I have to agree with Kick-It, we are all being clear that it is a personal opinion on a perfectly realistic potential event and there is no attempt here by any individual to categorically state what WILL happen, because no one knows.
MS has always been a “critique” and I see no harm in assessing the merits of a potential affiliation switch etc.
That’s my 2 cents including GST and efficiency dividend.
I think a warning is in order. You only need to go to Austech Forum to see what happens when things get out of hand and certain members start stating wild speculation as fact or ‘insider info’. Just keep the discussion as speculation and no one gets sin binned.
I really don’t think people are as thick as you want them to be . . .
It will be annoying for the first few days until the change sinks in,
The good people of Adelaide survived the 7-10 swap without too many people visiting hospital ER’s just because a particular show has swapped channels.
I’m more then happy for the discussion to continue - but it has the potential to get out of hand fast
Until we at least get a legal framework for such deals, it is effectively speculation on speculation. Its also important to remember that there will an element of ‘game playing’ from the parties involved as well and it could be easy to get caught up in any hype
Because WIN don’t broadcast into NNSW, there is no way for them to be the Ten affiliate there.
Same reason WIN will need to remain a Nine affiliate in regional WA - SC don’t have licenses there.
The interesting thing for SC would be Tasmania - SC rates fantastically, would they want to drop Seven for Nine and lose the AFL?
IIRC, the current situation in Tasmania is as follows:
SCA runs SC7 broadcasting 7 content
WIN runs WIN broadcasting 9 content
SCA/WIN joint run TDT broadcasting 10 content
I’d speculate that SCA would continue to broadcast SC7, while also taking over SC9 and leaving WIN with TDT alone maybe?
It’d give SCA the unique opportunity of being able to broadcast Southern Cross News on SC7 and SC9 every night.
If there were any changes would the LCN’S stay the same? SC is 5 WIN is 8. If it did might take a while to get use too it.
I don’t think that’s a realistic outcome for Tasmania. If WIN sides with Ten, I imagine it will only affect markets where there is currently a Southern Cross Ten in operation. All these other 2 station markets like Tassie may not be affected. I can see WIN wanting to hold on to their stronger Nine affiliation wherever they can.
The Adelaide swap was not only conducted in the quiet of the Christmas-New Year period when most regular shows were on hiatus anyway but it essentially meant that regular 7 Network programs would continue to be seen on 7 in the new year, and Network Ten programs on Channel 10. For viewers there was probably little noticeable change apart from local presenters and programs seen to be “swapping” channels. There would have been some widespread changes in presentation but that normally happens over January, anyway.
I imagine, though, it created some administrative pain behind the scenes as mail intended for Channel 7 was probably meant for Ten, and vice versa. I imagine a lot of correspondence got lost, or worse, in the hands of the opposition channels during the changeover period!! 
I think they would stay the same… ie. Nine programs still on 8, and Ten programs still on 5.
The LCN plan has then numbers allocated to the “Nine affiliate service”, “Ten affiliate service” etc, rather than the companies that operate them.
More recently WIN swapped its main channel affiliation from Nine to Seven in regional SA during argy bargy regarding affiliation agreements elsewhere. And then once it was able to broadcast all three commercial networks as the solus provider, changed its main channel back to Nine.
People (if I remember) were unhappy, but all survived, and most (I guess) understood what was going on after a while.
Oh, and this affiliation swapping isn’t uncommon here in the States.
In areas where WIN have affiliation with TEN already does WIN cover up TEN logos or anything like that?
No cover up for Win Ten in the Riverland SA. They just use the Adelaide feed and insert local ads. Use same watermark as Ten.
Though when WIN SA was a Seven affiliate, they covered up the Seven logos (to some extent) with WIN ones:
So what WIN currently do to a secondary Ten feed is unlikely a reference point for how the WIN network would handle being a Ten affiliate.
Looks like any reforms to media laws are on hold now until after the election. So mergers or ownership changes before the current 9 and 10 affiliation deals expire seem unlikely.
It will be interesting to see if Southern Cross become the new affiliate on July 1st, I have a very strong gut feeling about it…
Ten warns media reform is ‘dead’
A spokesman for Ten told Mumbrella: “It is disappointing that the bill is now effectively dead because these rules are hurting Australian media companies.”
…
Whichever side of politics is then elected on July 2 would be under significant pressure to urgently bring media reform up in the next parliament as a number of the regional TV networks, such as WIN and Southern Cross Austereo, have pushed their affiliate negotiations into the second half of the year in the hope that new laws might allow them to merge.
Had not heard that the affiliation negotiations had been posponed before.
If they both run out June 30th, Does that mean just a rolling contract situation.
More likely those that want to merge will affiliate until the laws are changed.
That would be my strong hunch, getting a foot in.