I believe GWN7’s station manager was the sole representative for WDT since it launched, so it was Seven’s call. But it makes sense to get rid of the responsibility and leave it for a more suitable operator with an almost national sales coverage for 10.
I wonder if we’ll see some kind of branding for these stations now? I don’t think a brand has been seen since getting back 10 affiliation.
SCA never really used branding of its own even before the original affiliation swap (aside from noodle updates and the occasional SCA10 “star” brand on adverts). I’d count on zero noticeable differences.
Been keeping an eye on WDT today to see if they are also using SCA sponsors like 10 NNSW. Haven’t seen one yet, but they are doing something different. Instead of airing Crawfords or Harvey Norman sponsors they’re using shortened promos instead. I assume these were just fillers anyway, so it makes sense.
So, I probably won’t see an SCA sponsor until a business actually pays for one now!
Here are two commercial breaks from Perth and WDT side by side. First break shows the SCA style sponsor above. Second break shows how they’re now using short promos to cover some metro sponsors.
That joint venture of owning the station would be still there, but there’s nothing stopping them outsourcing the its sales to SCA, if it brings them more cash by getting a slice of an all-of-regional Network 10 buy.
Probably lets the Seven folk at the old GWN headquarters concentrate on selling Seven too, which is probably what national HQ would want of them now.