Alice Springs and Mt Isa ready for digital

Viewers in the capital cities may take for granted that their main commercial channels have been broadcasting in digital for over a decade, and that a range of other channels have since sprung up to offer some more viewing alternatives – but for viewers in the more remote parts of Australia those options are only just appearing.

Although ABC and SBS and their respective multi-channels have been broadcast in digital for some time, tomorrow (Monday) will mark the commencement of digital transmission in the remote towns of Alice Springs and Mount Isa for commercial channels Imparja Television and Southern Cross Television.

Up until now viewers have still only had the option to see those networks via analogue transmission.

The day will also mark the commencement of the new third commercial channel operated by Central Digital Television Pty Ltd, a joint venture between both Imparja and Southern Cross to offer viewers with a regular Network Ten signal.  The channel will broadcast exclusively in digital and marks the return of regular Network Ten programming to these areas since Imparja dropped its Ten affiliation in 2008.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) advises that the commercial networks will be offering the full suite of digital channels as are currently available via the VAST satellite platform.

Alice Springs viewers will find their channels on the following frequencies:

	Analogue	Digital
ABC	VHF7	VHF8
Southern Cross	UHF31	UHF38
Imparja	VHF9	UHF30
Central Digital (Ten)	n/a	UHF40
SBS	UHF28	VHF6

And Mount Isa:

	Analogue	Digital
ABC	VHF6	VHF7
Southern Cross	VHF8	UHF37
Imparja	UHF32	UHF39
Central Digital (Ten)	n/a	UHF31
SBS	UHF29	VHF9A

ACMA advises that a further 26 transmission sites within the Remote Central and Eastern television region will be upgraded for digital transmission of the above networks according to an implementation schedule to be submitted by the broadcasters.

The Remote Central and Eastern television regions are scheduled to lose all analogue transmission in the second half of 2013. 

Source: ACMA

TV Week Logie Awards: 25 years ago

Hey Hey It’s Saturday host Daryl Somers (pictured) was awarded the Gold Logie for the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television at the 28th annual TV Week Logie Awards, presented at Sydney’s historic State Theatre on Friday, 18 April 1986.

It was the first time the Awards were held in Sydney since 1981.

Current affairs host Mike Willesee was Master of Ceremonies of the night’s presentation which was broadcast via the Nine Network.  The awards ceremony paid tribute to 30 years of Australian television.

The Gold Logie was Somers’ second, having also won the premier award at the 25th Anniversary TV Week Logie Awards in 1983.  His second Gold Logie followed a year which saw the prime-time Hey Hey It’s Saturday shift to the earlier 6.30pm timeslot, and his hosting of Nine’s afternoon game show Blankety Blanks.  On a personal front, it was also a year he married long-time partner Julie Da Costa.

Somers also collected a second award on the night, for Most Popular Male Personality in Victoria.

In winning the Gold, Somers had beaten fellow nominees Greg Evans (Perfect Match), Ray Martin (Midday With Ray Martin) and Anne Tenney (A Country Practice).  The year had been significant for all three fellow nominees.  As well as hosting Perfect Match, Evans (pictured) had also hosted the previous year’s TV Week Logie Awards and a new talent quest series, Star Search, for Network Ten.  Nine’s Ray Martin had made the risky move from 60 Minutes to host the new Midday program, taking over from the long-running The Mike Walsh Show which had moved into prime-time.  And Tenney had made her farewell from A Country Practice with the emotional departure of character Molly Jones.  She also featured in the ABC mini-series Flight Into Hell, scoring a nomination for Most Popular Actress In A Single Drama Or Mini-Series.

The Nine Network mini-series Anzacs won three Logies, including individual Logies for actor Andrew Clarke and actress Megan Williams.  The ten-hour mini-series was the most ambitious television drama production ever undertaken in Australia, costing more than $8 million and was six years in the making.  The series also featured Paul Hogan in his first dramatic role, and popular young actor Jon Blake.

