They have no choice as none of the commercial networks provide a clean network feed anymore minus bugs/watermarks/crawls/pop-ups and sponsor pulthroughs/squeezebacks.
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They always could by covering it over but their affiliation agreement probably includes a clause on using the dirty feed intact.
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The new logo looks excellent, but it makes me wonder why Imparja couldnât incorporate their new branding with âdottyââfor example, by removing the center dot and replacing it with their new symbol?
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I can see how it could work, but that would diminish the whole indigenous aspect a little bit. Much like Aunt Jacinta. 
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Itâs extremely very unlikely that Imparja news will be reinstated. Thereâs no Northern Territory based commercial TV news anymore
Yeah right. Is a miracle they are even on the air, even with the various pots of Govt funding they get including for VAST transmission. There wonât be any local content returning to Imparja at all being costs were blown out for them with multi-channels, not to mention the drain on funds for them to carry the CDT JV too. Their business model worked for them when they were a single channel only being able to cherry pick from the 3 commercial networks. And being they are not obligated to produce local content, that was an easy financial decision to drop local content to stay on the air, just. If they were to lose their Govt funding, they would be totally gone.
Agreed, the only actual local content being shown on Imparja as of February 2025 are the ads. Does anyone know how many localised ads on Imparja come from Alice Springs? Isnât Imparja TV just one feed, meaning also ads from various areas in QLD?
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aggregating Imparja with QQQ was a mistake. Should have been left as an isolated market from aggregation.
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Geographically I can see your point. The only argument I would have against it is, if you had too many being allowed to operate as a solus market when it was first drafted, then other regionals could have tried arguing they should be a solus market.
I can see the business case for what you are saying more for Imparja and even QQQ/ITQ, than say MTN and BKN/GTS though. Noting Mildura was never part of the Victorian market for aggregation, STV could have been in same market as BKN/GTS in theory based on some of the modelling.
Under the aggregation model especially in Central West NSW, the problem with Digital is that areas reshaped and areas like Walgett that used to get either NEN or CWN instead receive the VAST channels region. I havent found much on the viewing areas for regional QLD pre-aggregation, but i presume that most regions from Barcaldine and Roma west now are under the VAST regions. Please correct me if I am wrong on that last statement
Two feeds for the main channel and 9GO (North - QLD/NT, and South - NSW/VIC/SA/TAS), and a single HD feed for 9GEM.
However, my understanding is that they mainly air the same ads
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Imparja and QQQ were not part of the initial framework for aggregation.
And the original plan for aggregation was that if all operators within a designated aggregated market opted for multi-channel services, then technically they could have done it. The government was sneaky by putting into law that if only one out of a group of three operators in a proposed market agreed to go with aggregation then the other two operators had to follow.
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That actually makes sense as to why the remote areas were late starter. I always thought it was to make sure that aggregation was going to work in smaller markets. It still baffles me as to how Griffith (MTN) was excluded from the Southern NSW but not included in the remote region
Also, they didnât exist when aggregation was being mapped out.
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Thatâs correct. When I last visited Charleville and longreach one Easter in 1995 those towns did receive the QQQ and imparja channels. The WIN, 7 Queensland and TNQ signal only reached as far as emerald and miles to the west.
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Basically, the last few posts demonstrated why aggregation was done in a half-arsed manner.
QQQ/ITQ and Imparja should have never been aggregated, and along with GWN, shouldâve been made into mutl-channel operations.
I think the problem was the One-in All-in approach. If you look at some of the regional TV guides the year before aggregation, stations like NRN were fitting 4 hours of shows into 3 and a half hours between 1:30pm and 5pm. The less ads as opposed to the reality the following year. I think a lot of regionals had to rely on national advertisers such as Coca-Cola, Woolworths, Coles, Harvey Norman and K Mart to fill the void.
Aggregation also gave us a concentration of a lot infomercials with NRN and TNQ screening infomercials instead of some programming, even shortening Video Hits on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Prime and Nine based affiliates followed suit before the metros started screening infomercials with Ten to be the first (clarification - I cannot remember if NBN and WIN started screening infoemrcials before or after Ten in metro markets).
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I think it made sense only on paper - the population of the aggregated market supported it, but the dynamics certainly didnât. You might have 400k viewers or something in the aggregated market, but no advertiser wants to reach all of them.
I have to assume part of it was that it would have cost a lot to have a multi-channel service without merging the markets - while just having 1 commercial channel would feel outdated going into 2000. With VAST afterwards itâs pretty much always that giving viewers more stations came at the cost of viability.
Itâs interesting to picture what couldâve beenâŚ
Instead of what we got, could we have seen the aggregation of QQQâs then-remote QLD market with the other QLD stations? At the time it was owned by Cairns and Townsvilleâs North Queensland TV, after all.
Over time, Imparja may have strengthened its association with the SA stations potentially resulting in the Central Television Network sales alliance becoming a formal merger.
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Itâs surprising that the RCEA broadcasters havenât utilised datacast channels to help with revenue. Is it a condition of their funding? Perhaps itâs a combined effort to reduce gambling/shopping services in vulnerable communities?
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Following the latest developments in the TV in remote and rural Australia I believe itâs only a matter of time before either 9 or WIN considers purchasing imparja TV. I donât know when but itâs only a matter of time