New deal for remote digital TV

Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy has announced a landmark deal that will see digital TV made available to viewers in remote and regional parts of Australia not accessible by terrestrial digital television.

A joint venture company, Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST), has been formed between Macquarie Southern Cross Media and Imparja Television to provide digital TV, in standard and high definition, via satellite to eligible viewers in the central and eastern states.  Macquarie Southern Cross currently provides a Seven-affiliated television service to central and outback Australia, and Imparja provides a Nine Network affiliate to the same area.

VAST will provide access to programming from Seven, Nine and Ten networks as well as ABC and SBS.  This will include access to new channels ABC2, ABC3, SBS2, 7TWO, GO! and ONE and a dedicated local news channel as well as ABC’s upcoming 24-hour news channel.  Viewers in Queensland and Northern Territory will be able to view standard-definition channels via VAST in Brisbane time, while viewers in South Australia, Victoria, NSW and Tasmania will receive standard-definition channels in Sydney time.  High-definition channels will be available across the entire coverage footprint in a single time zone.

Viewers in the Mildura/Sunraysia region that may lose access to television signals with the shutdown of local analogue television services on 30 June 2010, and not able to receive the equivalent local digital signals, will now be able to access the VAST service.  VAST will also be available to eligible households in regional and capital city markets that are not able to receive terrestrial digital television.

Eligible households wishing to access VAST will receive a $400 subsidy from the Government.  To access the VAST service, viewers will need to purchase a new satellite set top box with an access ‘smart card’, a satellite dish and cabling.  Viewers currently accessing satellite free-to-air TV via Optus Aurora will be able to change over to the VAST service with the purchase of a new set top box.

The Government is currently in negotiation with the licencees of television stations in regional Western Australia – Prime and WIN – with a view to providing the same access to digital TV via satellite in WA.

Source: DBCDE

Logies to consider commercial category

Advertising and media industry publication B&T has reported that next year’s TV Week Logie Awards could include a category for viewers to vote for their favourite commercial.

Rob Belgiovane, executive creative director at ad agency BWM and a regular contributor on advertising matters on Nine’s Today, has raised the idea of a Logie for commercials to David Gyngell, CEO of the Nine Network which is the broadcast partner of the Logies: 

“He thinks it’s a great idea.  I’ve had a call about it from someone else in the industry as well.”

“The ad industry is at risk of disappearing up its own arse by having a bunch of people from St Kilda Road or Bondi deciding which ads are the best or not.  There is room for an industry vote and a vote by the general public. Aside from surveys carried out by newspapers or current affairs shows, there is no mass forum for people to have their say on television advertising.”

The business of advertising has had the TV spotlight on it in recent times.  ABC has produced two series of The Gruen Transfer, which analyses some of the methods and styles used in advertising and has scored a Gold Logie nomination for host Wil Anderson.  And Andrew Denton’s company, Zapruder’s Other Films, has produced a comedy series for Foxtel, :30 Seconds, based around an advertising agency.

It won’t be the first time that commercials have been eligible to win Logie awards.  During the 1960s and ‘70s the TV Week Logie Awards had a category for best commercial.  These were often won by either cigarette companies or by Coca Cola, both of which obviously had the budgets to spend on lavish commercials.  (Cigarette advertising was allowed on Australian television up until September 1976)

The last commercial to be awarded a TV Week Logie was for Export Cola in 1978.

Perhaps this was the ad in question?  In which case, no surprises why it got an award…

Source: Australian Television Information Archive, B&T, Tobacco In Australia
YouTube: jmoul59

1990: March 17-23

Gold, silver… and a touch of brass!
The 32nd annual TV Week Logie Awards, held at Melbourne’s Hyatt On Collins, honoured the most popular and outstanding achievements of Australian TV in 1989.  Hosted by Mark Mitchell, the presentation was attended by overseas guests John Travolta, Ernest Borgnine, Pauline Collins and John Alderton, with Australian actress Sigrid Thornton, currently based on the US, also a special guest.  Also present on the night was the ever-glamorous Dame Edna Everage and a special appearance by jazz musician James Morrison.  The official proceedings of the night culminated with Travolta handing out the TV Week Gold Logie to former Neighbours star Craig McLachlan as Most Popular Personality on Australian TV.  McLachlan, now starring in rival soap Home And Away, also took away a Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor, and his partner Rachel Friend won the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actress.

