Southern Cross Ten says ‘hello’ to 11

Regional broadcaster Southern Cross Media has made an announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange stating that it intends to launch Network Ten’s new digital channel 11 on the Southern Cross Ten eastern states network on 11 January, the same date that it launches on Ten in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

The announcement covers Southern Cross Ten’s digital broadcasts across the aggregated markets of regional Queensland, New South Wales/ACT and Victoria – representing a total potential audience of around 6,246,000.

The announcement makes no specific mention of the channel being carried on Tasmanian Digital Television or Darwin Digital Television, the digital Network Ten affiliates operated jointly between Southern Cross Media and local rivals WIN Television and Nine Network respectively.

The roll-out of 11 to Southern Cross’ local broadcasts in the Spencer Gulf (SA) and Broken Hill (NSW) districts is also yet to be confirmed, although at present none of the commercial network multi-channels are broadcast in those regions pending the launch of new digital capacity next year.

The new channel 11 promises to offer a youth-focused entertainment line-up, headed by The Simpsons and Aussie soap Neighbours which are both moving exclusively to 11.  The channel also promises to screen US titles including Dexter, 90210, The Office, Californication, The Cleveland Show, Smallville, Futurama, America’s Next Top Model and Nurse Jackie.

Source: Regional TV Marketing, Southern Cross Media Group

WIN SA gets digital upgrade

The regional South Australian branch of WIN Television has been assigned additional broadcast capacity to enable it to provide local viewers with the commercial networks’ multi-channels after the switch-off of analogue transmissions.

WIN currently has a commercial monopoly in the Mount Gambier and Riverland markets – currently providing local signals of the Seven, Nine and Ten networks.  But because WIN only has a single digital frequency to broadcast these three channels, it does not have capacity to consider high-definition or additional standard-definition channels such as 7TWO, GO!, GEM, 7mate or One.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has announced that WIN will receive additional broadcast frequencies in Mount Gambier and Riverland to enable the local broadcast of digital-only channels.  The new frequencies will become available only after the local analogue switch-off which is scheduled for next Wednesday.

The broadcaster will also be the recipient of government assistance as part of a $34 million package offered to broadcasters in smaller regional markets by the Federal Government to assist with the digital transition.

WIN has to now decide which of the multi-channels it will choose to broadcast to the local market, and the timetable for rolling out those channels. 

The new broadcast capacity being assigned to WIN follows a similar allocation by ACMA to Southern Cross Media, covering the markets of Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill (NSW).

Source: ACMA

Obituary: Gus Mercurio

Gus Mercurio, actor and boxing identity, has died in Melbourne.

The 82-year-old died from complications arising from an operation for a chest aneurism at a Melbourne hospital.

Born in Wisconsin, USA, Mercurio came to Australia in the 1950s.  A professional boxer, he became deeply involved with the game in Australia as an administrator, referee and commentator.

In the 1970s he made a break into acting, appearing in TV series including The Long Arm, Division 4, Homicide and Matlock Police but became probably best known for his roles in historical dramas, including Cash And Company (pictured), Tandarra, Power Without Glory, All The Rivers Run and Five Mile Creek.

Mercurio also featured on the big screen in titles including Crocodile Dundee II, The Man From Snowy River and The Blue Lagoon.

Gus Mercurio is survived by his current partner Rita and six children, including TV presenter and performer Paul Mercurio.

Source: Herald Sun, ABC, IMDB.

Prisoner returns to Australian TV

Good news for fans of classic Aussie soap Prisoner!

Andrew Mercado reports that the long-running series is about to make a comeback to Australian TV screens – on pay-TV channel 111HITS, starting on Australia Day, 26 January, at 10.30pm.

111HITS will be screening the series from the first episode – which first went to air in February 1979.

