TV History - Questions

When did SES8 went into “program supply/sharing argreement” with BTV6/GMV6, @Bronson #myfriend ???

As far as I know, there was no official program/supply/sharing agreement. There was joint national sales representation with BTV/GMV. That is the sales reps in Melbourne & Sydney for BTV/GMV to seek national advertisers also sold on behalf of SES. There was also a link from BTV to SES from the late 70’s.

As the link from BTV would have been the cheapest option to receive delivery of programs, this probably had an impact on some of the programming decisions made, like taking HSV’s , then later GTV’s news, as per BTV.

1 Like

Random question came into my head today…
When did each network switch news production from 4:3 to 16:9? Who was the last one to do it of the majors, and how much variation existed between the 5 capital cities?

The regionals are a bit of a trickier question to answer I imagine due to the sheer amount of time markets like WA Regional were stuck with 4:3 analogue.

1 Like

Good question. I’m not 100% sure about the other metro markets, but to the best of my knowledge about Sydney…

*Ten started producing Sydney/national bulletins in widescreen sometime in Early 2000 (Probably whenever the graphics were changed from the teal look to the blue look?), many months before the launch of Digital TV.
*Nine started producing Sydney/national news bulletins in widescreen on 1/1/2001…or sometime shortly before/after that. I’d imagine GTV & QTQ would’ve upgraded to 16.9 news production at or around the same time as TCN, but no idea about Adelaide & Perth which weren’t network O&O markets at that time.
*Seven took until August 2004 and the move to Martin Place for their Sydney-based news bulletins to be produced in widescreen. Seven News was running 16.9 production in Melbourne (first market to switch with the move to Docklands AFAIK), Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth before then though.

If I’m not mistaken, SBS produced news bulletins in widescreen (2004?) before the ABC. Probably took until the 2005 relaunch for the ABC to start doing news in 16.9 everywhere?

As far as the regional networks are concerned, either NBN or Southern Cross Tasmania (not 100% sure exactly which one, aside from the fact both were in 16.9 quite early) would’ve been the first in regional Australia to start producing news bulletins in widescreen in 2003 or sometime around then.

Seven Queensland switched to widescreen in 2007 (I think), WIN upgraded in 2008/09, Prime Southern NSW probably as the presentation of bulletins moved to Canberra and a similar deal with Southern Cross GTS/BKN.

GWN7 would’ve been the last regional bulletin to go widescreen in Late 2012, while Prime7 Tamworth/North Coast was probably the penultimate regional news service to upgrade.

3 Likes

Interestingly the Albury bulletin was upgraded to 16:9 in November 2010, and by December they announced that production was moving to Canberra. Why Prime upgraded the local studios so close to closing them down still seems pretty bizarre…

2 Likes

Adelaide put an ‘Available in Wide Screen Digital’ logo on their openers - it is in a 2004 opener, but not in a 2003 one, so perhaps some time between there - although the latter is via WIN so maybe they had a clean feed so it didn’t go through.

WIN’s lack of widescreen news was made worse by them running their analogue service in full time 14:9 letterbox - so you had black bars on all sides watching their news until they finally started going widescreen.

3 Likes

Anyone know how far in front of Ray Martin Naomi Robson was with TT?
Retired or wound (past tense of “wind”) back his role sort of, but always wondered if ratings might’ve ‘pushed’ Ray out?
I recall ACA with Grimshaw (her first year) beating Robson’s TT sometimes in Melbourne in 2006.

This Crikey article gives some insight, some two weeks into the 2005 ratings season…

IIRC it was strength in Sydney, off the back of the make the switch campaign and Ian Ross which really bolstered TTs numbers.

IIRC TT never gained a consistent lead in Melbourne or Brisbane, and because it routinely trailed TT by over 150,000 viewers in Perth and about 50,000 viewers in Adelaide the national lead that TT had got close to 400,000 viewers.

2 Likes

A rather interesting article to look back on 13 years later.