TV Week Logie Winners 1990: Publicly-voted categories
Gold Logie – Most Popular Personality On Australian TV: Craig McLachlan
Silver Logie – Most Popular Actor On Australian TV: Craig McLachlan
Silver Logie – Most Popular Actress On Australian TV: Rachel Friend
Most Popular Series: Neighbours
Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Program: The Comedy Company
Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Personality: Daryl Somers
Most Popular Sports Coverage: Cricket (Nine Network)
Most Popular Telemovie/Mini-Series: Bangkok Hilton
Most Popular Actor In A Telemovie/Mini-Series: Jason Donovan
Most Popular Actress In A Telemovie/Mini-Series: Nicole Kidman
Most Popular Lifestyle Information Program: Burke’s Backyard
Most Popular Music Video: Never Too Late (Kylie Minogue)
Most Popular Children’s Program: Wombat
Most Popular New Talent: Georgie Parker
Most Popular Public Affairs Program: A Current Affair

TV Week Logie Winners 1990: Industry-voted categories
Gold Logie – Hall of Fame: Johnny Young
Most Outstanding Actor: Shane Porteous
Most Outstanding Actress: Nicole Kidman
Most Outstanding Achievement In Public Affairs: True Believers (4 Corners)
Most Outstanding Achievement In News: Romanian Revolution (Nine Network)
Most Outstanding Single Documentary Or Series: Ladies In Lines (ABC)
Most Outstanding Achievement By Regional Television: My Place, My Land, My People (QTV, Townsville, QLD)

TV Week Logie Winners 1990: State-based categories (Most Popular Personality, Most Popular Program)
New South Wales: Ray Martin, Home And Away
Victoria: Daryl Somers, Neighbours
Queensland: Jill Ray, Wombat
South Australia: Anne Wills, Wheel Of Fortune
Western Australia: Rick Ardon, Seven Nightly News
Tasmania: Bert Taylor, Taylor’s Australia

Briefly…
There’s wedding bells for several of the team from Seven’s Acropolis Now – with producer Pino Amenta now engaged to make-up artist Amanda Rowbottom, Simon Palomares engaged to co-star Tracey Callander, and George Kapiniaris engaged to make-up artist Peta Hastings.  Pictured on stage at the recent TV Week Logie Awards are Nick Giannopoulos, Simon Palomares and George Kapiniaris.

Swimming champion Lisa Curry has become the first Australian woman to host a sports show, joining Mark Warren on the Nine Network’s Sports Sunday.

Dozens of celebrities from around Australia, including showbusiness names and sports stars, have gathered at the South Melbourne Cricket Ground for the annual Variety Club Celebrity Thrill, including Aussie rules handball contests, basketball, golf putting, croquet and a tug of war.  The event, now in its sixth year, was attended by thousands of fans with proceeds going to the Variety Club program for underprivileged children.

John Laws says…
”Comedienne Gretel Killeen showed a measure of courage unusual in the TV industry when she decided to leave Nine’s Coast To Coast after only two weeks as a co-presenter.  Or was it that she saw, with alarming clarity, the writing on the wall and decided to quit before she copped at least some of the blame for a TV Titanic?  The ratings and the press criticisms should force Nine to the realisation that Coast To Coast was no more than a clever comedy vehicle for Graham Kennedy, and that without him the program is extremely vulnerable, particularly in the face of Steve Vizard’s rapidly-improving Tonight Live on Seven.  What Coast To Coast needs, perhaps, is someone like Kerri-Anne Kennerley, a TV trouper who knows how to smile, how to laugh, and how to crack a funny ad-lib gag.”

