Azul Televisión in 1999, before selling half of its share to local media group Torneos y Competencias for an undisclosed amount. Azul Televisión performed below expectations, largely due to a global economic crisis, and the Argentine network did not make a profit. Prime Television pulled out of Argentina in 2000, selling their stake for A$108 million.

The network expanded further into New Zealand, with Prime Television New Zealand on 30 August 1998. In 2002, Prime New Zealand went into a joint venture with Australian company Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, owners of the Nine Network. Under the agreement, Prime Television was given access to Nine Network programs, expertise and money. In return, PBL was given the option to acquire 50% of Prime Television New Zealand in 2008. As a result, Prime Television New Zealand's ratings and profits increased significantly. Sky Television purchased Prime NZ for NZ$30 million in November 2005.

For the 2007 Australian federal election, Prime's online division iPrime launched Federalelection.com.au, produced from Prime Television's Canberra headquarters in partnership with Roy Morgan.

The Seven Network purchased 14.9% of Prime Media Group and rumours emerge of an increased stake. Recently, Lachlan Murdoch realised the potential and dominance of the Prime Media Group, taking up an 8% stake.

Assets:
Television
Prime7
GWN7
Mildura Digital Television (50% share with WIN Corporation)
West Digital Television (50% share with WIN Corporation)

Radio
Zinc 102.7 and 4CA Cairns
Zinc 100.7 and 106.3 Townsville
Zinc 101.9 and 4MK Mackay
Zinc 1584 and 4RO Rockhampton
Zinc 927 Gladstone
Hot 91 Maroochydore
Zinc96 Noosa

Other
Becker Entertainment
iPrime

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Prime7 is an Australian television network owned by Prime Media Group, and an affiliate of the Seven Network. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as CBN-8 in Orange, and has since expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.

Prime7 along with GWN7 national broadcast facilities are based in Canberra, with playout facilities located at MediaHub within the Sydney suburb of Ingleburn. Prime Media Group head office/administration is located in Pyrmont, Sydney.

Prime Television originally began as a group of separate stations and networks – Midstate Television in Orange, Dubbo and Griffith; RVN/AMV in Wagga Wagga and Albury; and 9-8 Television in Tamworth and Taree.

CBN-8 Orange first aired on 17 March 1962, followed by CWN-6 Dubbo on 1 December 1965. The two stations were both licensed to Country Television Services (also the owner of radio station 2GZ in Orange). CWN was a full-time relay of CBN—the first Australian television station to relay another. The two stations thus formed the country's first regional television network.

Albury launched on 7 September 1964 while RVN-2 Wagga Wagga began broadcasting on 19 June 1964, and MTN-9 Griffith began on 15 December 1965. The two stations merged in 1971 as the Riverina and North East Victoria Television Service Pty Ltd with the callsign RVN/AMV on air.

In northern New South Wales, NEN-9 Tamworth began transmission on 27 September 1965, with a relay in Armidale (NEN-1, later NEN-10) on 15 July 1966. ECN-8 Taree started on 27 May 1966. At one stage, ECN-8 was tied NRN-11 Coffs Harbour (now owned by WIN Corporation), however the two stations split. NEN later merged with ECN as 9-8 Television.

As a result of the financial difficulties that many independent stations faced, MTN-9 joined CWN-6 and CBN-8 to form Television 6-8-9 in 1973. Relays were launched in Portland, Lithgow, Mudgee, Cobar, Kandos and Rylstone and Bathurst. In 1981, 6-8-9 changed its name to Midstate Television.

Colour television was introduced at the same time as the rest of the country, on 1 March 1975 – one of the single most expensive processes undertaken by CBN to date. The station was a prominent broadcaster of local sporting events including tennis and rugby. In 1979, a documentary titled Goin' Down The Road, about the 1978 National Rodeo Titles won the network a Logie award for an 'Outstanding Contribution by a Regional Station'.

Midstate produced a number of local programs, including the Weekend Report, Early Shift, Rural Roundup and Around the Schools. From 1968, CBN was able to access a Postmaster-General's Department microwave link for national news bulletins and major events.

Midstate Television was bought out by media magnate Paul Ramsay's Ramcorp in October 1987. It was soon merged with Ramcorp's other stations, RVN/AMV and NEN/ECN. In 1988, Midstate Television was renamed Prime Television and began to show increased Seven Network programming in readiness for aggregation.

