48 replies to this topic

[willwalk]

Darwin is not the right city for Channel Nine to operate a TV station here in Darwin. I feel that WIN will be best equipped to run the station instead.  The newsroom needs a upgrade anyway, and I feel that WIN may be able to run the station better.

WIN is a different kettle of fish to Nine, but I highly doubt that the situation regarding ONE HD and GO! would have changed or would have been better.

While I am extremely disappointed with Nine for its handling with GO!, I do NOT favour Imparja to take over.  Imparja is much worse and I don't want Imparja to come to Darwin, I would prefer WIN to buy the station instead.

I feel that it would be more sensible if WIN comes to Darwin because it is a regional city anyway.  If Nine and WIN could swap stations with say Darwin and Perth or Darwin and Adelaide, I'd be happy  and it would make more sense.

William Walker

[Smacca]

I too reckon WIN would do a far better job at running and maintaining a station in Darwin, particularly with local investment. It's as if Nine made a rushed decision to buy it, and as a result have neglected it.

EDIT: However, there's no way WIN would want to 'swap' their Perth or Adelaide assets for Darwin. There's no financial incentive. They'd be better off just buying it off Nine and keeping their other 'WIN Nine' stations.

Edited by Smacca, 10 August 2009 - 04:03 PM.

[alanh]

It is not helped by the fact that TCN9, GTV9, QTQ9 and Nine Darwin made a loss last financial year, but was propped up by the affiliation payments made by WIN & NBN. Remember the total audience from WIN and the above stations+NBN are almost equal in number.

AlanH

[willwalk]

Smacca, on Aug 10 2009, 04:39 PM, said:

I too reckon WIN would do a far better job at running and maintaining a station in Darwin, particularly with local investment. It's as if Nine made a rushed decision to buy it, and as a result have neglected it.

Why Nine bought that station in a small regional city is way beyond me.  At least WIN is bringing back 9 network to South east SA on October 4 via a 3rd digital commerical station there.  Imparja continues to sit on it's own hands re digital, and has yet to start its own digital rollout.  The way I see it in Central Australia if there was action it will probably be similar to WA, with 3 commerical stations all on SD format.  Central Australia probably will not get GO! or ONE HD.

Nine is not the right owners for that Territory TV station, please welcome WIN to Darwin.   WIN should also buy Imparja as well.

William Walker

[Smacca]

alanh, on Aug 10 2009, 03:46 PM, said:

It is not helped by the fact that TCN9, GTV9, QTQ9 and Nine Darwin made a loss last financial year, but was propped up by the affiliation payments made by WIN & NBN. Remember the total audience from WIN and the above stations+NBN are almost equal in number.

AlanH

That wouldn't have much to do with why Darwin hasn't got Go yet. Their financial situation didn't stop them from forming a $500million deal with Warner Bros. to provide content for the new channel, not to mention the other more expensive technical upgrades. If the link between playout in Sydney and Darwin is an issue, they could have used their HD feed to transport the channel to Darwin, much like what WIN was going to do.

[Smacca]

willwalk, on Aug 10 2009, 04:10 PM, said:

Why Nine bought that station in a small regional city is way beyond me.  At least WIN is bringing back 9 network to South east SA on October 4 via a 3rd digital commerical station there.  Imparja continues to sit on it's own hands re digital, and has yet to start its own digital rollout.  The way I see it in Central Australia if there was action it will probably be similar to WA, with 3 commerical stations all on SD format.  Central Australia probably will not get GO! or ONE HD.

Nine is not the right owners for that Territory TV station, please welcome WIN to Darwin.   WIN should also buy Imparja as well.

William Walker

Really, WIN should just be in all regional markets. They do make some weird company decisions (like the logo war and dropping some Nine shows), but the fact is they're rich and they still believe in proper local news. They're an asset to regional viewers, and lately, to Perth and Adelaide viewers.

[willwalk]

Smacca, on Aug 10 2009, 04:11 PM, said:

That wouldn't have much to do with why Darwin hasn't got Go yet. Their financial situation didn't stop them from forming a $500million deal with Warner Bros. to provide content for the new channel, not to mention the other more expensive technical upgrades. If the link between playout in Sydney and Darwin is an issue, they could have used their HD feed to transport the channel to Darwin, much like what WIN was going to do.