Program Highlights (March 17-23):
Saturday:  ABC presents live coverage of Day 3 of the Trans-Tasman Test, Australia versus New Zealand, from Wellington, New Zealand.  In the evening, HSV7 presents live coverage of the Fosters Cup Grand Final.
Sunday:  ABC has live coverage of Day 4 of the Trans-Tasman Test, live from New Zealand, while GTV9 crosses live to Adelaide for the FAI Cup, South Australia versus New South Wales.  Sunday night movies are Lethal Weapon (GTV9) and Mask (ATV10).  HSV7 presents Part One of the mini-series All The Rivers Run II, starring John Waters (pictured), Nikki Coghill, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Peta Toppano and American actor Parker Stevenson.
Monday:  HSV7 presents the second and final part of All The Rivers Run II, while ABC presents the debut of Wendy Harmer’s new talk show, In Harmer’s Way.
Wednesday:  ABC presents the controversial telemovie, Police Crop, recreating the events that led to the assassination of Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester.
Friday:  Dorothy’s (Maggie Dence) arrival in Neighbours causes problems for Joe (Mark Little), while Jim (Alan Dale) tries to come to terms with the return of Beverley’s (Shauna O’Grady) old flame.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  
17 March 1990. Southdown Press.

WTV launches in Perth

Yesterday saw the launch of Perth’s new community television station, WTV.

The new channel launched at 10.00am (WST) after ten days of test transmissions.

WTV, broadcasting solely on the digital platform, is replacing the former Access 31 which closed transmission in 2008 after financial assistance for the station was withdrawn.

WTV can be found in Perth by tuning to digital channel 44 or manual tuning to UHF 32.  They are also online and on Facebook.

TelevisionAU Update 10-Apr-10

http://www.televisionau.com

NEW FLASHBACK #53
Production of the mini-series A Town Like Alice, based on Nevil Shute's novel of the same name, was first planned in 1979 for the Seven Network on the back of the success of their earlier historical epic, Against The Wind.  A Town Like Alice was a hit when it aired in mid-1981 and the following year the mini-series took a total of five TV Week Logie awards, including best mini-series and best actor and actress awards for the leading stars, Bryan Brown and Helen Morse (pictured).
Picture: TV Week, 25 July 1981

NEW HEADLINES FROM THEN #8
TV Week, 1 March 1980: Graham Kennedy (pictured) to return to TV? International stars for the TV Week Logie Awards.  Prisoner star gets US TV offer.  Ten’s Bill Collins fights spinal disorder.

NEW OZ TV FLOP
The White Room (Seven, 2010)

CLASSIC TV GUIDES
Melbourne:
1977 (Hotel Story)
1980 (The Franky Doyle Story)
1982 (TV Week Logie Awards)
1985 (ABC National, News Overnight, The Cowra Breakout)
1988 (Opening Ceremony, The Games Of The XXIV Olympiad)

Brisbane:
1967 (Brisbane council elections, NSW Referendum, Victorian State Election)
1969

Adelaide:
1987 (Last day of broadcast for ADS7/SAS10, and first day of broadcast for ADS10/SAS7)

Tasmania:
1978

TELEVISIONAU - THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN TELEVISION
http://www.televisionau.com
http://blog.televisionau.com
http://www.twitter.com/TelevisionAU
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/televisionau
http://au.youtube.com/user/TelevisionAU

TEN… and TV Spells Magic

Today marks the 45th anniversary of the launch of Sydney’s third commercial station, TEN10.

The new channel, operated by United Telecasters Sydney Limited (UTSL), was the second channel to launch in what was originally known as the Independent Television System (ITS) – a network comprised of ATV0 Melbourne, TEN10 Sydney and upcoming channels TVQ0 Brisbane and SAS10 Adelaide.

ITS later became the 0-10 Network and is now Network Ten.

The new TEN10 was based at newly-constructed studios in the suburb of North Ryde. And being a new channel, eight years after its rivals had launched, TEN10 was able to be built with modern equipment that would allow a greater amount of flexibility and automation in comparison to its older rivals. From opening night, TEN10’s entire on-air presentation, co-ordinating programs, commercials and other on-air content, could be driven by a single operator with the assistance of modern automation equipment – while older TV stations would have up to five presentation co-ordinators at any time.

But the launch of TEN was not without its drawbacks. The new channel had been forced to postpone its official launch three times – largely due to delays associated with the construction of the channel’s transmission mast in Artarmon. The location of the transmitter was to be in a residential area, causing restrictions in the movement of large-scale equipment and materials. Construction was also affected by a transport strike, hindering the delivery of steel for the project, and a bout of bad weather.