The series, which continued production until 1986, had a full re-run on pay channel UKTV some years ago and also had a late-night re-run on Network Ten in the early 1990s.  Ten did start a daytime re-run of Prisoner in October 1996 but it was abruptly cut short after only a few months and the series has yet to appear again on Australian free-to-air TV.

All 692 episodes of Prisoner have been released on DVD.

This news comes a few months after Network Ten announced it was set to explore the prison theme again for a new drama series, Inside Out.

111HITS is available on Foxtel and Austar.

Source: MercadoTV

Obituary: Norman Hetherington

Norman Hetherington, the man who created iconic children’s TV character Mr Squiggle more than 50 years ago, has died in Sydney at the age of 89 after a long illness.

After serving in World War II, Hetherington worked as a cartoonist for The Bulletin magazine in the 1940s and 1950s.  He also had an interest in puppetry, presenting a puppet show on the opening night broadcast from ABN2, Sydney, in 1956, and created early children’s television productions in the late 1950s.  Then in 1959 he created the character of Mr Squiggle, a pencil-nosed puppet who created drawings based on scribble patterns (or “squiggles”) sent in by children. 

Mr Squiggle, who also had friends including Bill Steamshovel, Gus the Snail and Blackboard, started as a six-week guest spot on ABC’s Children’s TV Club but soon was given his own show which ended up running for 40 years.

The program, which entertained generations of children, went through various formats and titles but ended up as Mr Squiggle And Friends, making its last appeared on ABC in 1999.

Some of Mr Squiggle’s on-screen assistants have included Miss Gina (Gina Curtis), Miss Pat (Pat Lovell), Miss Jane (Jane Fennell), Miss Roxane (Roxane Kimmorley) and Hetherington’s daughter, Rebecca (pictured, with Mr Squiggle), who appeared alongside Mr Squiggle in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In the 1980s, Hetherington and wife Margaret, who wrote all of Mr Squiggles scripts, won two Penguin awards for the program.  In 1990, Hetherington was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his contribution to children’s television.

In July this year, he appeared in a segment on the ABC program Collectors, paying tribute to the long-running Mr Squiggle.

The passing of Hetherington comes after the death of two other children’s TV character creators, Rex Heading (Humphrey B. Bear) and Tedd Dunn (Fredd Bear).

Norman Hetherington is survived by wife Margaret and children Rebecca and Stephen.  His funeral is expected to be held next Monday.

Source: The Eclectic Omnibus, Wikipedia, ABC, ABC

TV Week Logie Awards voting opens

It’s a new era for the TV Week Logie Awards as TV Week has today opened the voting for the 2011 awards presentation.

Traditionally, voting for the popularity-based categories starts in the new year and is conducted through both the TV Week website and in the printed publication. 

This year the public voting is being conducted entirely online via the TV Week website.

But despite obvious efforts to improve the online voting process compared to previous years – at least now we can see who we are being asked to choose from – there still appears to be some discrepancy or omissions from the nominations list.

A glance at the nominees list noted a few missing names, though this a far from being an extensive list:

Most Popular Actress: Janet Andrewartha (pictured. Neighbours) – who was also missing from last year’s list, Heidi Arena (The Librarians), Jane Badler (Neighbours), Rachael Blake (Hawke), Kate Box (Offspring), Danielle Cormack (Rake), Victoria Eagger (The Librarians), Kaarin Fairfax (Bed Of Roses), Alicia Gardiner (Offspring), Caroline Gillmer (Bed Of Roses), Rachel Griffiths (Rake), Jane Harber (Offspring), Sasha Horler (Rake, Hawke, Offspring), Kaiya Jones (Neighbours), Jordy Lucas (Neighbours), Heather Mitchell (Rake), Eve Morey (Neighbours), Nicole Nabout (The Librarians), Valentina Novakovic (Neighbours), Adrienne Pickering (Rake).

