see this post from @Spi:
It was not a big news event but did get a run on a few bulletins. Set top boxes, if any could be found, were around the $700 mark. Digital ready televisions were not yet available.
Seven News Melbourne 01/01/2001
Ten News Melbourne 01/01/2001
SBS News 01/01/2001
In 1999 60 minutes did a story on digital television. Big claims were made that we would get world leading high definition pictures and surround sound. There would also planned to be interactive features that could provide the ability to select sport camera angles, view sport statistics, shop online and do banking.
The ABC were developing an interactive system that would allow local news stories and other content to be viewed on demand. There was no need to sit through a whole bulletin as you could just select the story of interest and get the news reader introduction and the story.
And there was even the possibly of other media organisations doing data casting such as Fairfax.
Some other captures from the story
The launch of digital TV only got a cursory mention in the lead up to midnight on Nine’s NYE fireworks coverage, with the comment that there were only about 7 viewers in the country with digital tuners! Which probably wasn’t too far from the truth given that they were so scarce and expensive. Even ABC struggled to get hold of set top boxers for testing purposes.
Good to see you back, too, @BackThen
2 January 1988: Imparja Television, the remote commercial television service (RCTS) covering outback regions in NT and SA, begins transmission through the AUSSAT satellites.
I recall is being pretty dire tbh. Each country just sent its ‘nasty’ judge and they were all just trying to outdo each other in seeing who could be the most unpleasant to the contestants.
and it went with lots of hiccups! Prime TV did not start outside its Albury home market until March of that year, and Southern Cross Network had major problems with its transmitters in Ballarat (Lookout Hill) and Shepparton (Mount Major) with its signal cutting out mid-programme on a regular basis. I was in Shepparton then and remember it well! The fears VIC TV and Southern Cross had about aggregation were real!
When you say the signal cutting out mid program, do you mean the screen going black or static (snow)?
I was in the Goulburn Valley area watching Southern Cross (Channel 46) on those early days and it is true the transmitter just kept cutting out intermittently for short periods at random times, so there was static/snow. Seemed to be some amount of teething problems for whatever reason.
Southern Cross also had an issue where the timing of commercial windows to each market were not in sync, so you’d watch a commercial break say for the Goulburn Valley and it would then finish then cut to the last few frames of another area’s commercial break before resuming the program. I think this went on for a long time, not just a teething problem. Just seemed to be an ongoing thing for them. I’ve not been a viewer in that area for a long time. So maybe it still happens, for all i know?!?
I wonder if that delay was requested by Prime as they would have also been focussed on getting Northern NSW up and running at the same time and maybe needed some extra time for getting Victoria started?
The delay in Prime obviously worked in VIC TV’s favour allowing it to build up an audience across its wider market. When the first ratings survey came out for the aggregated Victoria market, VIC TV rated higher than Prime and SCN combined (VIC TV 43.0%, Southern Cross 18.8%, Prime 18.6%, ABC 11.0%. Survey 1/1992, AGB McNair Anderson) which possibly also implied that any “heritage” advantage Southern Cross might have had in its Bendigo and Gippsland markets had quickly evaporated?
4 January 1971: The American PBS series Sesame Street debuts on ABC.
4 January 1982: Channel 0/28 premieres rock music show Rock Around The World, hosted by Basia Bonkowski.
4 January 1991: Dolphin Cove, an American series set in Queensland and starring Nick Tate, Virginia Hey, Ernie Dingo and Richard Moir, debuts on Nine almost two years after its American debut.
5 January 1986: The final day of transmission for SBS on VHF Channel 0 in Sydney and Melbourne, ending simulcast with UHF Channel 28. From the following day, SBS becomes Australia’s first UHF-only network.
5 January 1992: Seven premieres children’s drama Clowning Around, the story of a boy who fulfils his dreams against all odds. Starring Noni Hazlehurst, Ernie Dingo, Rebecca Smart and Clayton Williamson.
5 January 2010: The final episode of the SBS drama The Circuit, starring Aaron Pedersen, Kelton Pell, Gary Sweet and Marta Kaczmarek.
7 January 1974: The Seven Network launches a new half-hour variety show, JC At 8.30, hosted by TV producer John Collins. The new show, hoping to break the success of Number 96 on the 0-10 Network, was axed after two weeks.
7 January 1996: The premiere of SBS series, Passion, presenting six short plays by Australian women. The first episode features Love Seen In Laundromat, starring Carole Skinner, and The Night Of The Missing Bridegroom, starring Jean Kittson
Didn’t have enough rumpy pumpy I’m guessing.
8 January 1964: The Frank Ifield Show, a 30-minute special featuring the Australian singer just returned from an overseas tour, screens on Nine in Sydney and Melbourne via the recently-opened coaxial cable link between the two cities.
8 January 1979: The 0-10 Network‘s afternoon variety show The Steve Raymond Show returns for a new year, hoping to gain some viewers in the off-season before its main opponent, The Mike Walsh Show, returns on Nine.
8 January 1979: Former Seven newsreader Brian Naylor begins as chief newsreader at National Nine News in Melbourne, starting a 20-year reign in the role.
8 January 1992: Marcia Hines, Simon Gallaher and Tina Arena are among 25 performers at the Australian AIDS Benefit Concert, screening on ABC, introduced by Ita Buttrose and hosted by Jean Kittson (The Big Gig).
8 January 1998: ABC debuts a four-week series, The Loud Hour, featuring a range of documentaries and short films of drama, animation and experimental work produced by filmmakers aged between 14 and 25.
8 January 2005: The three commercial networks join forces to present Australia Unites: Reach Out To Asia, a telethon to raise funds for the World Vision tsunami relief appeal, after a catastrophic tsunami hit southern Asia, claiming hundreds and thousands of lives and displacing millions.
Can’t believe it’s 20 years already. The appeal was a huge success with over $20 million raised.
The appeal was also shown live into Asia Pacific region via ABC’s satellite TV service (now called ABC Australia).
I know. Time goes so fast.
Unfortunately you will never see this level of production happen again.
8 January 2000: Exactly one week after undergoing a major revamp in it’s branding and presentations, the Seven Network broadcasts the 2000 Magic Millions Carnival Raceday Live from the Gold Coast Turf Club in Bundall, Queensland for the second year running.
Also one of the rarer times that Eddie McGuire would be seen on Channel Seven outside of his capacity as (then-)Collingwood president.
Larry Emdur was also with Nine at the time, though was just 2.5 years away from joining Seven.
Before 2012 when he signed to Fox’s then-newly dedicated AFL Channel which saw him appear on Seven in Western Australia and South Australia.
9 January 1959: Melbourne and Sydney are linked by microwave for the first time, enabling television programs to be screened simultaneously in both cities. The first person seen across the link was ATN7 Sydney executive Brian Wright, welcoming viewers watching on GTV9 in Melbourne, ahead of test cricket coverage the next day.