In Australia, regional television is the local television services outside of the five main Australian cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth).

History 1960s Australia's first regional television station was launched three-and-a-half years after the rollout of television had commenced in metropolitan Sydney and Melbourne. First to launch was TVT-6 Hobart on 23 May 1960. GLV-10 in Traralgon opened on 9 December 1961 and was followed 14 days later by GMV-6 in Shepparton and BCV-8 Bendigo.

Television continued to expand in Victoria and across the country throughout the 1960s, with no fewer than twenty-five stations making their first transmissions between 1962 and 1968.

1962 station openings

4 March: NBN-3 Newcastle 17 March: CBN-8 Orange 18 March: WIN-4 Wollongong 27 April: BTV-6 Ballarat 12 May: RTN-8 Lismore 26 May: TNT-9 Launceston 2 June: CTC-7 Canberra 13 July: DDQ-10 Toowoomba 1 November: TNQ-7 Townsville

1963 station opening 7 September: RTQ-7 Rockhampton

1964 station openings

19 June: RVN-2 Wagga Wagga 7 September: AMV-4 Albury–Wodonga

1965 station openings

23 January: NRN-11 Coffs Harbour 10 April: WBQ-8 Wide Bay/Maryborough (later SEQ-8) 10 April: NEN-9 Tamworth 27 November: STV-8 Mildura 1 December: CWN-6 Dubbo (a relay of CBN-8 Orange) 15 December: MTN-9 Griffith

1966 station openings

25 March: SES-8 Mount Gambier 27 May: ECN-8 Taree 7 September: FNQ-10 Cairns

1967 station opening 10 March: BTW-3 Bunbury

1968 station openings

1 March: GTS-4 Port Pirie 9 August: MVQ-6 Mackay 16 August: BKN-7 Broken Hill

Many of the first stations produced their own local programming, supplemented by content from the capital city stations such as GTV-9 Melbourne's In Melbourne Tonight. GLV-10 Traralgon was amongst the first to make use of live 'off-air' relays of programmes from metropolitan stations without the use of video recording equipment.

1970s VEW-8 Kalgoorlie opened on 18 June 1971 and ITQ-8 Mount Isa commenced on 11 September 1971 before television reached the Northern Territory on 11 November 1971 with the launch of NTD-8 Darwin. The last regional stations to launch were GSW-9 Albany (a relay of BTW-3 Bunbury) on 29 August 1974, RTS-5A Loxton on 26 November 1976 and GTW-11 Geraldton on 21 January 1977.

Similar to their metropolitan counterparts, various stations began to form programming and operational partnerships in order to reduce operating costs and share the cost of imported programming.

Television 6-8-9 (later Mid State Television)

CWN-6 Dubbo CBN-8 Orange MTN-9 Griffith

Television Centre of Victoria (TCV) (later TV8, then Southern Cross TV8 and then Southern Cross Network)

BCV-8/11 Bendigo/Swan Hill GLV-10 Gippsland STV-8 Mildura

RVN-AMV (later The Prime Network)

RVN-2 Wagga Wagga AMV-4 Albury

Northern Rivers–Gold Coast Television (later Northern Rivers Television)

NRN-11 Coffs Harbour RTN-8 Lismore

A partnership between NRN-11 Coffs Harbour and ECN-8 Taree was split up when NRN joined RTN-8 in 1971. ECN later went into partnership with NEN-9 Tamworth.

All television stations in Australia, including regional stations, were required to convert to colour transmission in 1975.

1980s Stations continued to form various partnerships and networks throughout the 1980s.

North Queensland Television (later QTV)

TNQ-7 Townsville FNQ-10 Cairns

SIX Network Victoria (later Television Victoria)

GMV-6 Shepparton BTV-6 Ballarat STV-8 Mildura (joined network after purchase by ENT Limited)

TV8 (later Southern Cross TV8 and then Southern Cross Network)

GLV-8 Gippsland BCV-8 Bendigo STV-8 Mildura (split from network after purchase by ENT Limited)

TasTV

TVT-6 Hobart TNT-9 Launceston (split from network in 1989 to become Southern Cross)

Golden West Network (later GWN7, now Seven Regional WA)

BTW-3 Bunbury GSW-9 Albany VEW-8 Kalgoorlie GTW-11 Geraldton

Throughout the 1980s, a number of regional stations were required to move to different frequencies. These included GLV-10 in Gippsland, who moved to channel 8 in order to allow ATV-0 Melbourne to move to channel 10 in 1980. DDQ-10 and TVQ-0 switched channels to become DDQ-0 and TVQ-10, and SEQ10 became SEQ55 in 1988.

The last regional station to launch before aggregation launched unofficially on 2 January 1988 – IMP-9, Imparja Television in Alice Springs, began transmission via the AUSSAT satellites, as well as a number of terrestrial transmitters.

Aggregation The Hawke government of the 1980s introduced a system of regional equalisation, known as aggregation, which would provide regional viewers with the same viewing choice as their metropolitan counterparts.

Local stations protested at this proposal, arguing that their profits would fall, and that local output would also decrease. They offered their own proposal, whereby the existing operator would be allowed to operate relays of the other two networks, allowing a combination of both viewer choice and local programming. If NBN were to take the Nine affiliation, for example, their two relays would offer programs from the Seven and Ten networks, direct from Sydney. This proposal was, however, rejected.