Most Popular Actor: Lliam Amor (Hawke), Stephen Ballantyne (The Librarians), Morgan Baker (Neighbours), Keith Brockett (The Librarians), Vince Colosimo (pictured. Wicked Love), Richard Davies (Offspring), Firass Dirani (Underbelly 3: The Golden Mile), Bob Franklin (The Librarians), Kim Gyngell (The Librarians), Kevin Hofbauer (Rush), Lachy Hulme (Offspring, The Librarians), Josh Lawson (Hawke), Geoff Morrell (Rake),  Erin Mullally (Neighbours), Eddie Perfect (Offspring), Jordan Smith (Neighbours), Matthew Werkmeister (Neighbours), Sandy Winton (Neighbours), Felix Williamson (Hawke).

Most Popular Presenter: Paul Barry (Media Watch), Peter Evans (My Kitchen Rules), Peter Everett (Ready Steady Cook), Manu Feildel (My Kitchen Rules), Julie Goodwin (Home Cooked), Andrew Hansen (Strictly Speaking). Peter Helliar (The Bounce), Jonathan Holmes (Media Watch), Amanda Keller (Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation), James O’Loghlin (The New Inventors), Sandra Sully (pictured. Ten News), Peter Thompson (Talking Heads), Josh Thomas (Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation), Bill Woods (Thursday Night Live).

Some of the names listed above do appear, however, in the Most Popular New Talent category – seemingly implying that any new talent nominee is ineligible for any of the above categories.  A curious, and possibly new, condition given some have been in very prominent roles or have given exceptional performances.

Some inconsistencies also appear – Poh Ling Yeow (Poh’s Kitchen)qualifies for the Most Popular Presenter vote as well as Most Popular New Talent, although Julie Goodwin (Home Cooked) only qualifies for the latter.  Spicks And Specks team captains Adam Brough and Myf Warhurst qualify for Most Popular Presenter votes, but their equivalents at Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, Josh Thomas and Amanda Keller, do not.  Generation’s Charlie Pickering qualifies for a vote based on his role as co-host on The 7PM Project.  The X Factor judges Guy Sebastian, Ronan Keating, Natalie Imbruglia and Kyle Sandilands all qualify for a vote, but their So You Think You Can Dance counterparts – Jason Coleman, Matt Lee and Bonnie Lythgoe – miss out.

While TV Week is possibly only listing names provided by the publicity agents of the networks (and looking at the lists above, it seems that ABC and Network Ten are being the most remiss), it is unfortunate that such omissions do occur or that some quality control over the list of names doesn’t seem to happen, even after such inconsistencies with the nominees list have been occurring for some years.  And while column space might have been limiting in the print edition, causing some names to not be included, now with online voting there is more space allowed to include a more comprehensive list of names.

On a more positive note, the award nominations this year do take into account community television for the first time.  While it is unlikely that these programs or presenters will walk away with a popular-voted award, the acknowledgement that they even exist is a positive one.

An industry-based panel will again judge contenders for the Most Outstanding award categories – including the Hall of Fame and the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Outstanding New Talent.

Online voting for the popularity-based categories closes 20 February 2011 and the 53rd annual TV Week Logie Awards will take place on 1 May 2011.

Harry Potter retiring from Ten News

It will be the end of an era on Christmas Eve when Ten News reporter Harry Potter signs off for the last time.

The 69-year-old is retiring but is expected to continue to remain as a consultant to the network – something that he hopes will help him take his mind off more personal matters as he recovers from cancer.

Potter was diagnosed with bowel cancer five years ago.  It was treated but the tumours returned last year near his hip.  A fifteen-hour operation in February last year and five rounds of chemotherapy have followed:

"I like to think I'm in remission now but, as the oncologist said to me, 'Your definition of remission is a bit different from ours.' "

Potter has been with the Ten newsroom for over thirty years.  He joined Eyewitness News at Sydney’s TEN10 in 1978, where his wife, Katrina Lee, was a newsreader.  Despite his many years in the news business and covering some of the biggest crime stories in the state, he will be remembered by many for once delivering the line ‘the headless torso was found lying face down’.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Prime News exits Albury

Prime Television has announced this week that it will soon no longer be producing Prime News from its Albury studios and will instead be shifting production to centralised facilities in Canberra.

