WIN

The weekend news bulletin will be disappearing from Tasmania’s WIN Television, it has been announced.

The station has decided to axe its weekend news coverage and therefore the newsreader position held by John Remess and one camera operator in both Launceston and Hobart.

The move is part of a cost-cutting plan that has affected the regional company’s mainland station also.

Tasmanians will now have the option of watching Melbourne’s Nine News at 6.00pm on WIN or viewing the local bulletin on Southern Cross.

This weekend’s bulletins on WIN will be the last. 

Source: The Spy Report

Tasmania will be left behind the mainland capital cities and many regional areas with confirmation from Southern Cross Media Tasmania that they have no agreement in place with Seven and Ten to bring those two networks third digital channels – 7mate and Eleven to Tasmania in the near future.

Currently, Southern Cross Media broadcast the Seven and Ten network programming to Tasmania, including 7TWO and ONE HD, but not 7HD or ONE standard definition.

In mainland capitals, 7HD will be phased out with 7mate becoming the HD service for the Seven network. ONE’s standard definition simulcast will be turned off to make way for Eleven.

With Tasmania not getting 7mate on September 25, it means they will not be able to see the AFL Grand Final in HD – without a 7HD signal, it would not have been in HD in any case. At least there is significant time to prepare for Eleven prior to its early 2011 launch.

General Manager of Southern Cross Media Tasmania Craig Davies said ““We are not sure of the timeframe because we haven’t got an agreement from Seven or Ten to bring these channels into Tasmania and we also do not have the capacity to broadcast these channels into Tasmania.”

“It is within our best interests to get them on air as soon as we possibly can,” he said.

He also says he is likely to be in a better position to make an announcement in a few weeks. The network’s broadcasting centre in Canberra required an extensive and expensive upgrade to boost its capacity.

Meanwhile, when Nine announces its third channel shortly, and assuming WIN take on the new channel at the same time Nine does, WIN in Tasmania would get the service at the same time as the mainland, seeing that they currently already receive the WIN HD broadcast.

Source: TSR

Bruce Gordon, the owner of WIN Corporation, says that he would be interested in purchasing the Nine Network‘s East Coast stations if the Commonwealth scrapped rules that restrict the audience reach of broadcasters.

Gordon told The Australian Financial Review that he agreed with the Government’s view that the audience reach rules, which prevent any single free-to-air network from owning a licence area that covers more than 75 per cent of the population, were no longer needed, nor appropriate.

WIN currently owns NWS-9 in Adelaide and STW-9 in Perth, having purchased the stations in quick succession in 2007. The reclusive media mogul said that purchasing the Nine Network’s remaining metropolitan stations, currently controlled by PBL Media, could be financially viable for his company.

“It’s not correct to say we couldn’t afford them,” Gordon said. “People said the same thing when we were bidding for the Nine stations in Perth and Adelaide – and we could afford to buy them.”

PBL Media’s stations and WIN cover 59.4 per cent and 39.5 per cent of the population respectively, which currently prevents either side from making a move for the other.

If re-elected, the Government has committed itself to reviewing convergent media regulation in light of the development of a National Broadband Network (NBN), which would almost certainly lead to the removal of the reach rules. Gordon agreed with Senator Stephen Conroy, the minister for communications, that scrapping the reach rules were justified given that the NBN “promises to deliver all TV services to everyone everywhere”.

The likelihood of Gordon making a move for WIN would depend in large part on the intentions of CVC Asia-Pacific, which owns PBL Media. But WIN would have a large stake in any decision, given its role as a major revenue source for Nine – the regional network pays Nine around 33 per cent of its advertising revenue in return for access to programming.

The removal of the reach rules could potentially have wide-ranging effects on the Australian media landscape and would open the door for networks such as Ten and Seven to make offers for their regional affiliates (read more here).

Senator Conroy has been vocal in expressing his concerns about the reach rules, saying that “the technological change is going to wash over the top” if the rules stayed.

Source: TSR

It could just be a matter of time before we see regional TV joined with their capital city counterparts should Labor win the August 21 election.

Both Prime and Southern Cross are likely to be targeted by their capital city affiliates Seven and Ten if the audience reach rule of 75% is scrapped by Communications Minister Senator Conroy.

The 75% rule prevents free to air commercial networks from owning broadcast facilities that allow them to reach more than 75% of the population. Owning networks that reach all five mainland capital cities means that Ten and Seven already are reaching close to 75% of the Australian population meaning they have no room for expansion. In Seven’s case, 7QLD brings the network even closer to the 75%, and without changing the rule, population growth alone could see the network inadvertently pass it’s reach limit.

Having Seven and Ten own their regional affiliates would see more nationalised programming, centralisation of play out facilities and allow the two networks to focus more on delivering extra services such as their third digital channels and other platforms for program delivery.