Agreed.  Darwin is a regional city much like Townsville, Launceston, Toowoomba, Cairns, etc.  The market may be small but if Darwin has a HD channel, there is no reason why GO! shouldn't start here.

Whatever reason that stopped Nine Darwin from launching GO! doesn't seem very excusable to me.  What is worse is that there was no explaination in the delay.  If Nine told the public that the channel will be delayed, okay fair enough, Nine Darwin should have been honest and more upfront and provided us with the exact details and reasons and when it will start.  All they had to do is to spell out in black and white.

I have to assume that Darwin is included in some of the markets that will have to wait some months.  That's all I know, and it is a assumption, but Nine should have been more upfront with Darwinites.

At least Ten Darwin (DDT) was very honest and upfront in telling of ONE HD plans in Darwin and the delay, where as Nine Darwin wasn't

William Walker

[willwalk]

Smacca, on Aug 10 2009, 05:16 PM, said:

Really, WIN should just be in all regional markets. They do make some weird company decisions (like the logo war and dropping some Nine shows), but the fact is they're rich and they still believe in proper local news. They're an asset to regional viewers, and lately, to Perth and Adelaide viewers.

Actually I come from a small country town called Ayr near Townsville which falls in a WIN region, and WIN really is very committed to local news.  In 2003 I moved to Darwin looking for a lifestyle change with warmer winters, to be speaking off topic (excuse me for speaking off topic) but alas over the years I was confronted with tropical ears with little help other than antibodies from the doctors, to cut a long story short the medical profession are a joke here in Darwin as much as the TV stations are ATM.  Anyway enough of the off topic stuff.

WIN is known for providing good local news nationwide.  Even Tassie has a full weekend localised bulletin where as Nine here on weekends, the 1st half of news come from Sydney and the second half, the sporting / weather half from Darwin every Saturday and Sunday.  That's not very logical coming from a "capital city" regional station is it?  And Imparja (I'm ashamed to mention that station) stopped serving local news for central australia, and now gets the news from both Brisbane and Darwin.

William Walker

[dkint3]

Here in Newcastle, even NBN does not have the same level of local news that WIN has on a weekly basis.
NBN might claim local news 7 days a week (which is true), but on weeknights there is only about 10 mins (incl. sport), about half of what WIN has.

It also has not been a good fit for PBL to buy NBN either.
PBL seem to be clueless at how to run a regional station, having left things pretty much the way they were when they bought it.
The rumour was that PBL only found out how a complex a regional operation was AFTER they bought the station.
I get the impression that PBL simply forked out the $250 mil they paid just thinking that running NBN would be similar to running a metro.....

[willwalk]

dkint3, on Aug 10 2009, 10:43 PM, said:

Here in Newcastle, even NBN does not have the same level of local news that WIN has on a weekly basis.
NBN might claim local news 7 days a week (which is true), but on weeknights there is only about 10 mins (incl. sport), about half of what WIN has.

It also has not been a good fit for PBL to buy NBN either.
PBL seem to be clueless at how to run a regional station, having left things pretty much the way they were when they bought it.
The rumour was that PBL only found out how a complex a regional operation was AFTER they bought the station.
I get the impression that PBL simply forked out the $250 mil they paid just thinking that running NBN would be similar to running a metro.....

PBL is better suited to the metros including Adelaide and Perth, not the regionals like Newcastle or Darwin.  If WIN have bought NBN and Territory TV, and PBL running the 5 metro stations, it would have made it less complex, and would have made more sense.  I'm surprised that PBL have yet to rename NBN to Nine, but I don't think the Newcastle people would like that.  I'm ever more curious in the Territory TV, it used to be called Channel Eight Darwin, and then PBL renamed it to Nine, why?  They could have renamed it to something else like Top End Television, or Territory Television or something like that.

NBN has a lot of meaning in Newcastle and probably have a strong relation to Newcastle, but the name Channel Eight and Channel Nine has little in relation to Darwin.  People believe that Nine in Darwin is the same as NIne Melbourne or Nine Sydney, but it is not. So the name can be very misleading, and the GO! issue here have proved it.

