Ten (Mildura Digital Television)

Television Regional and Community Television
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Won’t the Australian Communications and Media Authority have anything to say about that? As MDT is a joint venture of Prime (now owned by Seven West Media) and WIN Corporation, this suggests the two parties want to end the JV. That will require the approval of ACMA.

It will also have ramifications for Prime and WIN’s other JV in WA - West Digital Television, but that’s for another thread.

If MDT does finish on July 31 will be the first major TV channel to close since analogue transmission ended in Australia ten years ago. Does that mean Mildura residents will need to subscribe to VAST in order to continue to watch 10 and its multichannels from August 1?

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23

Surely, 10 could pick these licences up.

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24

They could, but seems like they are not making any money. So they wouldn’t want them.

Ten has also said that they have no interest in buying affiliate licences.

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25

if the JV wants to walk away, then ACMA may take the licence back and find someone willing to take it (unlikely, given it’s clearly not sustainable)

Could this open up WIN or Prime taking the Ten main channel at least as a multi-channel? They’d probably get more viewers with a Ten then they would with a 7 or 9 multi-channel taking up bandwidth.

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26

But it does raise the question as @JohnsonTV said, this could benefit VAST, if they could tap into markets like Mildura with the remote 10 Central service and make it more sustainable.

And could VAST be configured so that Mildura residents can only see the remote 10 station with 7 Central and 9 Imparja blacked out?

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27

Channel 10 are having problems themselves & they are owned by CBS do you think that a big American TV cooperation would want to buy a little licence like Mildura?, As a resident of Ouyen which is covered by MDT the ramifications are going to be interesting the best thing which could happen is that 7 or WIN insert channel 10 programming into their Mildura playout.

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28

Why not simply transmit 10 Central on the existing MDT terrestrial transmitters?
Which would effectively mean offloading the license to Imparja and SCA to run instead of Prime (now Seven) and WIN.

However that would be odd, if they two current joint venture operators can’t make a profit, then what hope does Imparja and SCA have?

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29

Agree, I think that will be the issue… it wouldn’t cost SCA/Imparja anything for 10 Central to made available in Mildura on VAST, just changes to eligibility rules that the ACMA administers and possibly some back end changes to black out 7 Central and 9 Imparja channels on VAST there.

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30

But will ACMA see it that way? Is “just get VAST” an acceptable solution in 2024 for a town and region the size of Mildura? I reckon it will be in 2030 as terrestrial viewership continues to decline.

But in 2024 I think access to free to air television via a terrestrial antenna (ie not VAST) is still a human right in Mildura!

The original joint venture partners need to be accountable to ensure the transmission stays online. Or sell it a fire sale price to someone else.

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31

The only other option I see is that the government steps in and subsidises the JV service as it’s a service to the community.

Or that 7 or WIN decide take the 10 main channel ONLY and put it in as a secondary channel on their mux (meaning no Bold, Peach or Nickelodeon).

Even if they give it away for free, I’m not sure there would be many willing takers, the operating costs seem to outweigh the ad revenue on an ongoing basis.

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32

I might be forgetting somewhere but this seems to be the first time in years that a national FTA network isn’t able to be shown in an entire region (excluding the brief period where West Digital Television wasn’t showing Nine in 2016 after the WIN/SCA switch)

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34

I can see some possible scenarios:
(1) SCA can buy the licence, use the BCV callsign as part of the Western Victoria TV1 licence area which will expand to include Mildura
(2) CDT could be re-transmitted on the MDT frequency
(3) WIN could buy the licence outright and use it as a supplementary service a la WIN Ten in SA. Mildura would get Sky News again under this proposal.
(4) if all that fails either 7 or WIN will have to air 10’s coverage of the Australian F1 GP and Australian MotoGP (the only major sport 10 has at the moment) as they must be provided as part of Government Anti-siphoning Legislation.

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35

Maybe all us media spy members could put in for it?? :wink:

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36

Shutdown date is June 30, not July 31 (as reported previously).

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37

I think this is the most likely scenario (it is puzzling that Mildura is not already included in the Western Victoria TV1 licence area).

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38

I think “buy the licence” is probably not accurate - more likely “obtain the licence”. Surely there won’t be any cost.

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39

They probably still have to ‘buy’ the licence, to constitute a transaction, even if only for a nominal amount eg $1.

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40

If that’s the case, could be a decent proposition for 10/Paramount to obtain the licence?

Provided they own the content, provides continuity for the area with programming, and could still outsource sales in that area to SCA as it stands currently.

I doubt they have any interest in owning regional stations as previously mentioned, but can’t think of any other way it could continue post June 30.

41

I doubt 10/Paramount are willing to expend any effort to buy out (even for $1) a regional outpost that only contributes a tiny amount of viewers/revenue to their content.

It’s a legacy from aggregation planning where Mildura was excluded from the Victorian aggregated market. Changing Mildura to become part of “Western Victoria TV1” probably creates a whole lot of bureaucracy and potentially creates an obligation for SCA to set up a relay there which it would probably not be the least interested in doing.

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