When opening day finally did occur - 5 April 1965 - the automated Master Control was switched on by the press of a button marked “ST” at 3.30pm, putting the first programs into motion. Later that night, TEN10 viewers were treated to a lavishly-produced 75-minute musical extravaganza – TV Spells Magic. The £25,000 production, the most expensive ever in Australia at the time, featured a cast of around 250 and very few spoken words – the program was made up almost entirely of music, song and dance pieces to tell the story of the construction of a television station.

Some of the famous faces included in the cast of TV Spells Magic were Chips Rafferty, Evie Hayes, Tikki Taylor, Chuck Faulkner, Queenie Ashton, Gwen Plumb, Ruth Cracknell, Judi Farr, Wendy Blacklock, Alistair Duncan, Keith Petersen, Nigel Lovell, Margo Lee and Neva Carr Glyn. Though probably the most memorable of the show’s cast was model Diane Granquist (pictured) wearing a revealing toga as she unveils the TEN logo.

So impressed with the production of TV Spells Magic that TEN10 executives entered the program for the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreaux award – the world’s premier light entertainment TV award.

The launch of TEN10 promised a raft of new Australian programs for Sydney viewers – ranging from children’s programs Space Station 10 and Walk A Young World to a nightly news and current affairs program, Telescope, hosted by Bill Peach. TEN10 also boasted the return of local personality Ray Taylor to Sydney screens, following his move to Melbourne to host a weekly show for sister station ATV0 in 1964, and TEN10 would now relay The Ray Taylor Show to Sydney audiences.

TEN10 also promised new overseas shows including Bewitched, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Flintstones, Gilligan’s Island, The Dinah Shore Show, The Black And White Minstrel Show and Petticoat Junction. The new channel had also scored some familiar programs from rival channels, including Sergeant Bilko, Bonanza, The Farmer’s Daughter and Hazel.

During TEN10’s first week on air, normal programming started each afternoon at 3.30pm with documentaries and magazine segments, followed by children’s programs and serials and then cartoons, such as The Flintstones, Jonny Quest, Hector Heathcote and Astroboy, at 6.00pm. TEN offered no formal news bulletin in the evenings, instead reserving its news coverage to a brief news update leading into the late-night Telescope program. Programming would finish up each night between 11.00pm and 11.30pm.

TEN10 sold off the North Ryde studios when the Ten Network hit financial troubles in the late 1980s. The station is now based at premises in the Sydney suburb of Pyrmont.

Some YouTube snippets of TEN10 over the years:

TEN station ID, 1979:

Eyewitness News and TEN station ID (including promo for The Restless Years) 1981

TEN 21st birthday station ID, 1986

TEN network ID, 1988

That’s Sydney, 1994

Source: TV Week, 3 April 1965. TV Times, 31 March 1965.
YouTube: Aussiebeachut1, shizermagizer, austvarchive, PsycadelicShack, FrozenDoberman

Ten to launch new entertainment channel

The Australian reports today that the Ten Network has given a broad outline of its plans to launch an additional digital channel in the second half of this year.

Ten programming chief David Mott has told The Australian that the new channel will be focused on general entertainment but won’t rely on repeating content that has already been shown on the main Ten channel or become a dumping ground for programming that failed to work on Ten:

“It’s got to be original. It will have equal weighting with Ten. In the digital environment, why wouldn't you?"

The new channel is expected to be branded independently of Ten in the same fashion that Ten’s sports channel is branded One HD and bears little resemblance to Ten on-screen.

Ten’s launch of an entertainment channel is possibly a ‘catch up’ to rivals Nine and Seven that both launched entertainment-themed channels last year – GO! and 7TWO respectively – which both appear to have taken some audience share away from Ten.

And it’s not only Ten that is preparing to wheel out a new digital channel. Both Nine and Seven are said to be launching an extra channel each before the year is out – but neither have revealed what their new channels will entail.

Plus there’s ABC’s upcoming 24-hour news channel to launch this year.

