TV Channels (with their Newspaper) Backgrounds

Click here for Radio TV Stations timeline start in 1920 and early license fees

In 1953 the Television Act was passed, providing the initial regulatory framework for both ABC Television and commercial television networks (under the ABC). ABN-2 launched in Sydney and ABV-2 in Melbourne in November 1956, ABQ-2 in Brisbane in November 1959

Click here for a timeline from 1956 with photos

Channel 9 (Nine Entertainment) based in Sydney

• September 1956 TCN-9 Sydney launches as Australia's flagship TV Station, owned by Frank Packer, who also owned The Daily Telegraph and Australian Consolidated Press ACP (Women's Weekly, Woman's Day, Bulletin, Dolly, Cleo)

  GTV-9 Melbourne launched January 1957, owned by the Syme family who also own The Age. David Syme had employed Keith Murdoch as a young editor in 1920. GTV-9 now aligned itself with ATN-7 in Sydney

  • ATN-7 launched December 1956, owned by John Fairfax & Sons, publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald SMH founded in 1831, the Australian Financial Review AFR founded in 1951, and in December 1958 Sydney's Daily Mirror, major rival to Packer's Daily Telegraph

    John Fairfax's managing director was Rupert Henderson. From 1940-1949 Rupert Henderson had been chairman of Australian Associated Press (AAP) founded by Keith Murdoch in 1935. With Keith Murdoch, he organised a partnership between AAP, Reuters in London, and the New Zealand Press Association, becoming a director (1947-50), Australian trustee (1952-61) and chairman of trustees (1961-78) of Reuters

  • 1959 John Fairfax acquires a controlling interest in QTQ-9 with its launch in Brisbane in August
  • May 1960 John Fairfax sells the Mirror "for a song" to the “boy publisher”, Keith Murdoch's son Rupert Murdoch, at the time owner of NWS-9 Adelaide and various regional newspapers. It was a controversial sale, opposed by John Fairfax chairman Sir Warwick Fairfax who was abroad at the time, as it allowed Murdoch to set up shop in the prime Sydney market and launch his global acquisition blitz
• July 1960 Frank Packer acquires a controlling interest in GTV-9 in Melbourne
• 1964 Rupert Murdoch founds The Australian newspaper in Canberra, moving it to Sydney in 1967
• 1972 Frank Packer sells the Daily Telegraph to Rupert Murdoch while Rupert Henderson acquires a controlling interest in The Age in Melbourne
• 1974 Kerry Packer inherits network upon his father's death
• 1980 AWA purchases QTQ-9 in Brisbane from John Fairfax. In 1985 AWA sells QTQ-9 to Alan Bond in Perth
• 1987 Kerry Packer sells TCN-9 and GTV-9 to Alan Bond for $1 billion
• 1990 Alan Bond bankrupt. Kerry Packer buys QTQ-9, TCN-9 and GTV-9 back for $500 million
• 1994 Packer merges Channel 9 with ACP forming PBL (Publishing Broadcasting Limited)
• 2001 Digital broadcasting on Channel 8 commences
• December 2005 James Packer inherits PBL upon Kerry Packer's death. At the time, Kerry Packer was the richest and one of the most influential men in Australia. In 2004, Business Review Weekly magazine estimated Packer's net worth at A$6½ billion. Splits into media (PBL) and gambling (Crown)
• October 2008 James Packer and his executive chairman John Alexander step down from PBL after refusing to contribute any more funding.
  Packer's Consolidated Media reduced to a 25% interest in PBL, with 75% owned by private equity firm CVC Asia Pacific
• December 2010 PBL becomes Nine Entertainment with James Packer selling his controlling stake in May 2011
• 2012 Nine sells ACP to Bauer Media
• 2018 Fairfax Media (SMH, AFR, Melbourne Age) merge with Nine