Seven’s long-running A Country Practice took away four Logies, including Most Popular Drama and Silver Logies for Grant Dodwell and Anne Tenney (pictured).  Tenney also won a Logie for Most Popular Female Personality in New South Wales.

Network Ten series Neighbours, which had only recently made the move from Seven, scored its first ever Logies.  Actor Peter O’Brien was awarded Most Popular New Talent, while Neighbours won the award for Most Popular Program in Victoria. 

Network Ten’s afternoon game show Perfect Match won Most Popular Light Entertainment Program, following a year which saw co-host Debbie Newsome replaced by newcomer Tiffany Lamb. 

The Nine Network won the award for Outstanding Sports Coverage for its coverage of the first Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Adelaide, beamed around the world to an estimated 700 million viewers and which won high praise from the Formula One participating nations.

60 Minutes won the Logie for Most Popular Public Affairs Program and one of its reporters, Ian Leslie (pictured), was awarded Reporter Of The Year.  Nine’s Sunday program won the award for Best Public Affairs Report for Jennifer Byrne’s coverage of the 1985 Tax Summit. 

Brisbane-based TVQ0’s Eyewitness News won Best News Report for its report of the Eagle Farm siege, when a deranged man threatened to fire a shotgun and ignite a tankerload of fuel at Brisbane Airport.

As well as hosting the Logies presentation, Mike Willesee (pictured) also scored an award for Most Popular Documentary Series for his series of specials for the Nine Network.  One of the most talked-about programs from the Willesee series during the year was Tommy Doesn’t Exist Any More, a sympathetic look at the lives of three transsexuals.  Another program, Sink Or Swim, looked at the life of one of Australia’s leading underwater naturalists, Neville Coleman.  And before the age of Big Brother, Willesee presented More Than A Game – a two-hour special which observed the behaviour of 15 people from different walks of life who were taken to a remote rural location where they had to form their own new society.

Teenage actress Nadine Garner from the Network Ten series The Henderson Kids won the Logie for Best Performance by a Juvenile; and long-running children’s program Simon Townsend’s Wonder World was awarded Most Popular Children’s Program.

National broadcaster ABC won two awards.  The comedy series The Gillies Report – featuring Max Gillies in various guises including then prime minister Bob Hawke (pictured) – won Best Light Entertainment Series, and documentary series Sweat Of The Sun, Tears Of The Moon – featuring Jack Pizzey’s travels through South America – was awarded Best Documentary.

Mini-series producers Kennedy-Miller were presented a Logie for Sustained Excellence – having produced landmark series The Dismissal, The Cowra Breakout and Bodyline.

The local newscast, Newshour, from Bendigo channel BCV8 won the Logie for Outstanding Contribution by Regional Television.  One of the news bulletin’s highlights from the year was its coverage of the Murray River tour of HRH Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

News cameraman Neil Davis (pictured) was posthumously inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall Of Fame.  A war correspondent for over 20 years, Davis had been gunned down in September 1985 while covering a coup attempt in Thailand. 

Among the overseas guest stars at the Logies were Hill Street Blues star Veronica Hamel, actress and comedienne Phyllis Diller and singer John Denver.

Public-voted Categories:
Gold Logie: Daryl Somers (Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Blankety Blanks)

Silver Logie – Most Popular Actor: Grant Dodwell (A Country Practice)
Silver Logie – Most Popular Actress:  Anne Tenney (A Country Practice)

Most Popular Drama Series:  A Country Practice (Seven)
Most Popular Single Drama or Mini-Series:  Anzacs (Nine Network)
Most Popular Actor In A Single Drama Or Mini-Series: Andrew Clarke (Anzacs)
Most Popular Actress In A Single Drama Or Mini-Series: Megan Williams (Anzacs)
Most Popular Light Entertainment Program: Perfect Match (Network Ten)
Most Popular Public Affairs Program: 60 Minutes (Nine Network)
Most Popular Documentary Series:  Willesee Documentaries (Nine Network)
Most Popular Music Video:  What You Need (INXS)
Most Popular Children’s Program: Simon Townsend’s Wonder World (Network Ten)
Most Popular New Talent:  Peter O’Brien (Neighbours)