Australia could perhaps see a situation where – no matter where you are in the country – you see the same channel Seven and Ten as you do in the cities – apart from local news and sporting variations between markets.

Then – should this happen with Seven and Ten, the question would remain what of Nine? Nine’s situation is somewhat more complex with Nine owning channel Nine in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, NBN in regional NSW (Northern) and QLD as well as Nine in Darwin while WIN owns Nine in Adelaide and Perth, regional NSW (Southern), Victoria, Tasmania, regional SA and WA – with the further complication of owning stations that broadcast Seven and Ten programming in some regional areas.

The likelihood of a merge between Nine and WIN would seem remote thanks to the tumultuous relationship between the two businesses. The WIN owned Nine stations in Adelaide and Perth used to drop Nine’s famous dots to separate their identity from Nine as well as offering very different programming late night. If Seven and Ten became single national channels though, the nature of competition of the industry would most likely dictate the outcome that Nine and WIN do the same … unless…

UPDATED – Could the reverse happen for WIN and Nine – where WIN buys out Nine. New News – read more here.

WIN – now the largest remaining original regional broadcaster was – was always suggested could become Australia’s 4^th commercial free to air television network. Even back in the 80’s when WIN was channel Four in Wollongong there was talk of channel 4 becoming our 4^th free to air commercial network – that was before aggregation, and back in the days where most regional cities had 2 or 3 channels only. Some areas in Australia barely had just the ABC. Now look at it – the ABC alone now has 4 channels!

Senator Conroy has ruled out a 4^th free to air commercial television license for now – so the likelihood of this happening in the near future is remote, at best. Besides – there are still many areas in regional Australia who don’t yet get all the free to air digital channels, not to mention some that don’t even have channel Ten yet.

Perhaps in the future – once the digital transition is complete could such a major change like a fourth free to air commercial TV network be considered – I for one would think there is room for a fourth or even a fifth free to air commercial TV network as it would bring better competition to the industry and allow networks to take greater risks with programming with the ultimate result being more content and options for the general viewing public.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found that WIN Television Qld Pty Ltd, the licensee of RTQ, breached the 2004 Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice (the code) by incorrectly classifying as AV an episode of the program Dante’s Cove.

RTQ is a Nine Network affiliate. As the ACMA is investigating a second complaint about the broadcast of another episode of Dante’s Cove by the Nine Network and its affiliates, the ACMA will consider the appropriate remedial action, once this second investigation has been completed.

‘The ACMA is aware of reported comments from the Nine Network that the breach decision was a result of the depiction of homosexual activity,’ said ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman.

‘The ACMA rejects this offensive suggestion that its decision portrays a homophobic approach to application of the TV Classification Guidelines. Under the code the sexual orientation of characters is not considered a factor in deciding whether or not sexual activity depicted in a scene is discreetly implied or discreetly simulated.

The breach occurred due to the amount of detail in the scene—which included several depictions of detailed genital nudity—and its duration. The ACMA is also disappointed that the Nine Network chose to comment publicly on the matter before the ACMA had completed its investigation. That is an unusual approach within the broadcasting sector’s co-regulatory framework.’

The code states that sexual behaviour may be only discreetly implied or discreetly simulated in programs that are classified AV. The ACMA found that the program, broadcast on the multi-channel GO!, contained depictions of implied oral sex and simulated sexual intercourse which were not discreet, due to the amount of detail they contained. The ACMA concluded the program was incorrectly classified AV and therefore not suitable to be broadcast on commercial television.

A review of Media regulations in 2011 could see the removal of audience reach provisions that currently restrict the one broadcaster from reaching any more than 75% of the total population of Australia. Such a change would allow the metropolitan television networks to purchase or even merge with their regional affiliates.

Likely candidates for such a purchase include the Seven Network affiliate Prime Media Group and Network Ten affiliate Southern Cross Media Group – both of which are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

There would be significant cost savings (of around 15-20% of the controllable regional TV cost base) by bringing regional affiliate operation together with metro.

Southern Cross has lobbied for changes to the reach provisions, saying that traditional media companies are likely to become antiquated as digital media takes off in regional areas.

Both Southern Cross and Prime have diversified into media interests outside of television, while Southern Cross also run a number of Seven-affiliated television stations on top of their Ten affiliates.

A number of regional services are already owned by their metropolitan counterparts, including Seven Queensland and NBN, while the Seven Network also owns 11 percent of Prime Media Group.

Take overs of regional affiliates would see a more uniform national coverage on top of cost savings by centralising the roll out of programs. Such a move would greatly benefit regional television audiences and may free up resources to provide better local news services.

Source: Mediaspy