When aggregation took place, Prime began broadcasting to both southern New South Wales and northern Victoria. Transmission problems meant that aggregation in southern New South Wales took place in two stages – first the Australian Capital Territory and NSW south coast on 31 March 1989, followed by Orange, Dubbo, and Wagga Wagga on 31 December 1989. These changes led to the de-merger of RVN-AMV, with RVN becoming CBN-2.

Griffith remained a one-station market, however instead of taking programming from Prime in line with the network's other stations, MTN-9 relayed programming mainly from WIN Television in southern New South Wales. A supplementary licence, AMN-31, was successfully bid for by MTN in 1996, providing a relay of Prime Television. Soon after the station was purchased by WIN Television, which undertook a number of minor changes – mainly changing the news service to WIN News, and using entirely WIN branding. AMN-31 remains a relay of Prime. Similarly, the Mildura licence area remained separate from the remainder of Victoria, albeit with a single station, STV-8, later bought out by WIN Television in 1996. In 1997 Prime was successful in bidding for a new licence for the area at a cost of $3.2 million. PTV-31 began broadcasting the following year.

Although advertising revenue increased post-aggregation, local programming declined as a result of the costs incurred by the network's expansion – an estimated $45 million had been spent by Ramcorp during and in the lead-up to aggregation. After losses of $50 million, it was not until 1993 that the renamed Prime Television posted a profit.

Prime Television became the first commercial network in Australia to add a digital on-screen graphic to the network's broadcasts. Starting in the early 90s, the first watermark consisted of the Prime text from the network's former circle logo, and was located at the top right of the screen. The watermark was updated in 2001 to coincide with Prime's new logo, still shown at the top right of the screen. This continued until Prime Television's relaunch as Prime7 in 2011. The watermark is now seen at the bottom right of the screen, like most TV network watermarks.

In November 1996, Prime's parent company, Prime Television, purchased the Golden West Network, a merged group of four stations in regional Western Australia; BTW-3 Bunbury, VEW-8 Kalgoorlie, GTW-11 Geraldton and GSW-9 Albany. Western Australia, similar to Griffith and Mildura, remained a one-station commercial market until 1999 when GWN became a Seven Network affiliate, after WIN Television began transmission as an affiliate of both the Nine Network and Network Ten.

The network began to expand into New Zealand in 1997, when a number of licences were purchased from United Christian Broadcasters for an estimated $3.6 million. Prime Television New Zealand began broadcasting on 30 August 1998, with a nightly local news program in both Waikato and Christchurch. Prime also expanded into Argentina with the purchase of the Canal 9 network.

The renamed Argentine network Azul Televisión was sold for $108 million in early 2000 due to lower-than-expected performance. During the same year, Prime benefited greatly from its affiliation with the Seven Network throughout its carriage of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. The network's relationship with Seven was further developed throughout the early 2000s, leading to the introduction of 7onPrime promotional branding for Seven Network-produced programs.

Prime formed a partnership with the Nine Network (affiliated in Australia to competitor WIN Television), giving its owner, PBL Media the option to purchase a 50% share of Prime Television New Zealand in return for access to original programming, and cross-promotion in PBL's New Zealand magazine titles. Following this, Prime Television New Zealand began to take on branding and programming similar to that of the Nine Network. In November 2005, Prime Television New Zealand was purchased by subscription television provider Sky Network Television for $NZ30 million, completed after approval by New Zealand's Commerce Commission in February 2006.

Mildura Digital Television, a digital-only station in Mildura began transmissions in 2006 as a joint venture between Prime Television and WIN Corporation. Section 38B of the Broadcasting Services Act allowed for the provision of a third station owned by either one or both existing networks. MDT is a direct relay of Ten Melbourne, albeit with local advertising.

Prime Television announced on 21 December 2009 that it would start broadcasting 7two on 23 December 2009.

On 25 September 2010, Prime began transmission of the new HD digital channel 7mate aimed at men 16–49. The first program to be broadcast was the drawn 2010 AFL Grand Final. On 15 January 2011, Prime Media Group reported that Prime and GWN were set to rebrand as Prime7 and GWN7 respectively. Their news bulletins had quickly changed their names to Prime7 News and GWN7 News, while 7TWO dropped the "Prime" logo on the multichannels. Prime and GWN relaunched on 16 January 2011 at 6pm.