Industry-voted Categories:
Best News Report:  Eagle Farm Siege, Eyewitness News (TVQ0, Brisbane)
Best Public Affairs Report: Tax Summit (Jennifer Byrne, Sunday, Nine Network)
Reporter Of The Year: Ian Leslie (60 Minutes)
Best Performance By A Juvenile: Nadine Garner (The Henderson Kids)
Outstanding Sports Coverage: Australian Grand Prix (Nine Network)
Best Documentary: Sweat Of The Sun, Tears Of The Moon (ABC)
Best Light Entertainment Special: Cliff Richard – The Rock Connection (Nine Network)
Best Light Entertainment Series: The Gillies Report (ABC)
Special Award For Sustained Excellence:  The Kennedy-Miller Organisation
Outstanding Contribution By Regional Television:  Newshour (BCV8, Bendigo)
TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame: Neil Davis (journalist) – awarded posthumously.

State-based Categories (Most Popular Male Personality, Most Popular Female Personality, Most Popular Program):

NSW: Ray Martin, Anne Tenney, A Country Practice
VIC: Daryl Somers, Delvene Delaney, Neighbours
QLD: Glenn Taylor, Jacki MacDonald, State Affair
SA: Keith Conlon, Anne Wills, State Affair
WA: Rick Ardon, Susannah Carr, State Affair
TAS: Tom Payne, Jenny Roberts, Midweek

Source: TV Week, 19 April 1986.  TV Week, 26 April 1986

TV Week Logie Awards: 50 years ago

British actor Jimmy Edwards was the special guest of honour at the 3rd annual TV Week Logie Awards presentation, held at Sydney’s Chevron-Hilton Hotel on 18 March 1961. 

The Gold Logie for Australia’s most popular television personality was won by Pick-A-Box host Bob Dyer.  “This is the most exciting night of my life,” he said as he received his award.

Sydney’s ATN7 won two Logies – one for variety show Curtain Call, the predecessor to variety series Revue ‘61 and which introduced English-born Digby Wolfe to Australian audiences, and one for the play Shadow Of A Pale Horse. 

National broadcaster ABC also won two Logies – Stormy Petrel, the story of the mutiny against Captain Bligh when he was Governor of New South Wales, was awarded Best Drama Series, while the broadcaster also won a Logie for its coverage of the Davis Cup tennis which was broadcast via a special link between Sydney and Melbourne.

National awards:
Gold Logie: Bob Dyer (pictured)
Best Variety Program: Curtain Call (ATN7)
Best Comedians: Buster Fiddess, Bobby Limb (both from The Mobil-Limb Show)
Best Singer: Elaine McKenna (In Melbourne Tonight/The Graham Kennedy Show)
Best Australian Drama: Shadow Of A Pale Horse (ATN7)
Best Drama Series: Stormy Petrel (ABC)
Best Sports Broadcast: Davis Cup (ABC)
Best Actor: Brian James (Stormy Petrel)

State-based awards (Most Popular Male Personality, Most Popular Female Personality, Most Popular Program):
NSW: Digby Wolfe (ATN7), Tanya Halesworth (ABN2), The Bobby Limb Show (TCN9)
VIC: Graham Kennedy (GTV9), Panda Lisner (GTV9), In Melbourne Tonight (GTV9)
QLD: Brian Tait (BTQ7), Nancy Knudsen (BTQ7), The Late Show (BTQ7)
SA: Ian Fairweather (NWS9), Maree Tomasetti (ADS7), Adelaide Tonight (NWS9)

The presentation was telecast live to Sydney viewers in a half-hour broadcast on ABN2, while ABC stations in other states presented a delayed broadcast the following week.