Channel 7 (Seven West Media) based in Perth

• 1956 HSV-7 Melbourne launched November 1956, owned by Herald Weekly Times (HWT). Before his death in 1952 Keith Murdoch had been HWT chairman
• 1962 HSV-7 and John Fairfax's ATN-7 in Sydney align to form the Seven Network along with BTQ-7 in Brisbane (owned by the Courier Mail)) and ADS-7 in Adelaide (both ultimately controlled by HWT)
• 1979 Rupert Murdoch attempts a hostile takeover of HWT but fails
• 1987 Rupert Murdoch succeeds in his takeover, spending $2.3 billion. In February sells HSV-7 and BTQ-7 to John Fairfax. In July Fairfax sells ATN-7, HSV-7 and BTQ-7 to Christopher Skase in Perth for $780 million
• 1990 Christopher Skase declares bankruptcy. Flees to Spain to escape creditors, dying there in 2001
• 1991 Kerry Stokes in WA purchases the Seven Network
• 2001 Digital broadcasting on Channel 6 commences

Channel 10 (Network 10) based in Sydney

• 1964 Ansett Airlines opens ATV-0 Melbourne
• 1965 Opens TEN-10 Sydney, TVQ-0 Brisbane, SAS-10 Adelaide
• 1979 Rupert Murdoch gains 50% of Ansett alongside TNT. Controls 0-10 Network. Murdoch sells NWS-9 to NBN-3 Newcastle
• 1980 ATV-0 switches frequency to ATV-10. Ansett sells TVQ-0 to Ampol and Sydney radio station 2SM
• 1984 Christopher Skase buys TVQ-0
• 1987 Murdoch now US citizen. Under media ownership laws, sells Ten to Northern Star, Frank Lowy's Westfield Group, for $950 million

  Christopher Skase sells TVQ-0 to Darling Downs Toowoomba station, DDQ-10

• 1988 On 10 September at midnight DDQ-10 became DDQ-0, and TVQ-0 became TVQ-10. It's time for the channel's broadcast of the 1988 Summer Olympics from Seoul, also broadcasts of Brisbane World Expo 88, of which it and the entire Network Ten was the official station. TVQ-10 sold to Northern Star at the close of Expo 88
• 1989 Westfield sells Ten's Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane stations to Steve Cosser's Broadcom for just $22 million. The other stations (Canberra, Adelaide, Perth) were folded into Charles Curran's Capital Television Group. In 1994 Charles Curran sells the Canberra station to United Telecasters, which becomes Southern Cross Broadcasting in 2001
• 1990 Ten files for receivership, losing around $2 million a week
• 1992 Westpac purchases the troubled network and sells it to a consortium of shareholders led by Canadian conglomerate Canwest
• 1995 Charles Curran sells Adelaide and Perth stations back to Ten
• 2001 Digital broadcasting on Channel 11 commences
• 2009 Canwest sells 50 per cent stake in Ten to institutional and sophisticated investors which in 2010 includes James Packer, Lachlan Murdoch and Gina Rinehart
• 2012 Lachlan Murdoch appointed chairman. Jobs cut as ad revenue falls
• 2014 Lachlan Murdoch steps down as chairman, Gina Rinehart quits the board, and Ten enters talks with Foxtel & US cable company Discovery about a combined takeover offer, but Discovery backed out
• June 2016 Ten enters voluntary administration
• August 2017 US giant CBS launch a surprise bid for ownership of Network Ten and in November the bid is successful

SBS (Special Broadcasting Service)

• October 1980 Owned by Federal Government. Transmission commences in Sydney and Melbourne as a multi-lingual, multi-cultural service to ethnic communities on Channel 0 (VHF) and Channel 28 (UHF)
• October–November 1983 expanded to Canberra, Cooma and Goulburn as Channel 28 (UHF) only
• June 1985 expanded to Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle, Wollongong and the Gold Coast
• January 1986 Channel 0 (VHF) switched off
• Early 1990s, expanded to Latrobe Valley Victoria, Spencer Gulf in SA, Darwin, northeast Tasmania, Cairns and Townsville and Perth
• 2001 Digital broadcasting on Channel 38 (UHF) with ABC broadcasting on Channel 12 (VHF)
• September 2011 SBS on Demand video streaming service commences
• May 2013 SBS picks up Channel 7 (VHF) in Brisbane following its analog broadcast closure

Other Affiliates

In 2025 with regional network consolidation, WIN and Imparja remain major third-party affiliates in regional Australia

Click here for further background on regional TV in Australia

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