It’s one of those things we’ll never know for sure but with the benefit of hindsight, but I often wonder what would’ve happened if Jim Waley continued to present Nine’s Sydney 6pm bulletin until his contract ended.

Personally I suspect that if things turned out differently, Seven News’ rise to #1 in the Sydney market may have been more like it was in Melbourne, except that both Roscoe & Waley probably would’ve retired around the same time (2008-09ish). I also think the current generation of male newsreaders like Peter Overton, Mark Ferguson and Michael Usher were probably always going to be among the dominant names on Sydney TV screens at 6pm right now, no matter what.

2 Likes

What an insightful article, talks about a lot. Wow, Blue Heelers was still running, how the years have passed quickly!

2 Likes
  1. Did Sydney TV ever used clock, #myfriends ???

  2. When did SES8 stop using clocks, #myfriends ???

Why there were nothing stuff from Mining TV Network, #myfriends ???

Two reasons, I’d say:

  1. Because the vast majority of our population lives in the major capital cities along the east and south coasts, which explains why most of what you’ll see in YouTube is from one of those (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth). Of course, there are the occasional regional clips, but these are usually from areas less isolated than the territory the Mining TV network would have covered.

  2. I suspect - and others may correct me here - that a lot of television history that has been preserved here is television content (ie: programs) rather than idents, news bulletins, testcards, start up/closedowns etc. Many of these online clips will have been cut out from recordings first made on VHS, and (while I’d have to check the dates) I would presume that these weren’t hugely popular or even necessary during Mining TV’s existence.

2 Likes

Since you’ve had no takers, I can only tell you that SES were using a clock on air sometime into the mid 80’s.I was told by an SES exec at the time. He said it was always sponsored and had to be used with restraint, i.e. not past 9pm where it could remind viewers of how late it was getting.
I would assume the Sydney stations used clocks in the early days, all stations did.
Victoria’s ABC certainly aired clocks into the colour era, in particular going into the evening news, as well as start up, closedown and going into the schools programs in the morning.

3 Likes

Noticed that a random Canadian channel had some Ten News ‘Speed of Light’ promo’s between ('04/'05). Guessing there was a ATV/ TVQ version of it if there were TEN, ADS & NEW versions.




Questions:

  1. Did this work well in a marketing campaign, increased viewership?
  2. How was this against 7 and 9 (indirect/direct competition of course)
  3. Any more bits of recording from this time (it seems 7 and 9 has A LOT of content uploaded online) no ABC stuff really either :confused: (would love to check it out)
  4. Would The NFSA have promos, presentation, updates and bulletins to view?
3 Likes

Anyone remember Channel Ten’s Just for the Record with Garry Who, originally shown 1988-89?

One of the promos for the series was just Garry “rapping” to the camera, something like:

“I’ve been twisted and turned til I’m black and blue
I’ve been shouted at and shot at and bored right through
I’ve been tickled and kissed by the girls I woo
Oh, and just for the record, I’m Garry Who!”

The promo was certainly played around July/August 1988. I wonder if anyone has a recording of it? I’ve searched through the YouTube promo/ads compilations, so far without success.

Sorry if this cheeky request is better suited to another thread.

1 Like

more translator please… #myfriends ???

image

image

1 Like

TNQ or DDQ?

5 Likes

Definitely TNQ.

3 Likes

Mmm, that kerning’s got me like… :astonished:

3 Likes

from what I can gather of that era #myfriend

TNT9 North Eastern Tasmania (Mount Barrow)
TNT5A Wynyard (not listed)
TNT6 Lileah
TNT7 St Helens
TNT10 Burnie
TNT11 Smithton
TNT11 South Launceston
TNT11 St Marys
TNT11 Waratah
TNT51 East Devonport (not listed)

TVT6 Hobart (Mount Wellington)
TVT8 Maydena
TVT8 Queenstown/Zeehan
TVT8 Strathgordon
TVT8 Swansea/Bicheno
TVT8 Taroona
TVT10 Rosebery (“TVT11” may be an error)

Source: Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, Annual Report, 1983-84

3 Likes