Pictured (left to right): Lionel Williams (Adelaide Tonight), Ian Fairweather, Maree Tomasetti, Elaine McKenna, Bernard Kerr (sports director, ABC), Bob Dyer, Graham Kennedy, Bobby Limb, Panda Lisner, Tanya Halesworth, Nancy Knudsen, Rod Kinnear (program manager, GTV9), Brian Tait, Wilson Irving (program manager, BTQ7)

Source: TV Week, 23 March 1961.  TV Week, 30 March 1961.

Royal Weddings: 1981 and today

Tonight (Australian time), an estimated two billion viewers worldwide will be watching the long-awaited wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at London’s Westminster Abbey.

The wedding marks the culmination of a media circus that has seen the world’s major broadcasters all converge on London to breathlessly bring viewers in their respective countries every known detail of the wedding – and where there are no facts to report, there has been lots and lots of speculation. 

In Australia there will be live prime-time coverage of the wedding via ABC1, ABC News 24, Seven, Nine and Ten – while 7TWO and GEM will also be utilised to work around sporting commitments for Seven and Nine. 

ABC2’s proposed alternative coverage featuring commentary from the Chaser boys has been controversially axed at the last minute following orders received from the royal family that no coverage shall be used for a satirical nature.

Despite the ruling affecting the Chaser, Network Ten is expected to continue its light-hearted wedding coverage, to be fronted by Nova FM presenters Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald and Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli, bookended by a special edition of The 7PM Project and a late-night edition of The Circle.  The Nine Network’s planned coverage is also set to include an appearance by Dame Edna Everage. 

Pay TV is also getting in on the event with BBC World News, UKTV, E!, Fox News, CNN and Sky News all providing various levels of coverage.

SBS has decided not to partake in all this wedding excitement and its main channel SBS1 will broadcast its normal Friday night fare, including its late-night ‘adults only’ series How To Get More Sex.

The Australian media’s hysteria surrounding the wedding of William and Kate is not entirely unlike that of the wedding of William’s parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral in July 1981.

Like today’s ceremony, the 1981 royal wedding was an Australian TV network programmer’s dream with the ceremony landing straight into Australian prime-time schedules. 

The ABC, Seven, Nine and Ten networks all provided saturation coverage of the wedding with their own correspondents and celebrities despatched to London to provide daily reports in the lead-up to the event and to present commentary on the day’s activities.  Coincidentally, Ten’s celebrity royal wedding correspondent in 1981, Ita Buttrose, is performing a similar role for the Nine Network in 2011.

For Sydney and Melbourne viewers, the only viewing alternative on the night of Wednesday, 29 July 1981, was the then relatively new Channel 0/28, whose lineup of foreign-language movies (Persche Si Uccide Magistrate from Italy, and Buynu Bükük from Turkey) were probably not the most useful viewing alternatives in an era where there were few other viewing options available – no pay-TV, few households had VCRs and there was no such thing as the internet.

Ratings for the night showed that viewers easily preferred the Nine Network’s coverage, with Melbourne’s GTV9 scoring a rating of 34 points in the prime time of 8-8.30pm, followed by ABV2 (20 per cent), HSV7 (15 per cent), ATV10 (10 per cent) and 0/28 coming last with zero per cent.  An hour-and-a-half later, GTV9 was still in front on 31 per cent, followed by ABV2 (17 per cent), ATV10 (15 per cent), HSV7 (13 per cent) and 0/28 (one per cent).

In Sydney, TCN9’s prime-time coverage peaked at a score of 41 per cent, followed by ABN2 (16 per cent), TEN10 (14 per cent), ATN7 (11 per cent) and 0/28 (one per cent).