In December 2016, Prime7 transferred its playout facilities to MediaHub Australia located within the Sydney suburb of Ingleburn. The facility is a joint venture between public broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation and rival regional network WIN Television. Network officials noted that its existing Canberra facilities cannot be upgraded with technological advancements, causing Prime7 to be incapable of relaunching its HD simulcast as well as introducing 7flix to its viewers.

On 3 August 2017, 18 months after launching in metropolitan areas, Prime7 announced that it would carry 7flix to its regional stations in northern and southern New South Wales, regional Victoria and Mildura. The channel became available on digital channel 66 in MPEG-4 format. On 15 January 2018, Prime7 quietly closed relaunched its primary HD service, Prime7 HD, on digital channel 6 in MPEG-4 format.

Prime7 is available in 1080i high definition digital format since January 2018, replacing the network's former 576p service. Prime7 is viewed mainly through free-to-air terrestrial transmitters, although subscription cable also provided by TransACT and Neighbourhood Cable in the Australian Capital Territory and Ballarat, respectively.

Prime7 broadcasts to southern New South Wales through stations based in Orange and Dubbo, northern New South Wales from stations in Tamworth and Taree, Victoria from its Albury-Wodonga-based station AMV and Mildura via PTV.

Prime's programming schedule is almost identical to those of Seven Network metropolitan counterparts ATN in Sydney and HSV in Melbourne, with some differences. Since the Prime network's inception it has featured a broad range of original local programming, currently including children's program Possum's Club with Madelaine Collignon and station mascot Prime Possum as well as community service segment Prime7 InfoNet, a series of short updates listing local community events.

Prime7's overnight schedule also differs from the Seven Network feed, containing infomercials from Danoz Direct, Home Shopping, and a feed from pay television channel Expo.

Prime7 News is a local television news service in parts of regional Australia, produced by Prime7. Full bulletins are produced for nine regions throughout New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, north eastern Victoria and south east Queensland. In other areas two-minute news updates are shown at various times of the day.

Prime7's flagship bulletin airs at 6pm in nine distinct local editions for the Border, Central West, North West, North Coast, Wagga Wagga, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Canberra, and Wollongong broadcast regions.

The Albury, Orange, Wagga Wagga, Canberra and Wollongong Prime7 News bulletins are presented from Prime Media's National Headquarters in Canberra by Karl Lijnders, with Elly Wicks presenting the weather. Madelaine Collignon presents the North West, North Coast, Gold Coast and Newcastle bulletins from studios in Tamworth with weather presented by Kirstie Fitzpatrick. Each region has five reporters while the North Coast has four separate bureaus with its own reporter, such as Port Macquarie's Samantha Crowe.

After being broadcast on television, the latest bulletins from each of the nine regions become available to watch on their respective YouTube pages.

Until 21 February 2014, Prime7 broadcasts a delayed Seven News into areas that receive full Prime7 Local News bulletins on weeknights. Since 24 February 2014, Prime7 has produced its own live bulletin due to the extension of Seven News to one hour on the eastern seaboard. This is presented by Daniel Gibson at 6:30pm, and covers national and international news that are being broadcast by Seven News in its metropolitan counterparts. Meteorologist Elly Wicks presents the expanded weather forecast, which features state, East Coast metropolitan cities and national weather.

The statewide edition, however, does not cover across the entire New South Wales. Albury (which is served by sister station AMV in Victoria) does not receive this bulletin and continues to receive an edited version of Seven News Melbourne, which has been trimmed down to 30 minutes. The edited version features the first half before joining live for sports and weather.

There are also updates presented for Western Victoria, Central Victoria and Gippsland. These are presented by Kirstie Fitzpatrick with weather presented by Daniel Gibson. Craig Moore presents weekend weather updates across the Prime7 broadcast area.

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GWN7 is an Australian television network owned by the Prime Media Group serving all of Western Australia outside metropolitan Perth. It launched on 10 March 1967 as BTW-3 in Bunbury, where it is still based. An affiliate of the Seven Network, it serves one of the largest geographic television markets in the world—almost one-third of the continent. The network's name, GWN, is an acronym of Golden West Network, the network's name from 1979 to when the current name was adopted in 2011.

