A form of advertising I’d guess.
People would see all the exciting programs on Sky and pop down to the pub to watch them.
Remember it was before pay TV in the home, the internet and FTA multi-channels so there were only 5 channels to watch.
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Also in those days there were very few race meetings in the twilight timeslot (Toowoomba on Saturday was about it, unless you count Perth races as a twilight affair on the East Coast) and there were only one or two greyhound meetings held on a Tuesday/Wednesday night (usually they had 4-5 greyhound meetings on Monday/Thursday and plenty of harness racing on Friday/Saturday) so they needed some sort of content to fill time.
It was once common for unions to utilise Sky Channel’s facilities to broadcast to the rank and file assembled in pubs and clubs during periods of industrial unrest before the race day got underway. Not necessary now that live streaming is possible and quite impossible considering Sky’s morning schedule is now filled with international race meetings. I doubt Sally McManus would be happy to have a rally cry interrupted by a call of the fifth race at Belmont Park.
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Today’s TV: 4.10.1990, Melbourne
Source: The Herald Gold Guide
(This was from the last edition of Gold Guide because from the following Monday The Herald and The Sun newspapers merged to become Herald Sun)
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The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mirror here in Sydney became The Daily Telegraph Mirror that very same day (8/10/1990) - the merged paper still exists to this day but the “Mirror” part of the name was dropped on January 2, 1996.
Not sure what (if any) weekly TV liftout The Daily Mirror had, but the pre-merger Daily Telegraph had one called “The Green Guide” which became “The Screen Guide” in The Daily Telegraph Mirror. I’d imagine that some of Media Spy’s older Sydney correspondents may be able to confirm this, but would I be right by presuming that The Daily Telegraph Mirror’s weekly TV liftout became “7 Days” and moved from Mondays to Thursdays around the time Jacqueline Lee Lewes defected from the Herald in Early 1993?
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Yeh, I can remember when the Telegraph changed to the Telegraph Mirror and the Monday 7 day guide was called The Screen Guide. Also had radio listings in it too.
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I think that’s right. I loved her column and read it religiously for years in the Sun-Herald, SMH and Tele. There’s nothing like it anymore.
I keep meaning to drop into the State Library to trawl through newspapers from the early 1990s for an article about how the current Ten logo was conceived.
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The Herald had the Gold Guide on Mondays and The Sun had a weekly guide on Wednesdays. The Sun’s guide pretty much carried over into the Herald Sun although Gold Guide was probably the better of the 2.
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Anyone knows when Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless moved from TVW7 to STW9?
How did STW9 and TVW9 divide up national sports rights before NEW10 came on the scene?
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Probably the same way they divided up much else, by coin toss 
But for the 1984 Olympics, 7 took Ten’s coverage for opening ceremony and week 1, while 9 took the second week and the closing ceremony
Not sure. I think it was in the 90s
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Not exactly sure but here are 3 classic tv guides to show a rough timeframe. Also note the now defunct Another World (ended in 1999 after a 35 year run) was on TVW7 in 1988 and 1989, but had moved to NEW10 by 1990.
14 November 1988
14 November 1989
14 November 1990
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Also note that because of this STW was behind the east coast schedule for DOOL and Y&R by a number of years right through into the late 90s. I’m not sure how they caught up or if they just skipped ahead at one point but I know I had relatives at the time that always wanted tapes from the east coast of the episodes after they’d moved to Perth as they’d already seen what was airing in Perth.
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Didn’t STW and TVW jointly own a company that acquired programming and rights and then split them between the 2 channels with, as you say, a coin toss?
Or am I making that up?
I’ve read that somewhere too. And that the east coast networks weren’t happy about this arrangement.
I wonder if the ACCC, if it had existed back then, would’ve looked into this. In a way it is anti-competitive, but it also frees up the broadcasters to spend more money on local TV productions, which is a good thing too.
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Yes, it was called TV Facilities and did pretty much as you say particularly with regards to programs from the Ten Network which were split between TVW7 and STW9
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Ah, I thought they also split up shows from the Seven and Nine networks too.
That’s what i thought too but most of the time Seven Network programs still ended up on TVW7 and Nine programs on STW9 (there were some exceptions with overseas shows). Not sure if that was planned or just the way it turned out
And then STW9 became a Nine affiliate in 1978 which pretty much saw all Seven shows go to TVW7, with Ten programs still being split between TVW and STW
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I noticed no Neighbours on TVW7 in that Oct 1985 schedule, though they did show it until 1987 and ended up pretty much on par with the Eastern States. I wonder where they slotted it in back in 85?