A handful of commercial channels declined to cover the Charles and Diana wedding – including Adelaide’s ADS7 who instead decided to show a John Wayne movie (The Sons Of Katie Elder) with a delayed telecast of the wedding ceremony the following day.  However, ADS7’s decision to provide an alternative was not well rewarded as the channel fared last in the evening’s ratings and scoring only a third of the viewers of its nearest competitor, ABS2.

Source: The Age, 7 August 1981.  The Age, 11 August 1981. Sydney Morning Herald, 6 August 1981.  TV Week, 25 July 1981.

UPDATE @ 15.00 AEST 30.4.2011:  The Seven Network has won the ratings for the night of Friday 29 April:  Seven (29.8%), Nine (22.7%), ABC1 (18.3%), 7TWO (8.0%), Ten (7.5%), SBS1 (2.7%), GO! (2.4%), 7mate (1.9%), GEM (1.7%*), ABC2 (1.6%), Eleven (1.6%), One (0.5%), SBS2 (0.5%), ABC3 (0.4%), ABC News 24 (0.4%*).

* Excludes simulcasts with standard definition channels.

Seven, Foxtel kick AFL goal

It’s been months in the making but now, finally, the deal has been done to secure the rights to the AFL for the next five seasons.

In a record-breaking $1.25 billion deal, the Seven Network has emerged as the major free-to-air broadcast partner for the 2012-2016 seasons – with Foxtel holding pay-TV rights and Telstra securing online and mobile coverage.  The deal far exceeds the $780 million paid by broadcasters for the current 2007-2011 rights agreement.

Under the new deal, Seven will broadcast four of the nine weekly games – utilising both its primary channel as well as its digital multi-channel 7mate – while Foxtel will present live coverage of all nine weekly games and Telstra will broadcast all games via its Next G mobile telephone and T-Box platforms.

For Victorian viewers Seven’s telecasts will include live Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon coverage.  NSW, Canberra and Queensland viewers will also get more live coverage via 7mate.

Seven will also broadcast the Brownlow Medal and all finals including the Grand Final.  Foxtel and Telstra will also have rights to the finals, excluding the Grand Final, and the Brownlow Medal presentation.

Foxtel’s coverage will also be ad-free ‘siren to siren’, unlike Seven’s, and will include the re-launch of its dedicated AFL channel expected to be offered to subscribers of their current sports package.

Seven also has the option to on-sell any of its four weekly games to either the Nine or Ten networks.  The current AFL free-to-air broadcast rights are shared between Seven and Ten, and the two networks had been joint bidders for the 2012-2016 deal until Ten’s last-minute withdrawal from the partnership just weeks ago.

Source: AFL, The Age

1991: April 13-19

‘I miss him very much’
A Country Practice star Georgie Parker (pictured) speaks to TV Week about the death of a close friend from AIDS and is angry at the myths, misunderstandings and misinformation surrounding the disease.  “We were very, very close and his work was magnificent,” she told TV Week of the friend, who she has asked not be named out of respect to his mother.  “He was always painfully thin, but always jolly – and he was a great raconteur.  He used to tell the most wonderful stories.  I miss him very much.”  But while AIDS can force couples to be brutally honest with each other, she is angry at the amount of ignorance about the disease.  “The education system here is supposed to be the best in the world when it comes to AIDS, but you still get enormous numbers of people who think you can contract it by sitting on the toilet.  Now, I think that’s criminal.  They (also) immediately connect AIDS with homosexuality, exclusively, which is a complete farce.”

New team set Sale
Glenn Ridge and Jo Bailey (pictured) have emerged as the new host and co-host of Nine’s Sale Of The Century following the sudden departure of Tony Barber and Alyce Platt from the program.  The new presenters, who only met for the first time when they attended TV Week’s photo shoot, are enthusiastic and confident about their new roles.  “It really is a huge credit to Nine and Grundys that they’ve selected us,” Ridge told TV Week.  “They could have gone for people who were already well known, so it was absolute shock when I found out I’d been selected.”  Ridge comes to Sale after a career in regional radio and television.  He had hosted a music show Breezin’ for Bendigo channel BCV8, and at Ballarat’s BTV6 he had hosted children’s and music shows including TV Week Logie winner Kids Only.  New co-host Bailey had only recently joined Sale Of The Century as a model and had no idea she was being considered as Platt’s replacement.  “When I auditioned, they didn’t tell me what it was for,” she said.