GWN began life as a group of smaller, independent stations: BTW-3 Bunbury with relay station GSW-9 Mount Barker and GSW-10 Albany, VEW-8 Kalgoorlie with relay station VEW-3 Kambalda and GTW-11 Geraldton.

Prior to these stations signing on, remote Western Australia had been one of the few areas of Australia without local television; the only television outlets in the area were relays of ABC Television out of Perth.

Jack Bendat purchased South West Telecasters (owner of BTW/GSW) in 1979, and changed the company's name to Golden West Network.

GWN applied to broadcast an additional service on 31 October 1984, when the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal called for applications to broadcast to Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands via satellite as part of the Remote Commercial Television License (RCTS) scheme. GWN was granted the Remote Commercial Television License (RCTS) in June 1985 and the service went to air on 18 October 1986 using the call-sign WAW.

Not long after, GWN continued to expand within Western Australia, acquiring Mid-Western Television (owner of VEW-8 Kalgoorlie) in December 1985 for A$7 million, and Geraldton Telecasters (owner of GTW-11) in March 1987 for an undisclosed amount. The takeovers gave the network a monopoly over all commercial television services in regional Western Australia. In 1987, Bendat and Kerry Stokes merged their media interests into joint company BDC Investments. Later that year, Northern Star Holdings purchased BDC for A$206 million. Northern Star were forced to sell GWN to satisfy existing media regulations. GWN was sold back to Stokes in December 1988 for A$54 million, who upgraded equipment throughout the network. In April 1990, the callsigns BTW and GSW were merged, to become SSW. During the late 1980s, GWN was promoted as GWN Satellite Television and aired programs from mostly the Nine Network plus a few from Seven and Ten with STW’s Channel Nine (later National Nine) News (from Perth) providing the national news link.

Kerry Stokes gained control of the Seven Network in 1995, and attempted to sell GWN to Seven in return for more shares. Seven Network shareholders agreed to the trade in April 1996 – a deal which would have seen Seven acquire GWN for A$72.8 million thus becoming the regional network affiliate for Western Australia. The arrangement was called off when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found that a 15-year exclusive programming deal GWN made with the Nine Network was anti competitive and opposed the acquisition. The Seven Network subsequently dropped their plans to purchase GWN. And as a result, the network soon ended its programming deal with Nine for exclusive broadcast of its shows in regional areas of the state.

Prime Television purchased GWN in November 1996 from Stokes for A$71 million. Remote Western Australia was one of the few areas of regional Australia that was not aggregated, given its small population. This ended in 1997, when WIN Television was granted the rights to a second television license in regional Western Australia, ending GWN's monopoly of all three Australian commercial channels. In March 1999, GWN opted to become a sole Seven Network affiliate, in-line with its eastern sister, Prime Television. As a result, WIN Television WA picked up both the Nine Network and Network Ten affiliations.

The network's transmission operations were moved from Bunbury to Prime Media Group's digital broadcast facility in Canberra in April 2005. Programming is delivered to regional Western Australia via a satellite feed.

A proposal for a third television station – a joint venture between GWN's parent company Prime Media Group and WIN Corporation – 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 licence, as a Network Ten affiliate named Ten West.

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 GWN, WIN WA and the new Ten West in standard definition.

On 15 January 2011, Prime Media Group reported that GWN and Prime were to rebrand to GWN7 and Prime7 respectively, in connection to their strong relations with the metropolitan stations of the Seven Network. Their news bulletins were quickly renamed as GWN7 News and Prime7 News. These bulletins were relaunched on 16 January 2011 at 6pm.

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 7TWO and 7mate. On 30 July 2011, the regional networks began broadcasting on the Viewer Access Satellite Television platform.

On 12 February 2018, GWN7's master control facilities (transmission and technical operations) were transferred to Prime Media's national playout centre in Canberra, with the WA facilities beamed through satellite and microwave links.

Since becoming a full Seven affiliate, GWN7's on-air schedule has become almost identical to that of its metropolitan counterpart, TVW in Perth. Seven News Perth is aired live across the network direct from Perth. GWN7 also produces a weeknightly local news service, GWN7 Local News, shown live at 5:30pm. Since the network's inception it has featured a broad range of original regional programming, currently including the children's program Doopa's Club featuring the station mascot Doopa Dog; as well as community service strand GWN7 InfoNet, a series of short updates listing local community events.