William Walker

[willwalk]

willwalk, on Aug 10 2009, 10:34 PM, said:

I'm surprised that PBL have yet to rename NBN to Nine, but I don't think the Newcastle people would like that.  I'm ever more curious in the Territory TV, it used to be called Channel Eight Darwin, and then PBL renamed it to Nine, why?  They could have renamed it to something else like Top End Television, or Territory Television or something like that.

NBN has a lot of meaning in Newcastle and probably have a strong relation to Newcastle, but the name Channel Eight and Channel Nine has little in relation to Darwin.  People believe that Nine in Darwin is the same as NIne Melbourne or Nine Sydney, but it is not. So the name can be very misleading, and the GO! issue here have proved it.

William Walker

Hmm I was just wondering would NBN Television be a better name for the Darwin station rather than the name "Channel Nine" given that PBL owns both stations in Darwin and Newcastle?  Maybe the Newcastle people might be offended if the name NBN applies to the Darwin station?  If they had to rename it to NBN, then they would either have to make Darwin's news 1 hour or cut Northern NSW's news to 30 minutes?  I don't think that will please everybody, but the name Channel Eight and Channel Nine sounds absurd to Darwin anyway because the name has little or no relation to the city or area it serves, unlike WIN who has a strong relation to Wollongong and NBN to Newcastle?

Just a thought though.  I still think that because Darwin is a regional city, and because PBL owns the station, NBN may sound a more appropriate name for the station.  This name is open for debate, any thoughts on this?

William Walker

[aeon]

William, have you spoken to anyone at Nine Darwin asking what's happening with the Go! channel?

[willwalk]

aeon, on Aug 11 2009, 04:06 PM, said:

William, have you spoken to anyone at Nine Darwin asking what's happening with the Go! channel?

I don't know the contact details.  Does Nine Darwin have an email address?  I cannot hear the phone and don't have a active phone line at home, I rely on wireless broadband.  

Is Channel Nine at The Gardens near where the radio tower is, near the golf course and a fair bit way out from the casino?  If it is it is a fair way out from public transport.

William Walker

[willwalk]

willwalk, on Aug 11 2009, 03:31 PM, said:

I don't know the contact details.  Does Nine Darwin have an email address?  I cannot hear the phone and don't have a active phone line at home, I rely on wireless broadband.  

Is Channel Nine at The Gardens near where the radio tower is, near the golf course and a fair bit way out from the casino?  If it is it is a fair way out from public transport.

William Walker

Think I found the contact details.  Not sure if I am correct or not, but try it anyway, it could be a long shot.

http://www.bandt.com...p?mediaid=63235

The Territory Television Program Manager can be contacted on

http://www.bandt.com...contactid=20912

Try it and see.  It may be a long shot but try it.

William Walker

[willwalk]

willwalk, on Aug 11 2009, 03:51 PM, said:

Think I found the contact details.  Not sure if I am correct or not, but try it anyway, it could be a long shot.

http://www.bandt.com...p?mediaid=63235

The Territory Television Program Manager can be contacted on

http://www.bandt.com...contactid=20912

Try it and see.  It may be a long shot but try it.

William Walker

But please don't be abusive to them.  Don't use abusive language to them please.  I fear if we become abusive we may ruin out chances of getting the GO! channel. But request and ask for confirmation if Darwin might have to wait a few months for it.  That's all we can do.  We can try to contact them and request the reason why, but please don't be abusive to them please.

William Walker

[alanh]

WillWalk,
SBS 29 = SBS, Locked Bag 028 CROWS NEST, NSW 1585
ABD 30 = ABC GPO Box 9994 SYDNEY, NSW 2001
Nine = NTD 31, Television Pty Ltd, GPO Box 1764 DARWIN, NT 0801
Seven = TND 32, Regional Television (Southern Cross = Macquarie Communications), PO Box 1016 TOWNSVILLE, LD 4810
Ten = DTD 33, Darwin Digital Television (Southern Cross = Macquarie Communications), Locked Bag 1000 Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450

NBN stands for Newcastle Broadcasters. The 2nd N is for NSW.

AlanH

[ajgreen]

willwalk, on Aug 11 2009, 03:01 PM, said:

I don't know the contact details.  Does Nine Darwin have an email address?  I cannot hear the phone and don't have a active phone line at home, I rely on wireless broadband.  

