Yes, SES8 had the identical “flat” logo before it went all “2D” in the 1990s.
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A few samples of SES8 logos from 1974 through to the '90s.
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The second logo looks similar to what SBS had in the mid-nineties.
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it was apparently based on the state flower of SA, the Swainsona formosa (I had to google for the name, I didn’t just know it off hand 
)
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Pre aggregation was before for my time. When travelling through country Victoria I was aware of WIN, PRIME and SCA.
I remember travelling to Robe in SA as a kid around 1996/1997 and being amazed that there was only 2 channels in the region. SES8 (Channel 8) was one of them.
I was amused that the schedule listed a combination of shows from all three commercial networks. Little did I know this was how all country television (across Australia) operated prior to 1991.
But I appreciate that I witnessed this last stand alone station in South Australia. I think aggregation came to the area around 1999?
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Aggregation as such didn’t come to the traditional regional markets in SA. Instead, the existing operators (WIN in Riverland and Mt Gambier and Southern Cross in Spencer Gulf North/Broken Hill) were granted secondary licences. Both operators chose to align their secondary channels to Network Ten.
While WIN focused largely on a Nine schedule, and Southern Cross with Seven.
But the remote Central market (Imparja) did have an aggregation with remote Queensland (Seven Central) to give that wider market two commercial channels.
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Thanks for that. Makes you think though, that maybe our regional stations in places like Victoria / NSW would have survived if they were permitted to provide a secondary license to their local areas. Eventually digital TV would come and a third could be carried on the platform. Local news and production would still be profitable.
I think the experience from SA was that secondary channels didn’t do much to protect local content, although that was a promised benefit when regional operators campaigned for secondary licences in favour of aggregation.
To the extent where WIN, as the monopoly commercial operator in Riverland and Mt Gambier, doesn’t provide any local news in South Australia.
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When aggregation was first proposed, this was the model that most regional broadcasters in NSW, QLD and VIC wanted. They also promised to help with the installation of SBS, so that regionals then had four TV stations.
And yes, I agree, this model would have given regional TV operators a better chance to maintain their own local identities, unique schedules and local content.
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I remember travelling to Mildura around a similar time (must have been the September school holidays of 1996) to realise they too only had two channels - ABC and WIN. Was particuarly weird given just down the road in Swan Hill they had the full suite of regional channels available.
I wonder what might have been if the regional broadcasters did get their way with aggregation. I’d like to think there’d be more localism but in reality I suspect it’d be like what regional radio is now - networked content piped in from a distant hub with little to no localism at all (above what is required by regulation).
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Yes, I suspect over time the same regional operators would have taken up a 3rd licence, and we’d end up with something pretty similar to what we have now.
Though the interesting aspect would be which network each regional operator would have aligned their primary licence with. I think the main NBN licence would have stayed with 9 for sure, NRTV would probably have gone 9 as well, the various Prime stations with 7, not sure about the rest.
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I think local news would have been a lot stronger and safer in the long run.
I would say the 3rd would have been broadcast on a multichannel. From 2001 onward.
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Yes, all 3 on a single RF channel in glorious 576i Standard Definition.
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And all the stations swallowed up by a small amount of players. Perhaps Nine, Seven, WIN, Prime and SCA. Really, just like now 
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I still mourn the loss of VIC TV.
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I think the solus markets of Regional SA and Griffith (plus to some extent, regional commercial radio) have given us a fairly good indication of what likely would’ve happened if aggregation didn’t happen in the major regional areas. Ownership consolidation and the demise of local news/content probably would’ve eventually happened no matter what, I think.
With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps aggregation should’ve resulted in Regional Queensland, NSW & Victoria receiving something similar to Tasmania - two competing networks at first with the third coming with the arrival of Digital Television.
I think the majority of regional broadcasters would’ve eventually aligned their primary licences with either Seven or Nine, with the secondary one probably being a mix of the best from Ten and the commercial broadcaster who’s content isn’t on their main station.
One would imagine that even with two commercial stations, regional viewers still would’ve seen most of the major live sports coverage (full coverage of Olympics & Commonwealth Games, both cricket & tennis during Summer, the football code of preference, Melbourne Cup, Bathurst 1000, etc.) that those in metropolitan areas did with three stations.
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I wonder what would of happened if NSW was treated as 1 market instead of Northern NSW and Southern NSW/ACT.
Up until early 1980s DDQ10 (in QLD), NRN11 and NEN9 were purchasing programming under a partnership under Great Eastland Television. If this alliance continued, I wonder if these would have formed part of the Prime group or whether it would have been under either similar arrangements to WIN or SCA. In any case, being 7 independent markets initially, There would of had to be an arrangement similar to what we have now (3 stations, 2 stations and 2 station).
Another alternative could have been incorporating either RVN4 or CTC7 into the Victorian market. Also, we have what we have and ultimately, we would of had the same circumstances as we do now with limited local productions, with little or no local news
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Oh what could have been. Sadly DDQ/SDQ would be absorbed into RTQ come aggregation.
I recall one of the original aggregation market proposals involved NBN3 Newcastle, CBN8/CWN6 Orange/Dubbo and MTN9 Griffith as one large market - sort of like a “Central NSW” region I suppose.
Not sure what the other proposed markets were.
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interesting to here
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