any sale could trigger a shuffle of owners as well
1 Like
Indeed. I do think the days of Imparja Television are reaching to an end. They donāt really bring anything to the table in terms of local productions, community support and revenue.
I think itās better off in the hands of Nine and becoming a relay Nine Darwin sales office for Imparja North to create a territory wide station, and Nine Adelaide in Imparja South? Nine could bring more to the table for local news too with the regional format they currently have.
2 Likes
Imparjaās viewers mostly live in either Queensland or NSW. Itās an unfortunate symptom of being a gap-filler station across every state as well as a local station in regional NT. I think any effort to make it profitable would focus on where their audience is.
Hereās an interesting map showing the registered locations of every VAST set-top box. This gives us a good idea of where Imparja is being watched:
13 Likes
Or just make it one big Channel 9 filler station with local ads inserted into each state/territory.
1 Like
Which it almost is anyway.
3 Likes
I hope this map puts to bed the constant questions / requests asking why the station has pivoted towards focusing on QLD / NSW viewers in recent years.
4 Likes
I am amazed how heavy the density is near the east coast!
2 Likes
Yes. Itās a complicated situation for Imparja to be in.
The network is running at a massive loss and major shareholders want to leave, but the network needs to continue airing as itās essentially a service than a commercial business. If the network closed, there will be more additional job losses which may not be replaced elsewhere.
If Nine took over their footprint, they will probably run it all out of Sydney or Darwin with a handful of sales staff across the region. It isnāt really a winning situation out of all the scenarios.
With CAAMA clearly wanting to abandon the network, it would be suitable for Nine hypothetically to take their share as it could lower licensing fees for programming, or even bring it down to 0 dollars. This would save the network a shit ton of money and will allow room for profits.
1 Like
Not really, that does not save any money in practice. It is just moving the numbers around.
1 Like
That too. Itās a shame about Imparja, but there isnāt much they can do. They broadcast into markets with low or no population compared to coastal markets.
As per that map why would someone prefer to get Imparja over Nine?
(Talking about the coastal areas where I would think metro or regional signals would be strong)
It may not necessarily be for Imparja, but it could be for those preferring to watch 10 Central over WIN, which I imagine would be plenty of them, in order to avoid the solid blue mappy & other solid marks on 10 Bold & 10 Peach. 
3 Likes
They donāt have that choice. They get VAST because they canāt receive their local Nine.
4 Likes
Most of the major job creation parts of Imparja are already gone - almost if not all of their local productions are now handled by NITV, they donāt have local news, they donāt handle playout themselves anymore, and they recently stopped rebranding promos, making it almost a straight Nine relay.
The goal of the indigenous ownership of Imparja is far better served by community operation of ICTV, and Government subsidies and the jobs they create, are best to go to those stations that are actually providing programming by and for indigenous peoples, rather than propping up a loss making Nine affiliate.
7 Likes
Yes, but for some reason they still employ over 60 people within the network, and still offering extremely generous salaries to their executives. (This includes Imparja Creative and all the sales people across Darwin and their footprint)
Imparja has received a number of government grants from Screen Territory and the Government themselves for operational costs and productions. I do think NITV actually services the area better, particularly with the high rate of Indigenous people residing in Central Australia. ABC also services the area much better than Imparja, with an Alice Springs newsroom for the NT wide bulletin, as well as local programs filmed frequently across Central Australia and the communities.
The only time Imparja actually airs local content is when Channel 9 sends Darwin reporters down there to report on an Alice Springs/Rural QLD story
2 Likes
Does Imparja still have the āIMPā watermark, or do they just use Nineās feed?
1 Like
Those nearer to the coast are probably in areas where hills block terrestrial signals so have to get VAST
1 Like
Still IMP during programs and dotty Imparja on idents, sponsor billboards and sponsored ads. No more lineups or promos sadly.
2 Likes
Sad.
One of the reasons for this is the failure to convert low power retransmission sites - it was cheaper to force people over to VAST then to go digital.
Making VAST the service of last resort has distorted the true purpose of the remote licences.
8 Likes