‘We’ll kick its teeth in!’
While Sale Of The Century’s new host and co-host are confident of success, their rival over at Seven, current affairs host Derryn Hinch is less confident of the show’s future.  “I don’t believe Sale will last long without Tony Barber… I really can’t see who could possibly replace him,” Hinch told TV Week.  “But I hope it’s still there at the end of the year because I think we’ll kick its teeth in.” 

Brave Sheila soldiers on
Veteran actress Sheila Florance (pictured) has not let her health battles, including three recent cancer operations, stop her making a return to TV as a special guest star on Ten’s Col’n Carpenter, marking her return to the Ten studios where she worked on Prisoner for several years.  “I’m looking forward to seeing if there is anyone left at Channel Ten,” she told TV Week.  “It was one of the saddest days when I left Prisoner because those crews with whom I worked, they were like my sons.”  The 74-year-old actress, with more than 60 years in showbusiness, has also just completed her first starring role in a film.  A Woman’s Tale, written for her by Paul Cox, tells the story of an elderly woman dying of cancer.  “There is nothing uncomfortable in this for me,” she told TV Week.  “This woman is me.  It’s absolutely honest.  Every day of filming was a delight.”

Briefly…
Former Neighbours star Jason Donovan, back in Australia to promote his new single I’m Doing Fine, has made a guest appearance as the enigmatic surfie “Craig Donovan” (pictured) in Fast Forward’s soapie send-up Dumb Street.  “The great thing about Fast Forward is that, even though I take my career seriously, at the end of the day we’re all there to have fun,” he said.

After only a few months on-air, Network Ten’s new game show Let’s Make A Deal is about to celebrate handing out $1 million in cash and prizes.  Comedian Vince Sorrenti has settled into his new role as game show host.  “The producers have always let me do what I wanted,” he told TV Week.  “After the learning process I am now starting to have some real fun.  I don’t see Let’s Make A Deal as a game show.  It is entertaining people who wouldn’t normally watch a game show.”

Actor Gary Sweet has admitted that many of his previous roles have been “limited”, but his new role as photojournalist Larry in the ABC mini-series Sign Of The Snake he says is his most interesting.  “Larry is a thoughtful, creative photographer who is economical in his speech,” he told TV Week.  “Because he is not talkative, you suspect there is something bubbling under the surface of Larry.”  Sign Of The Snake, which also stars Linda Cropper, Lily Chen and Bob Peck, is set in China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.  Although it is set in China, most of the filming was completed in Sydney.  “There is no way we would be allowed to set foot in China,” he said.

John Laws says…
”It’s hard to know what to make of comedian Andrew Denton’s new Live And Sweaty series on ABC.  It’s aimed at extracting laughs from the world of sport and, like much of Denton’s previous efforts, it’s laced with satirical, over-the-top humour and razor-sharp asides.  In the first program, Denton kisses a woman’s toes and later announces he’ll collect celebrity sweat – a signal for guest Craig McLachlan to offer some from his underarm.  In the midst of all this mayhem, Live And Sweaty suddenly got serious and we saw reporter Debbie Spillane, sitting at a desk, reading a straight and serious “sports update”.  It was all a little confusing.”

Program Highlights (April 13-19):
Saturday:  Rick Astley, Jimmy Barnes, Choir Boys, Debbie Byrne and Tommy Emmanuel are guest stars in this week’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine). 