GWN7 News (previously known as Golden West News or GWN News) is the network's regional news service. Its main 30-minute program, airing live at 5:30pm on weeknights before Seven News Perth, deals primarily with local news and current affairs. The bulletin is presented by Noel Brunning with news and sport; and Shauna Willis with weather. As of March 2012, GWN7 produces the only dedicated local news program for regional Western Australia.

The bulletin is produced and broadcast from GWN7's Spencer Street newsroom in Bunbury CBD with reporters and camera crews also based at newsrooms in Perth, Albany, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Geraldton and Broome.

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MDV, also known as Ten Mildura is a joint venture television station between Prime Media Group and WIN Corporation. Based in Mildura, Victoria, Australia, it is a digital-only Network Ten affiliate run under the company name Mildura Digital Television Pty Ltd, and began broadcasting on 1 January 2006. On 1 July 2016, due to WIN Television becoming the Network Ten affiliate in the region, MDV switched its affiliation to the Nine Network and remained there until 2021.

The station is a Network Ten affiliate, which is jointly owned by Prime Media Group and WIN Television. MDV is available on LCN 5 in the Mildura and Sunraysia area in standard-definition.

WIN is responsible for handling playout and then transmits this signal via satellite to transmission facilities in Mildura. WIN also handles the business administration and advertising sales for MDV.

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West Digital Television, also known as Ten West is an Australian digital television network jointly owned by Prime Media Group and WIN Corporation. It broadcasts free-to-air on a number of digital terrestrial transmitters in regional and remote areas of Western Australia, as well as free-to-view on the Viewer Access Satellite Television service. The network is an affiliate of Network Ten, broadcasting a direct feed of NEW-10 Perth.

The network is similar to other joint ventures already available in Tasmania, Mildura, Darwin and Central and Eastern Australia. As GWN7 consists of three different stations licensed in Albany/Bunbury, Kalgoorlie and Geraldton, and a fourth licensed to the rest of the state as part of the Remote Commercial Television Licence scheme, West Digital Television's network is made up of four separate stations. Each of the four stations trade as West Digital Television Pty Ltd.

On 18 June 2009, the Australian Communications and Media Authority allocated new "Section 38B" television broadcasting licences to a joint venture company owned by Prime Media and WIN Television. The company, named West Digital Television, launched Ten West on Thursday 10 June 2010 as part of the initial introduction of digital commercial television in Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Mawson Trig and Mingenew.

West Digital Television launched on the Viewer Access Satellite Television platform in April 2011.

On 1 July 2016, WIN's Nine Network-affiliated stations switched to Network Ten, displacing WDT's affiliation and requiring the station to negotiate a switch to Nine Network. WDT failed to reach an affiliation deal with Nine in time for the switchover, with the co-owners stating that Nine had been actively rejecting offers. At this time, the channel temporarily suspended transmission, with programming replaced by a loop of scenic footage with the scrolling message "Programming on this channel in Regional Western Australia is currently unavailable." On the evening of 2 July 2016 at around 7:30 p.m. WST, WDT began to carry Nine programming, joining its federal election coverage already in progress.

On 1 July 2021, West Digital Television ceased their program supply agreement with Nine Network, resulting in the return of affiliation with Network Ten.

The network rebroadcast a direct feed of NEW-10 Perth, including programming and events produced in Perth. West Digital Television does not produce any programming.

West Digital Television simulcasts the Perth edition of Ten News from NEW-10, alongside the national news bulletins from TEN-10 in Sydney.

West Digital Television operates four television stations in regional and remote areas of Western Australia - SDW in the South West, VDW in the Goldfields, GDW in the Mid West and WDW for the remaining areas of the state. The stations are based on GWN7's separate licence areas and all broadcast free-to-air digital television channels Ten West, Ten Bold, Ten Peach, Ten Shake and Ten Daily. Terrestrial transmissions are available in many regional cities and towns, including Albany, Broome, Bunbury, Carnarvon, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Merredin, as well as others.

The network is also broadcasts the same channels free-to-view on the Viewer Access Satellite Television service. The satellite service can be accessed by eligible viewers in the Western Australia TV3 licence area, which includes the entire state of WA, Christmas Island and Cocos/Keeling Islands.