The Albury-based bulletin, which screens 5.30pm weeknights in the Albury and Upper Murray district as the lead-in to the Melbourne-based Seven News, has been in production since local station AMV4 (the local predecessor to Prime) began broadcasting in 1964.

The move to the Canberra facility follows similar moves from Prime’s Orange and Wagga Wagga station facilities earlier this year.

The Albury studios were recently upgraded, at a cost of $200,000, to accommodate widescreen production of its local news, an upgrade that prompted optimism that the network was planning to maintain production in Albury and that it might extend its local news coverage across Victoria to tackle rival network WIN, which has a monopoly on local newscasts across the rest of regional Victoria.

Prime chief executive Doug Edwards said that to fully convert the studios for digital television would cost around $1 million and that the network would be better to use existing facilities:

“We’ve got six newsrooms and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to go out and fully digitalise six newsrooms when you can invest that money into a super facility in Canberra and be able to present much better news. We are looking at new sets, new technology and I think we can do that by investing money into a presentation facility in Canberra that will give a better product on screen.”

Mr Edwards said that the move will not result in any job losses, although two crew staff in Albury will be offered roles in Canberra. Newsreader Helen Ballard (pictured) is expected to stay based at Albury but only as a senior reporter.

Prime News will move production from Albury in the new year.

Source: Border Mail, BradF89

1990: December 8-14

Cover: Olivia Newton-John

Hey Hey it’s… London…?
Hey Hey It’s Saturday host Daryl Somers is set to make an appearance on Aussie expat Clive James’ popular British show, Saturday Night Clive. Somers is hopeful that the appearance could lead to Hey Hey being sold to an international audience.  “I feel we’ve given England such a diet of soapies that it’s about time they copped some comedy/variety/night-time/morning type of stuff.  They just want to talk about me being on TV for a long time, and the show I do, which is unique.  I know Clive and he’s very aware of that uniqueness,” Somers told TV Week.

Oscar winner aims for Oz glory!
Oscar-winning American actor Denzel Washington is likely to win the lead role in the Seven Network mini-series Tracks Of Glory, which goes into pre-production soon.  Producers Barron Films have also been negotiating with LA Law star Blair Underwood, but Washington is now the favourite for the lead role of American champion cyclist “Major” Taylor.  Among the Australian cast list for the mini-series are Cameron Daddo (Bony), Justine Clarke (Home And Away) and John Wood (Rafferty’s Rules).  Tracks Of Glory is set in the 1920s and follows the story of Taylor as he comes to Australia to compete in the richest cycling event in the world.

The show will go on!
Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Daryl Somers is choosing his words carefully when he announces the disintegration of DAS Entertainment, the nine-year partnership between himself, Gavan Disney and Ernie Carroll, which produces the popular Nine Network program:  “We’ve discussed it.  It’s a mutually agreed split.  Hey Hey will continue, as we are contracted to do until the end of 1991, and we all looking forward to it in a very positive way.  We want the split to be as professional and businesslike as possible, and because we are involved in working that out – the entanglement of contractual obligations with DAS and the (Nine) network and so on – I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to go into great detail at this stage.  But I think it’s safe to say that DAS will be no longer.  Next year the program will be produced by another entity.” Somers and Carroll are expected to take over producing the show – although plans to bring Jacki MacDonald back into the program appear to have stalled.

Briefly…
As the financial situation at Network Ten continues to crumble, producer Ian McFadyen (pictured) is confident that the network will pick up a proposed sitcom he has been discussing with them – a concept based around the lives of employees at a television station.  McFadyen is also confident that Ten will renew sitcom Let The Blood Run Free for a second series.  Meanwhile, his company, Media Arts, also has a deal to produce a sitcom, Newlyweds, for the Seven Network in partnership with Crawfords Australia.  The new sitcom is set to be a starring vehicle for former Neighbours star Annie Jones.

