I think we can draw the line there at any comparison or link between 2 unrelated matters.
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That wasn’t my impression… it was being pushed by stations who didn’t want aggregation and wanted the multi channel option instead…
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The campaign being pushed by most regional stations was that multi channel services would serve as an interim stage ahead of a reorganisation to full competition model (aggregation by stealth?) in 1996
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Yeah, I don’t see how you could move from MCS (Multi channel services) to an aggregation model…
Stations would need to buy extra equipment to handle 1 (or 2) MCS channels… but if aggregation takes place after that, what happens with that equipment… Do they have to sell that to an incoming competitor etc? I see too many issues.
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It wasn’t made clear how it would play out in a logistic sense but that was their intention.
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Which I don’t get to this day.
Cobar was part of Orange/Dubbo.
Mt Isa - well, upon further reflection, they were probably right.
Mildura - they were owned by Vic TV, shouldn’t they have been included?
Griffith - I know, separate owners, but Ramcorp should’ve either brought them out or expanded the license area to include Griffith.
I recall reading that bit too - sort of a compromise, they were going to sell them off by 1996 IIRC?
That too. I think that’s what NBN wanted as they were the largest regional market at the time IIRC and didn’t want to give up being the big fish in a little pond. Plus Parry buggered up big time - couldn’t takeover other stations when they were on the market and NTN up in PNG died in the arse.
They’d find a way. Let’s say NBN, NRTV and Prime went with MCS in the Hunter, Northern Rivers and North West/Manning respectively. Built all the infrastructure, extra machinery so on - if it went well, they could sell that stuff for a profit. All the new guys would’ve done was connect them all together. It’s one way, doubt it if would’ve worked well, but it’s a way.
In software development, we’d call it phased implementation. 
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At the time aggregation was being mapped out, STV8 was independently owned by Sunraysia Broadcasters, but affiliated and operated as a relay of Southern Cross (BCV/GLV).
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You’re right, but even then, if Southern Cross had the dosh to spend, couldn’t they buy the station at that point? Or would the law precluded that?
Wasn’t DDQ/SDQ owned separate to RTQ at the time Queensland was in the processes of becoming aggregated but relayed Star Television? Or did RTQ get DDQ before 1988-89?
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Maybe. But it was the government that ultimately ruled Mildura out of aggregation. But Southern Cross might have had enough expense across the rest of the state and knowing they’d have to swallow the s*** sandwich that was Ten affiliation, they may not have had any desire to extend to Mildura.
STV8 (Vic TV from 1990) always had the option to go with multi channels, as happened in areas like Griffith and regional SA, but for whatever reason they didn’t and so the government put a 2nd Mildura channel out for bids, and Prime got it.
WIN owned RTQ from sometime in the late 1980s, but not DDQ/SDQ which i think was owned by Northern Star (NRTV)?
Bruce Gordon made a last ditch effort a week before aggregation to buy up DDQ/SDQ and snatch the Nine affiliation from QTV.
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Regionals were oppose to Aggregation because they could probably see what would happen. We now know that the prophecy came to fruition.
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I think he tried to buy NRN as well and snatch the Nine affiliation from NBN, but that didn’t happen.
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This video is probably the best way to describe how this fell into place
DDQ Retrenchment Day - YouTube
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that was before Bruce Gordon (WIN) bought DDQ/SDQ. A lot of the changes announced there would have been made redundant once WIN bought DDQ/SDQ and eventually transferred the channels’ operations to RTQ. (IIRC, NRTV still controlled playout for DDQ/SDQ at the launch of aggregation as the sale to WIN happened at such the last minute the facility at RTQ wasn’t ready)
My understanding is that until DDQ/SDQ was transferred to RTQ, NRTV controlled the playout to Darling Downs and extension to Maryborough with aggregation, with RTQ controlling Rockhampton, Townsville, Cairns and Mackay.
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I am aware of this and it was at a time when Northern Star was struggling with impending costs of aggregation. DDQ was sold for $7.5 Million if AFR reports in 1994 were correct with NRTV being bought in early 1994 by Telecasters (reports indicated for $18 million).
From memory Telecasters North Queensland had to restructure due to the reach rule and Telecasters Australia, a spin off company ended up with some of the TV assets. This is the only article I could find about this
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Hills Antennas put out these little guides to help bump up sales! (Although SBS frequencies were assigned, it was a bit premature to list them as in some cases it was years before they actually went on-air)
I was a Shepparton resident at the time, and was mighty p***ed off that SBS was not available to viewers locally until 2000. My parents had a 2nd UHF antenna to receive SBS from Mount Alexander, Bendigo but it was a fringe signal. One of the legacies of the Keating Government which deemed Shepparton, like Mildura, as a small market not viable for an SBS service.
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That was a very poor reasoning, then. Shepparton was hardly on par with Mildura. The Goulburn Valley market represented around 200,000 people. Mildura was about a quarter of that. There were plenty of regional markets smaller than Shepparton that got SBS earlier.
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Had it not been for the fact that Bendigo signals can reach most of Shepparton/Goulburn Valley (and Albury in the eastern part of that viewing area), Shepp would have not got aggregation.
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come on, that’s just bollocks. Where did you get that idea from?
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The Shepp market is much smaller than Bendigo, Ballarat (which had many other largeish towns in its service area) and Albury. When Southern Cross Network started in Shepp it was a retransmission of its Albury service with ads from both regions. I think the reason for that is cost.
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The Goulburn Valley market pre-aggregation was around 200,000 people (AGB McNair numbers) which put it on par with the other regions Ballarat, Bendigo, Albury and Gippsland. It was also a market adjacent to Melbourne it wasn’t some remote outpost like Mildura.
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