Sunday:  Seven’s afternoon of sport includes NBL, Westside Melbourne versus Brisbane Bullets, followed by Brisbane Bears versus Geelong in AFL and then motor racing with the Australian Touring Car Championship.  Sunday night movies are Planes Trains And Automobiles (Seven), The Untouchables (Nine) and Married To The Mob (Ten).

Monday:  Seven presents a two-hour telecast of the John Farnham Chain Reaction Concert, taken from his recent Australian tour.  The program is simulcast on radio station Triple M.

Tuesday:  Dr Nikki Tanner (Judy McIntosh) has fallen in love with Sean Bracey (Marcus Graham) in GP (ABC)… but she knows the affair is a disaster as the distraction is affecting her work and she fails to respond to a crisis call.  Bracey then invites her to go with him to Paris.

Wednesday:  ABC presents Frank Sinatra The Final Concert, recorded last month at the National Tennis Centre, Melbourne.  The concert also features Eydie Gorme, Steve Lawrence and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.  Seven presents the two-hour Comedy Festival Charity Gala from Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre, featuring Wendy Harmer, Richard Stubbs, Steve Vizard, Garry McDonald, Barry Humphries, Mark Mitchell, Ian McFadyen, Maryanne Fahey and Kim Gyngell with cast members of Fast Forward, the D Generation and Acropolis Now.  The comedy event is a fund-raiser for the Salvation Army.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), Jackie Crane (Nikki Coghill) and Guy Reid (David Reyne) are involved in a sensitive dilemma when a young mother is diagnosed as terminally ill, but refuses to accept her illness because there is nobody to care for her daughter.  The episode features guest star Shane Connor.

Friday:  Seven crosses to Sydney for the live telecast of the AFL game between Sydney Swans and Essendon.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  13 April 1991.  Southdown Press

Good Friday Appeal tradition continues

Flashback to 1972… and Temptation and Great Temptation hostess Barbara Rogers and Homicide star Leonard Teale (pictured) are promoting the Good Friday Appeal telethons for Melbourne’s HSV7 and Adelaide’s ADS7.

The Adelaide telethon has long gone, but Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal continues to tap into the generosity of Victorians to raise funds for one of the world’s great children’s hospitals.  More than $211 million has been raised since the Appeal’s modest beginnings as a sports carnival in 1931.  Radio station 3DB joined the Appeal during World War II and HSV7 first took part in 1957.

This year’s telethon, the culmination of twelve months of various fundraising efforts across the state, will be held at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium and broadcast across Victoria through HSV7 and regional affiliate Prime Television.  Melbourne radio stations 3AW and Magic 1278 as radio partners of the Appeal will also cover the day’s activities.

The Appeal promises to feature many of Seven’s on-screen personalities from various programs including Home And Away, Packed To The Rafters, Winners And Losers, Australia’s Got Talent, Seven News, Dancing With The Stars and The Morning Show.  Royal Children’s Hospital ambassador and former Seven personality Dan Webb, probably best known as host of game show Video Village in the 1960s and journalist with Seven National News in the 1970s and ‘80s, will also be making an appearance.

Last year’s Appeal raised a record total of $14,462,000.

The Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.  Friday 22 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

UPDATE @ 12.40 AEST 23.4.2011 The Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal has signed off with a record-breaking final total of $15,156,000.

ABC success sparks Nine spin-off

Just days after the resounding ratings and critical success of ABC’s two-part mini-series Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, the Nine Network has announced production of what is essentially a sequel.

The new two-part mini-series, to commence production in 2012, is set to trace the rise of a young Kerry Packer, after the death of media mogul father Sir Frank, in particular the events surrounding the formation of his rebel cricket competition, World Series Cricket, which revolutionised cricket in the late 1970s with the glamour of prime time coverage on his Nine Network, ending decades of the traditional broadcast of the game by ABC.  The new series will follow the legal battles, the secret player dealings and the turf battles with the cricket establishment.