ABC turns 50 in Adelaide, Perth and Hobart

Last month Adelaide’s ABS2 celebrated its 50th anniversary.  The station, the fourth to launch for the national broadcaster and the third TV station in Adelaide, began on 11 March 1960 from studios in the suburb of Collinswood.  The launch of the station was timed to coincide with the Adelaide Festival of Arts and on its second day of transmission ABS2 crossed to a live outside broadcast of the opening day of the Festival.

ABS2 was the first of three ABC stations to open during 1960.  In May of that year, ABC launched in Perth (ABW2) and Hobart (ABT2) followed in June – completing the broadcaster’s expansion into each state capital city, though it would be a few more years before ABC would open in the other two capitals, Canberra (ABC3, in 1962) and Darwin (ABD6, in 1971).

ABC Adelaide’s local website has featured a video to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ABS2:

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of ABW2 in Perth, a staff reunion is being held at ABC’s East Perth studios on the afternoon of 16 May.  (Details can be found at WA TV History)

Reference: 50 Years: Aunty’s Jubilee – Celebrating 50 Years of ABC TV.  Tim Bowden and Wendy Borchers.  ABC Books, 2006.

Barry Humphries’ Flashbacks on 7TWO

The Seven Network’s digital channel 7TWO has scheduled in a re-run of an excellent ABC documentary series of the late ‘90s.

Barry Humphries’ Flashbacks, originally screened on ABC in 1999 in the months leading up to Y2K, documents the various trends of Australian society and popular culture from the post-war ‘50s to the excessive ‘80s.

The four-part series, making excellent use of archival footage, also serves as a chronology of Humphries’ own contributions to popular culture, tracing the evolution of his 1950s creation, Mrs Edna Everage, (pictured) to the glamorous Dame Edna of the ‘80s, plus there’s also references to The Adventures Of Barry McKenzie and other Humphries creations including Sir Les Patterson and Sandy Stone.  The latter two also joining Dame Edna and Humphries himself in presenting their own commentaries on the periods depicted in the series.

Barry Humphries’ Flashbacks is not the first ABC program to get an airing on 7TWO.  Popular comedy Mother And Son was recently repeated in a weeknight timeslot on the digital channel.

Barry Humphries’ Flashbacks.  Starts Thursday 8 April, 7.30pm.  7TWO

Good Friday Appeal on again

Good Friday in Victoria means another Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal, raising funds for what is one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals – caring for over 280,000 children each year from around Australia and overseas.

This year marks the 80th year for the appeal which was started as a sporting carnival, organised by journalists of the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT), in 1931.  During World War II, HWT’s radio station 3DB launched an all-day broadcast for the Appeal.

The advent of television in 1956 saw HWT’s new television station, HSV7, first involved with the Appeal.  HSV7’s first effort for the Good Friday Appeal in 1957 was a three-hour afternoon telecast.

In 1960, HSV7 presented its first all-day telethon on Good Friday – starting at 7.00am and continuing through to 6.15pm, before resuming for an hour at 8.00pm and then again at 10.30pm through to the announcement of the final total at midnight.  This is in contrast to HSV7’s usual weekday transmission which at that time didn’t start until mid-afternoon and would wind up before midnight.

The 1960 appeal raised a total of £231,750, far exceeding the previous year’s total of £174,129. 

In 1977 the appeal passed the $1 million milestone for the first time – raising a total of $1,489,866.84 – and the $2 million milestone only four years later.

This year’s appeal is likely to top last year’s record total of $13,862,734.

Meanwhile, the Herald Sun reports that rival channel GTV9 has upset Good Friday Appeal organisers with the Nine Network opting to air segments of the Brisbane-based Good Friday telethon for the Mater Children's Hospital, during its regular national programs Today, Kerri-Anne and A Current Affair.

The Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.  Friday 2 April, from 9.30am.  HSV7 (Melbourne) and Prime Television (Regional Victoria) – in association with the Herald and Weekly Times and radio stations 3AW and Magic 1278.

Pictured (top): HSV7 weather presenter Ilona Komescaroff with actor John Thaw, from UK series The Sweeney, in 1977, and (above) Countdown’s Molly Meldrum, Pat McDonald (Sons And Daughters) and booth announcer John Deeks on the Good Friday Appeal panel in 1982.

UPDATE @ 12.40 3.4.2010: The Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal has signed off with a record-breaking final total of $14,462,000.