ABC has renewed drama series Embassy for a second series.  The renewal comes after controversy, as Malaysia accused the show’s fictional setting of Ragaan of “making fun” of their country and consequently cancelled official visits to Australia and suspended trade talks, prompting Prime Minister Bob Hawke to step in and reassure Malaysians that the program is entirely fictional.

Aussie actress, former Number 96 and Skyways star Carmen Duncan (pictured), playing the role of bitchy Iris Carrington Wheeler in the US soap Another World, has been named by Soap Weekly magazine as one of the “most desirable women on American television”.  Her character has also been voted one of the most popular on American daytime TV.

Seven Network series A Country Practice has clocked up 800 episodes.  Given the current financial situation at Seven, still in receivership, the cast and crew of the series were allowed only a small celebration at Seven’s Sydney studios.

Neighbours star Ashley Paske has announced that he will not renew his contract with the Network Ten series when it expires in January.  He is expected to be seen on-air until May.

John Laws says:
“SBS has had a great year.  Its fine coverage of the World Cup soccer – possibly more extensive than any other station in the world – was the highlight.  It, more than anything, put the station on the map.”

Program Highlights (December 8-14):
Sunday:  Tennis (Colonial Mutual Men’s Invitational) on ABC.  Golf (Johnnie Walker Classic) on HSV7 and cricket (Benson And Hedges World Series) on GTV9.  Sunday night movies are North Dallas Forty (GTV9) and Stones For Ibarra (ATV10).  HSV7 presents the first instalment of mini-series George Washington.

Monday:  ABC presents a repeat of Geoffrey Robertson’s Hypotheticals, featuring John Halfpenny, Glenn Wheatley, Keith Williams and Wilson Tuckey.

Tuesday:  Prime Minister Bob Hawke presents the Walkley Awards, buried in a broadcast of the National Press Club Luncheon, on ABC at 1.00pm.

Friday:  The final 1990 edition of the late-night Robbo’s World Tonight on GTV9.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 8 December 1990. Southdown Press.

Coming soon… the 7.30 refresh

ABC’s long-running current affairs program The 7.30 Report is about to get a refresh – with new hosts and a new name.

From March next year, the program will be re-named 7.30 and will have two hosts, Leigh Sales and Chris Uhlmann, replacing Kerry O’Brien who is soon to finish up on the program after 15 years.

Sales, currently a presenter of ABC’s Lateline and a contributor to The Drum, will front the new-look program from Sydney, while Uhlmann, with more than 20 years’ experience at ABC and currently a presenter on ABC News 24, will be the show’s Political Editor based in Canberra.

Also joining 7.30 will be ABC Online’s Chief Political Writer Annabel Crabb, providing her own take on political events.

The changes come as The 7.30 Report reaches its 25th anniversary.  The program was launched in January 1986 from the remnants of the short-lived news and current affairs experiment, The National, which had wound up after less than a year on air.

The 7.30 Report began as a state-based current affairs program from each capital city and from 1996 was re-launched as a national program, hosted by O’Brien.

The change to the 7.30 brand will also affect the Friday night current affairs program Stateline, though it will continue to cover local issues each Friday in each state and territory – and if a big local story breaks during the week, 7.30 will cover the news at a local level.

As well as 7.30, the new year will signal another change for ABC news and current affairs – with morning program ABC News Breakfast being moved from digital channel ABC2 to the main ABC1 channel.  The transition will allow the block of children’s programming that currently appears on ABC1 each weekday morning to move to ABC2, coinciding with the expansion of the ABC For Kids brand on the digital channel.

In another program milestone, next year will also mark the 50th anniversary of current affairs program 4 Corners.

Source: The Australian, ABC