The new series will be a production of Southern Star and John Edwards, the team behind Paper Giants, which told the story of the 1972 launch of groundbreaking women’s magazine Cleo by editor Ita Buttrose (played by Asher Keddie, pictured right) and with the support of Kerry Packer (Rob Carlton, pictured above).  The performances of the cast, but Keddie and Carlton in particular, as well as the reconstruction of the early 1970s era have earned rave reviews and high ratings over its two nights on ABC1.  The Sunday night debut was watched by 1.2 million viewers across the five capital cities, while the Monday conclusion was watched by 1.34 million – making it ABC’s highest rating program of the year to date.  By Monday night the series also clocked up over 17,000 views on ABC’s online viewing portal ABC iView.

The national broadcaster has now scheduled a repeat of the series, to appear in a three-hour screening next Sunday, 24 April, from 8.30pm on ABC2.

The Australian reports that ABC was keen to pursue the rise of Kerry Packer and World Series Cricket as a sequel, but the ratings success of Paper Giants saw Nine rush into a deal with Southern Star and effectively block ABC from any access to Nine’s archive of cricket coverage, promotions and player footage.

Despite the deal struck between Southern Star and Nine, the production company is said to be discussing options for another magazine-themed drama for ABC.

Source: Nine Network, The Australian

ABC For Kids becomes ABC 4 Kids

ABC’s channel re-branding continues, with ABC For Kids On 2 to be re-named ABC 4 Kids from Monday 2 May.  The new logo bears a resemblance to that of ABC’s children’s channel ABC3 which launched in 2009.

The change is timed to coincide with the expansion of digital channel ABC2’s pre-school children’s line-up to include early mornings.  From 2 May, ABC2 will broadcast ABC 4 Kids between 6.00am and 7.00pm as the early-morning ABC News Breakfast moves to ABC1.

Highlighting ABC 4 Kids new early-morning line-up is the new animated series of Bananas In Pyjamas followed by a new series of US program Sesame Street.

ABC 4 Kids will present programming aimed at pre-school age children, while ABC3 continues to broadcast programs directed at children age 5 and above.

The re-branding of ABC 4 Kids follows the recent logo updates of ABC1 and ABC2.

Laurie Oakes for Logies’ Hall of Fame

The Nine Network’s political editor Laurie Oakes is to be inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame when the annual awards presentation takes place early next month.

With a background in radio and newspaper reporting, Oakes made his television debut in the 1970s on the Willesee At Seven program.  He later became political correspondent for the Ten Network before joining the Nine Network in the mid-1980s.

At Nine, Oakes regularly led the media’s news agenda with his weekly political interviews on the Sunday program.  Even after the demise of Sunday in 2008, Oakes continued to present his interviews on its successor programs Sunday Morning News and Weekend Today.

Earlier this month, Oakes announced that after 26 years he was stepping back from his Sunday morning commitments but will continue to report for Nine.

The Hall of Fame Logie is the third major award for Oakes in recent times.  He was also recently awarded the Gold Walkley and the Graham Perkin Journalist of the Year, following his breaking of significant stories during the recent Federal Election campaign.

The TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame was initiated in 1984 as a means of recognition of those who have made an outstanding or sustained contribution to the Australian television industry, either on screen or behind the cameras.  Past recipients have included Hector Crawford, Paul Hogan, Reg Grundy, Johnny Young, James Davern, Bert Newton, Don Lane, Graham Kennedy, Maurie Fields, Bruce Gyngell, Michael Willesee, Mike Walsh, Ruth Cracknell, Garry McDonald, Sam Chisholm, Steve Irwin, Brian Naylor, Bill Collins and Bryan Brown.  Long-running programs Four Corners, Neighbours and Play School have also been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The 53rd annual TV Week Logie Awards will be held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino on Sunday 1 May.  The awards presentation will be hosted by Shane Bourne and broadcast via the Nine Network.

Source: The Australian, Ninemsn