From TheBestLinks.com
WIN Television or WIN is an Australian regional television network. It broadcasts in Queensland, Southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia.
It is owned by WIN Corporation, controlled by the privately held Oberon Broadcasters, owned by Bruce Gordon.
It was previously a Wollongong-only station, before expanding into other states by acquiring other television stations. As a result, WIN TV is the largest regional broadcaster, in terms of both size and audience. The only areas that it doesn't broadcast to are Northern New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Broken Hill and the Spencer Gulf.
They use a modified version of the Nine Network logo on all its stations, regardless of if they are a sole Nine Network affilate or not.
Southern New South Wales
WIN's first station was located in Wollongong. Television Wollongong Transmission Ltd began broadcasting on the 18 March 1962. The station's callsign stands for Wollongong (and the)Illawarra Network or, fitting in with the Australian callsign scheme, Wollongong Illawarra New (South Wales). It was originally owned by Rupert Murdoch, who sold it ten years later to Paramount International Television chief Bruce Gordon. Murdoch did this so he could buy controlling interests in capital city stations TEN-10 Sydney and ATV-0 (now ATV-10) Melbourne.
Coverage expanded a few years later, with WIN11 Moruya and Batemans Bay, WIN3 Narooma, WIN6 Bega and WIN3 Eden.
With aggreation looming, the long links WIN and the Nine Network had would put them in good stead; they would pick up the Nine Network affilate for Southern New South Wales. In 1989, WIN expanded into the rest of Southern New South Wales, with new relays WIN31 Canberra, WIN39 Orange, WIN52 Bathurst, WIN63 Dubbo and WIN62 Wagga, amongst others, and new facilties in Orange, Wagga and Canberra.
News bulletins are produced from Wollongong and Canberra; the Canberra news bulletin is the top rating commerical bulletin in the ACT.
Griffith
WIN TV expanded further into Griffith, purchasing MTN9 Griffith and supplementary station AMN31 Griffith from its local owners in 1998. The station had previously been part of the Prime Television network of stations. The station already had links with WIN, taking its feed from its Wollongong base. For information on MTN pre-1998, please read the Prime Television topic.
Victoria
WIN Television Victoria began as several stations serving the western parts of Victoria. They were:
In the 1980's, BTV6 and GMV6 would become part of Associated Broadcasting Services, who also owned radio station 3MP in Melbourne and a regional radio network including 3UL Warragul (now 3GG), 3YB Warrnambool and 3SR Shepparton.
In the 1990's, ABS would be brought out by ENT Limited, who also owned TVT6 in Hobart. STV8 Mildura would also join BTV6 and GMV6, having originally been part of the Southern Cross Network, along with BCV-8 Bendigo and GLV-8 Gippsland. This brought on a name change to Television Victoria, otherwise known as VIC TV.
VIC TV became the affilate of the Nine Network in 1992, expanding across regional Victoria. BTV and GMV's callsigns were changed to VTV, but STV's was kept intact (Mildura wasn't included in aggreation). In 1994, ENT was brought out by WIN TV, and VIC TV became WIN Television Victoria.
A few years later, Mildura's news bulletin, which was produced at STV in Mildura was moved to Ballarat, and became pre-recorded.
Mildura Digital Television
In 2004, WIN and Prime announced plans to bid for the digital supplementary license being offered for the Mildura license area. The company is known as Mildura Digital Television.
Queensland
WIN Television Queensland started out as television stations DDQ10 Toowoomba (starting 13 July 1962) and RTQ7 Rockhampton (starting 7 September 1963).
In the 1980's, DDQ10 was changed to DDQ0, so that Brisbane's TVQ0 could be changed to TVQ10.
In 1988, DDQ and RTQ merged to become Vision Television, later Star Television. Star TV was preparing to become the Ten Network affilate in 1990 when regional Queensland would be aggreated, however, WIN Television purchased the station a few days before aggreation was due to take place. As a result, Star TV was given the Nine affilation; the Ten affilation going to former Nine affilate QTV. DDQ became RTQ; Star TV became WIN Television Queensland.
News bulletins come from both studios for the different regions, with weather bulletins from the one studio.
South Australia
WIN Television South Australia was once two separate television stations:
In 1999, both stations were purchased by WIN Television, and they became WIN TV. Until recently news bulletins came from both stations, however, they are now both from the one station in Mount Gambier.
The stations take programs from all three networks, mainly from Nine. They were granted a supplementary license, with that station becoming WIN Ten (using Ten Network identification), taking an feed from Ten Adelaide. Some programs still come the Seven Network, but this rarely happens (the 2004 Athens Olympics being a recent example).
Western Australia
WIN Television was granted a license to operate in regional Western Australia in the late 1990's, and began in March 1999. It is a combination of programs from both Nine and Ten networks, with Seven Network programming on GWN.
WIN TV WA is based out of Ten's Perth station, due to constant in-fighting between WIN and Eva Presser, owner of Sunraysia Television, who run the Channel 9 station in Perth. As a result, WIN WA broadcasts Ten Perth's 5pm news bulletin, and not Channel 9's 6pm bulletin. Incidentally, WIN owns 40% of the station, acquired when WIN purchased ENT Limited. The feed comes from WIN's Wollongong station, which means if something goes wrong there, problems occur in the West.
It's callsign is WOW, which has no official meaning.
Tasmania
WIN Television began as TVT6 Hobart, which began on the 23 May 1960.
In 1982, ENT Ltd - the owner of TNT9 Launceston - purchased TVT6, forming TasTV. TVT6 became TasTV Southern Tasmania.
In 1989, TNT9 was sold to Tricom Corporation (now Southern Cross Broadcasting), and split TasTV into two;
Southern Cross in the north, TasTV in the south.
On 30 April 1994, the Tasmanian television markets were aggregated, and TVT became an affilate of the Nine Network. In 1994, ENT was purchased by WIN, and TasTV became WIN Television Tasmania.
News bulletins come from Hobart, with a 6pm Tasmanian state bulletin, and a 6.30pm national news bulletin.
Tasmanian Digital Television
In 2002, WIN and Southern Cross joined forces to create Tasmanian Digital Television (or TDT), which launched in late 2003. TDT broadcasts mainly Ten Network programming. WIN operates the administration and sales side of the company.
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