Is Channel Nine at The Gardens near where the radio tower is, near the golf course and a fair bit way out from the casino?  If it is it is a fair way out from public transport.

William Walker

I rang Nine Darwin yesterday on 8981 8888 and inquired about AFL shows as Nine HD is not showing breakaway programming anymore and I cannot watch Footy Classifieds on Monday nights and nor can I watch the AFL footy show at early time of 9.30 pm on Thursday nights.  Have to wait until 11.30 after the rugby footy show.

Desaly, ?? from reception answered and was very sympathetic with regards to my inquiry (I think she was an AFL fan also).  She could not confirm if Nine HD would return to breakaway programs soon.

I also inquired about GO starting in Darwin and she confirmed that Darwin will receive GO sometime soon, but could not put a date to it.  It sounded fairly positive, but no explanation forthcoming on why the wait.  I was urged to be patient.

[willwalk]

ajgreen, on Aug 11 2009, 05:35 PM, said:

I rang Nine Darwin yesterday on 8981 8888 and inquired about AFL shows as Nine HD is not showing breakaway programming anymore and I cannot watch Footy Classifieds on Monday nights and nor can I watch the AFL footy show at early time of 9.30 pm on Thursday nights.  Have to wait until 11.30 after the rugby footy show.

Desaly, ?? from reception answered and was very sympathetic with regards to my inquiry (I think she was an AFL fan also).  She could not confirm if Nine HD would return to breakaway programs soon.

I also inquired about GO starting in Darwin and she confirmed that Darwin will receive GO sometime soon, but could not put a date to it.  It sounded fairly positive, but no explanation forthcoming on why the wait.  I was urged to be patient.

Thanks.  I am feeling if a big burden has been lifted out of my shoulders.  I was getting really worried and frightened and that's why I don't want anybody to be abusive to Nine.  I am happy to sit tight for now and to be patient.  Now that Nine has been more upfront, I am feeling more relieved and better than I have been over the last few few days.  I am also happy to be patient as well.  

On the subject of Nine HD, I always thought that Nine HD was a upconvert of the SD channel, am I correct?

William Walker

[ajgreen]

willwalk, on Aug 11 2009, 05:44 PM, said:

Thanks.  I am feeling if a big burden has been lifted out of my shoulders.  I was getting really worried and frightened and that's why I don't want anybody to be abusive to Nine.  I am happy to sit tight for now and to be patient.  Now that Nine has been more upfront, I am feeling more relieved and better than I have been over the last few few days.  I am also happy to be patient as well.  

On the subject of Nine HD, I always thought that Nine HD was a upconvert of the SD channel, am I correct?

William Walker

Mostly correct!

Some shows on Nine HD outside of prime time were different to the SD channel for example footy classifieds and AFL footy show (9.30 Thursday nights).  Now that GO has started the HD channel is definetly in sync with the SD channel.

Nine Darwin also confirmed their allegiance is with Rugby so that is why it gets shown first on the footy shows Thursday nights.

[Smacca]

willwalk, on Aug 11 2009, 03:55 PM, said:

Hmm I was just wondering would NBN Television be a better name for the Darwin station rather than the name "Channel Nine" given that PBL owns both stations in Darwin and Newcastle?  Maybe the Newcastle people might be offended if the name NBN applies to the Darwin station?  If they had to rename it to NBN, then they would either have to make Darwin's news 1 hour or cut Northern NSW's news to 30 minutes?  I don't think that will please everybody, but the name Channel Eight and Channel Nine sounds absurd to Darwin anyway because the name has little or no relation to the city or area it serves, unlike WIN who has a strong relation to Wollongong and NBN to Newcastle?

Just a thought though.  I still think that because Darwin is a regional city, and because PBL owns the station, NBN may sound a more appropriate name for the station.  This name is open for debate, any thoughts on this?

William Walker

I don't see how changing the name to NBN would be beneficial. It has absolutely no meaning to that particular market. The name Nine at least resembles what that station has been based off of for the last two decades. What Nine should be doing is using their brand more effectively. It wouldn't hurt them to make some local idents, a bit like WIN and their 'Across Australia' or 'Part of WIN Territory' campaign. Even add a tagline to their brand, like Seven Darwin's '...goes with the Territory' in the nineties. Something that would relate to the locals and represent the stations history would be good and it would give them an advantage over the other two newer stations.