The new system would allow stations to transmit into neighbouring markets, as an affiliate of one of the three metropolitan networks. For instance, before aggregation, there were three separate licence areas in northern New South Wales – Newcastle, New England, and the Mid North Coast, each served by a single commercial station. After aggregation, these three licence areas merged, with the three stations in direct competition for viewers.

Soon after realising they had lost their battle with the government, the stations began to organise affiliations with metro networks. Stations that hadn't joined forces beforehand began to merge and form new networks:

Vision TV (later Star Television)

RTQ-7 Rockhampton DDQ-0 Toowoomba

Prime Television (later Prime7, now Seven Regional)

CWN-6 Dubbo (previously part of Mid State Television) CBN-8 Orange (previously part of Mid State Television) MTN-9 Griffith (previously part of Mid State Television, split from network in 1989 to affiliate with WIN Television) RVN-2 Wagga Wagga (previously part of RVN-AMV) AMV-4 Albury–Wodonga (previously part of RVN-AMV)

Sunshine Television Network (callsign STQ) (now Seven Queensland)

SEQ-8 Maryborough MVQ-6 Mackay

Southern New South Wales was the first area to be formed, in two phases (as a result of problems in Orange and Wagga), starting on 31 March 1989. WIN Television Wollongong (WIN-4) became an affiliate of the Nine Network, The Prime Network became a Seven affiliate, and Capital Television in Canberra became a Network Ten affiliate.

The next area to be aggregated was Queensland, which took place on 31 December 1990. QTV was to become a Nine affiliate, Star Television a Network Ten affiliate, and the Sunshine Television Network a Seven affiliate. However, in the week before aggregation was due to take place, WIN Television bought Star Television and gave them the Nine affiliation – meaning that QTV was forced to change its affiliation to Network Ten.

The next year, northern New South Wales was aggregated. NBN became the Nine Network affiliate, while the Seven Network would be carried by Prime Television, with Northern Rivers Television (NRTV) becoming the Network Ten affiliate. At one stage, WIN made its first attempt in setting up a northern New South Wales outlet by replicating the steal it had made in Regional Queensland. WIN tried to buy NRTV through bidding to steal the Nine affiliation rights from NBN, and force the latter to pick up the Ten affiliation. However, nothing came out of the deal and the respective affiliations remained as is among stations until today.

Aggregation in Victoria took place between 1992 and 1993. VIC TV became a Nine Network affiliate, Prime Television took affiliation with Seven, and SCN took affiliation with Ten. Tasmania was aggregated in 1994, albeit with only two stations – Southern Cross as a dual Seven and Ten affiliate, while Tas TV took programming from the Nine Network.

Remote and Central Australia was the final area to be aggregated – one of the largest geographical licence areas, taking in parts of the Northern Territory, western Queensland, the north west of South Australia, and other areas in which terrestrial television signals cannot be received. Stations broadcast to this area mainly through satellite or re-transmission stations. Imparja Television, based in Alice Springs, became a dual Nine and Ten affiliate, while Seven Central, based in Mount Isa, became a Seven affiliate.

A number of areas were not aggregated, due to their small size and relative inability to support more than one commercial station – these included Griffith, Mildura, Darwin and regional Western Australia.

1990s Throughout the 1990s, a number of changes relating to local programming and identity began to take place – the first of which was to occur for NRTV, bought out by QTV's owners, Telecasters Australia in 1993. Soon after, both stations took on generic Network Ten branding with the name Ten Northern New South Wales and Ten Queensland. Local news services were also axed in most of these areas with the exception of Townsville and Cairns. Similarly, the Southern Cross Network in Victoria changed its name and logo to a pseudo-Ten SCN design. The same network later axed local news services and changed its name to Ten Victoria, in line with moves taken by the Telecasters Australia-owned stations in New South Wales and Queensland.

NBN made similar moves in 1994, when it launched a new logo based on that of the Nine Network at the time. Sunshine Television was purchased by the Seven Network in 1995 and became nearly identical to the network's metropolitan stations under the name Seven Queensland.

WIN Corporation, meanwhile, bought VIC TV from ENT Ltd. in October 1994, and folded the station to the larger WIN Television network, maintaining the affiliation with Nine.

A second commercial licence was made available for single-licence areas such as Mildura, Griffith, and Darwin. Incumbent stations were permitted to apply for the new licence under Section 73 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, however only if the Australian Broadcasting Authority, at the time, felt that there was no other operator who would be interested or able to operate a new station in the area. The ABA initially denied all three stations the ability to operate the new licences.

A joint complaint to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal against the ABA and Imparja Television in 1996 found in favour of MTN-9 but against the other incumbent stations. In both the Darwin and Mildura cases, it was determined that Imparja satisfied the ABA's criteria of being in a position to run a second service in the area. Prime Television's applications in both Griffith and Mildura, for the purposes of the appeal, were rejected on the grounds of insufficient local coverage.

When the auction process ended in late 1996, however, Prime was awarded the Mildura licence for $3.2 million, and commenced broadcasting with the callsign PTV-32 in 1997. Telecasters Australia launched Seven Darwin using TND-34 in the same year, following a $2.1 million bid for the licence.

In the same year, an amendment was made to the Broadcasting Services Act affirming the ability of existing broadcasters in one and two commercial station markets to apply for "supplementary licences". These new licences allowed either a single incumbent or group of incumbents working together to run an additional channel.