How would you ensure that Mildura receives Ten’s full suite of channels? Would you have WIN broadcast 10/10 Bold Drama/10 Peach Comedy/Nickelodeon alongside their existing Nine signals? A ‘hybrid’ schedule, either on a single ‘10’ branded multichannel or via WIN Nine directly, wouldn’t work because both scenarios would require considerable planning in terms of programming structure. In either case, some programming would have to be dropped to accommodate content from other 10 multi channels or Nine’s schedule.
What would WIN cut away from? How long would 10’s content run each day? Would affected Nine programs be moved to different time slots?
The elephant in the room if transmission costs are too high to have 10 running is DVB-T2. WIN and the other regionals have conveniently killed off MPEG2 and pretty much all TV’s that can do MPEG4 also do DVB-T2 now. In any case TV is going to have to eventually get off the 600Mhz band which is now being widely used for 5G overseas.
By turning off 10 in Mildura they may have volunteered that area and its translators to be the first 600Mhz restack area.
I would even go as far as to say if the government is going to have to stump up money to keep 10 on air, those $$$ need to be put into DVB-T2 so the eventual 600Mhz restack can occur .
You could probably nearly fit a whole suite of ABC/SBS/commercial(incl 10) into two DVB-T2 carriers. That’s a lot more efficient than running 5 DVB-T transmitters. Free TV are already complaining about the TV spectrum access tax, so reduce it by going DVB-T2. The spare 600Mhz spectrum could then be auctioned off(the 600Mhz dividend no less).
I understand that. However, if you read my post again, you’ll see that I asked IF you were to provide a ‘10’ multichannel to Mildura, how could you possibly ensure that all services/programming available in other areas are shown on the one signal? The answer is that you can’t do it without dropping other 10 programming from the main feed to allocate slots to multichannel content. This would essentially make the signal a ‘4 in 1’, which wouldn’t resolve anything.
I’m sure Nine would let WIN carry Ten’s coverage of the Australian F1 Grand Prix and Australian MotoGP on its Mildura signal in the absence of Ten. Nine let them carry some Ten programming on WIN in the years before MDT (and Seven in the years before Prime). There is also a financial advantage (national advertisers) by doing so.
Very different affiliation contracts back then.
The costs of breaking away with another networks’ content would not be worth the while these days as NINE national buys would still need to be screened during any breakaway programming that occurs, as occurs now with WIN News, and no doubt stipulated in the affiliation contract, not to mention NINE’s percentage take on non-national buys. And then there is the added cost of paying rights for non-NINE content and added scheduling and playout costs which is not cheap. And would NINE demand NINE branding over the top of non-NINE/WIN content? Would hate to see a brief return of Mappy, so thankful it went when NINE stipulated NINE only branding when WIN switched back to NINE.
Three scenarios I can see playing out (no pun intended) for the major 10 content.
1 - Nothing. VAST is now available for people in the Mildura region and so for the anti-siphoning things that should suffice. This I think will be the most likely scenario.
2 - A deal done for only the Grand Prix and Melbourne Cup events to be shown on either WIN or Seven. Talk here is all for WIN doing a deal but is there anything stopping Seven from doing anything there? Potentially even 1 has it one year, the other has it the next or something but I think this is quite unlikely anyway.
3 - A deal done with WIN or Seven again to have the main channel broadcast as an additional channel however that will likely require adjustments to affiliation agreements (assuming 7 Regional has one with 7 Metro) and obviously 10 would require some sort of payment. Probably the most unlikely scenario. The plan to use it as a test case for DVBT-2 would be great here too.
I don’t think national advertisers will argue too much on such a small market if say GEM (orGo) aired variations for Ten programming such as sport or some Ten programming during the day, especially considering these programs would need ads inserted as I highly doubt WIN would offer Ten a free advertising pass and definitely wouldn’t use Tens advertising pattern play out eg MasterChef being advertised as 7:30 tonight on TEN.
Affiliation agreements prior to the MDT were very different, stemming from the pre aggregation days where the sole commercial station would pick and choose from all the channels available, and the channels were branded independently of the metro networks.
Even over the last 10 years the affiliation agreements have change to included use of the metro branding - both for the convenience of the regional broadcaster not having to put their brand over everything, and for the metro network to extend their brand’s recognition.
The metro networks want to protect their brand so the affiliation agreements will no doubt include restrictions of what can be shown - for example they want to make sure that key programs are shown. Anything live or reality will have sponsorships included in the show that are sold based on the total reach of the show, so for example if WIN were to drop MAFS to show Masterchef (assuming they were on at the same time) the audience reach would be reduced and sponsors wouldn’t be happy.
That’s not to say it can’t happen, but it would require a total renegotiation of the affiliate agreement, and we’ll in advance given the lead time on shows can be up to a year, if not more.
In considering the financial advantage to Nine of WIN showing the Grand Prix, you assume that Nine get a cut of the additional advertising revenue WIN would be able to get. But WIN would also need to pay 10, and whatever sub-affiliation agreement they have to show it. If WIN end up giving a cut to Nine and 10, they probably undo any benefit of showing the Grand Prix and even up worse off.
Ultimately for a market as small as Mildura I can’t see much effort being made, as the benefit would be minimal and virtually everything is so highly integrated with all their other markets showing exactly the same content - there would be an additional cost to break away in setting up schedules, getting timing right etc, even just selling ads for 2 programs instead of 1.
If 10 went off are on a wider scale, then yes I think we’d see a return to a mixed programming arrangement, but not for just Mildura.
Given GOLD has previously had things like Alive And Cooking on it, so breaking away for say a sporting event is possible but, then if something started at an odd time like 4:45pm, I’m sure an edited version of something like Alive And Cooking or Fishing Australian could air.
But short of that, a cut out on the 9GEM schedule in a daytime slot for any Ten programmes would be the most likely scenario if it were to happen at all, and probably more likely if other regions like Tasmania or Western Australia follow suit
In glorious low-bite-rate SD, why bother.
Whereas you can get in HD on 10Play.
If both WIN and Seven could not get MDT to work revenue wise with 10 programming, why would WIN or Seven run 10 main channel as a multi-channel if it gets no revenue either, does not make sense.
This idea that WIN could return to a dual affiliate with mixed programming is just fantasy. I feel that nostalgia and a desire for regional TV differences to return is what drives these ideas as legit solutions when they just aren’t. As mentioned by @webguy, dual affiliation today comes with so many complexities compared to just relaying 10.
WIN has space on their mux. If they really really want to bring 10 back to Mildura, they’ll rebroadcast all 3 channels from a nearby SCA 10 on their mux and call it a day. Look at Griffith, now relaying a dirty 7 Wagga on spectrum shared with 10 Griffith. Amendments to broadcasting legislation were made this year (see link below) in response to a similar amalgamation in Mt Gambier/Riverland, removing the requirement for a dedicated transmitter per license. This may not have any impact on Mildura, but the template is there should a station want to carry more than one affiliation on a single mux.