Also, it would cost Nine more money to implement separate branding for a single station. I can't see them spending any more money than they need to (which unfortunately seems to be the case for Go in Darwin.)

[willwalk]

Smacca, on Aug 11 2009, 07:43 PM, said:

I don't see how changing the name to NBN would be beneficial. It has absolutely no meaning to that particular market. The name Nine at least resembles what that station has been based off of for the last two decades. What Nine should be doing is using their brand more effectively. It wouldn't hurt them to make some local idents, a bit like WIN and their 'Across Australia' or 'Part of WIN Territory' campaign. Even add a tagline to their brand, like Seven Darwin's '...goes with the Territory' in the nineties. Something that would relate to the locals and represent the stations history would be good and it would give them an advantage over the other two newer stations.

Also, it would cost Nine more money to implement separate branding for a single station. I can't see them spending any more money than they need to (which unfortunately seems to be the case for Go in Darwin.)

It's a bit tricky to name a station in a regional area.  The name Nine and Eight being applied to a regional station has me scratching my heads.  Bit odd, maybe that's the best name available they could use to label a regional station.  Newcomers to Darwin would see Nine as the same as the bigger capital cities, but if they choose to live in Darwin they would see the difference in services - same name but different services.  I was always curious to see how and why a regional station can be named differently.  Interesting.

But didn't a channel eight also existed in south east SA before WIN bought them out, and I believe they used to have a channel eight in the wide bay area a long time ago before being renamed Sunshine Television and eventually Seven Queensland?

Maybe Australians like to see different names applied to different stations regardless of the owners to make things interesting?

William Walker

[willwalk]

ajgreen, on Aug 11 2009, 06:26 PM, said:

Mostly correct!

Some shows on Nine HD outside of prime time were different to the SD channel for example footy classifieds and AFL footy show (9.30 Thursday nights).  Now that GO has started the HD channel is definetly in sync with the SD channel.

Nine Darwin also confirmed their allegiance is with Rugby so that is why it gets shown first on the footy shows Thursday nights.

Nine Darwin (and Eight Darwin as it was then called - I wasn't living in Darwin then - arrived in 2003) probably nearly always had a feed from Nine Sydney with local news and local ads inserted since PBL bought that station with the odd breakaway from Melbourne sometimes.  Rarely do Darwin get news from Melbourne or interstate other than Sydney and Darwin on Nine, I recall seeing Melbourne news once, last year when the NRL grand final was played.

William Walker

[willwalk]

willwalk, on Aug 11 2009, 07:21 PM, said:

Nine Darwin (and Eight Darwin as it was then called - I wasn't living in Darwin then - arrived in 2003) probably nearly always had a feed from Nine Sydney with local news and local ads inserted since PBL bought that station with the odd breakaway from Melbourne sometimes.  Rarely do Darwin get news from Melbourne or interstate other than Sydney and Darwin on Nine, I recall seeing Melbourne news once, last year when the NRL grand final was played.

William Walker

Correction: when Eight Darwin was here before being named Nine, it also had Ten programming as well mixed with predominately Nine programming.  Ten programming eventually went to Southern Cross (formerly Seven Darwin) after Nine became a full time Nine station full of Nine programs in 2003, and finally Ten programming found a new permanent home in Darwin in DDT (TEN Darwin) although Ten AFL still exists on Southern Cross every Saturday on AFL seasons.

This is a correction to the previous post.

William Walker

[aeon]

willwalk, on Aug 11 2009, 05:44 PM, said:

On the subject of Nine HD, I always thought that Nine HD was a upconvert of the SD channel, am I correct?

In general it was an upconvert, but on some shows they showed a proper HD show, and it was obvious that it was the real deal (especially compared with the SD channel).

From memory, the shows I've seen being broadcast in actual HD are Today Show, A Current Affair and CSI... though that was a while ago, I don't pay much attention these days.

Good to see that we should be getting GO! sometime, though it'd be nice if there was a more accurate date!

[newtaste]

willwalk, on Aug 10 2009, 04:10 PM, said:

Why Nine bought that station in a small regional city is way beyond me.

My recollection is that Kerry Packer owned the Darwin station personally, and then sold it into the then ASX listed PBL (that owned Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane).