Television network in Western Australia
Television channel
GWN7
was an Australian
television network
serving all of
Western Australia
outside metropolitan
Perth
. It launched on 10 March 1967 as
BTW-3
in
Bunbury
.
[1]
It was an affiliate of the
Seven Network
and served one of the largest geographic television markets in the world?almost one-third of the continent. The network's name,
GWN
, is an acronym of
Golden West Network
, the network's name from 1979 to when the current name was adopted in 2011.
In 2021, GWN7's parent company
Prime Media Group
merged with Seven and the brand was retired in 2022.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
Origins
[
edit
]
GWN began life as a group of smaller, independent stations:
Prior to these stations signing on, remote Western Australia had been one of the few areas of Australia without local television; the only television outlets in the area were relays of
ABC Television
out of
Perth
.
Jack Bendat
purchased South West Telecasters (owner of BTW/GSW) in 1979, and changed the company's name to Golden West Network.
[3]
GWN applied to broadcast an additional service on 31 October 1984, when the
Australian Broadcasting Tribunal
called for applications to broadcast to
Christmas Island
and the
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
via
satellite
as part of the Remote Commercial Television License (RCTS) scheme. GWN was granted the Remote Commercial Television License (RCTS) in June 1985
[4]
and the service went to air on 18 October 1986 using the call-sign
WAW
.
Not long after, GWN continued to expand within Western Australia, acquiring Mid-Western Television (owner of VEW-8 Kalgoorlie) in December 1985 for
A$
7 million,
[5]
and Geraldton Telecasters (owner of GTW-11) in March 1987 for an undisclosed amount.
[6]
The takeovers gave the network a monopoly over all commercial television services in regional Western Australia. In 1987, Bendat and
Kerry Stokes
merged their media interests into joint company BDC Investments.
[7]
Later that year, Northern Star Holdings purchased BDC for
A$
206 million.
[8]
Northern Star were forced to sell GWN to satisfy existing media regulations. GWN was sold back to Stokes in December 1988 for
A$
54 million,
[9]
who upgraded equipment throughout the network. In April 1990, the callsigns BTW and GSW were merged, to become
SSW
. During the late 1980s, GWN was promoted as
GWN Satellite Television
and aired programs from mostly the Nine Network plus a few from Seven and Ten with STW's Channel Nine (later National Nine) News (from Perth) providing the national news link.
1990s to the 2000s
[
edit
]
Kerry Stokes gained control of the
Seven Network
in 1995, and attempted to sell GWN to Seven in return for more shares. Seven Network shareholders agreed to the trade in April 1996 ? a deal which would have seen Seven acquire GWN for
A$
72.8 million
[10]
thus becoming the regional network affiliate for Western Australia. The arrangement was called off when the
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
found that a 15-year exclusive programming deal GWN made with the
Nine Network
was anti competitive and opposed the acquisition. The Seven Network subsequently dropped their plans to purchase GWN.
[11]
And as a result, the network soon ended its programming deal with Nine for exclusive broadcast of its shows in regional areas of the state.
Prime Television
purchased GWN in November 1996 from Stokes for
A$
71 million.
[12]
Remote Western Australia was one of the few areas of regional Australia that was not aggregated, given its small population. This ended in 1997, when
WIN Television
was granted the rights to a second television license in regional Western Australia, ending GWN's monopoly of all three Australian commercial channels. In March 1999, GWN opted to become a sole Seven Network affiliate, in-line with its eastern sister, Prime Television. As a result,
WIN Television WA
picked up both the
Nine Network
and
Network 10
affiliations.
[13]
The network's transmission operations were moved from Bunbury to
Prime Media Group
's digital broadcast facility in
Canberra
in April 2005. Programming was delivered to regional Western Australia via a satellite feed.
A proposal for a third television station ? a joint venture between GWN's parent company Prime Media Group and WIN Corporation ? was submitted to the
Australian Communications & Media Authority
in 2006. Similar to
Mildura Digital Television
, the new channel will operate under a
Section 38B
licence,
[14]
as a
Network 10
affiliate named
Ten West
.
2010 and beyond
[
edit
]
The new decade saw the introduction of digital television, with the
Central Wheatbelt
,
Kalgoorlie
,
Karratha
and
Mingenew
digital transmitters launching on 10 June 2010. The broadcasters shared a single digital transmitter for GWN, WIN WA and the new Ten West in standard definition.
[15]
On 15 January 2011, Prime Media Group reported that GWN and Prime were to rebrand to GWN7 and
Prime7
respectively, in connection to their strong relations with the metropolitan stations of the Seven Network. Their news bulletins were quickly renamed as
GWN7 News
and
Prime7 News
. These bulletins were relaunched on 16 January 2011 at 5:57pm.
[16]
Digital transmitter upgrades continued on 28 July 2011, with
Bunbury
and surrounds being introduced to the full suite of digital channels for the first time, including
7two
and
7mate
.
[17]
On 30 July 2011, the regional networks began broadcasting on the
Viewer Access Satellite Television
platform.
[18]
On 12 February 2018, GWN7's master control facilities (transmission and technical operations) were transferred to Prime Media's national playout centre in Canberra, with the WA facilities beamed through satellite and microwave links. Playout of GWN7's programming was later transferred to Mediahub located at Sydney's suburb of
Ingleburn
(which houses playout for
ABC Television
and
WIN Television
), before once again transferred to a facility operated by Australia's telco provider
Telstra
(shared with hybrid-funded broadcaster
SBS Television
).
2021: Merger with Seven
[
edit
]
On 1 November 2021,
Seven West Media
announced that it would acquire all the shares and subsidiaries of Prime Media Group. This was SWM's second attempt at purchasing Prime Media, after its previous attempt in 2019 was thwarted by
Australian Community Media
boss Antony Catalano and rival
WIN Corporation
owner
Bruce Gordon
, citing Seven's debt problems at the time and its poor ratings performance as the reason for their refusal. Prime shareholders approved the deal on 23 December, with the sale completed on 31 December.
[19]
This development would mark an end to the GWN brand name after 33 years in favour of Seven Network's branding and would see its statewide news service carrying the Seven News brand. Prior to this, GWN (alongside its sister Prime) was the only commercial network affiliate not carrying full metro network branding across promotions and programming, in contrast to WOW's owner WIN which carries the Nine Network branding full-time since its return to carrying Nine's programming in 2021.
[20]
[21]
On 23 May 2022, Seven West Media announced that the current branding of GWN7 will be unified into Seven Network branding across the station including for GWN7 Local News officially remains as retiring the GWN7 name. On 25 July 2022, the GWN7 brand was retired.
[2]
Programming
[
edit
]
Since becoming a full Seven affiliate, GWN7's on-air schedule had become almost identical to that of its metropolitan counterpart,
TVW
in Perth.
Seven News Perth
was aired live across the network direct from Perth. GWN7 also produced a weeknightly local news service,
GWN7 Local News
, shown live at 5:30pm.
[22]
Since the network's inception, it has featured a broad range of original regional programming, including the children's program
Doopa's Club
featuring the station mascot
Doopa Dog
;
[23]
as well as community service strand
GWN7 InfoNet
, a series of short updates listing local community events.
[24]
GWN7 Local News
[
edit
]
GWN7 Local News
(now
Seven News Regional WA
, previously known as
Golden West News
or
GWN News
) was the network's regional news service.
[22]
Its main 30-minute program, airing live at 5:30pm on weeknights before
Seven News Perth
, dealt primarily with local news and current affairs. The bulletin was presented by Noel Brunning with news and sport; and Shauna Willis with weather. As of March 2012, GWN7 produced the only dedicated local news program for regional Western Australia.
[25]
The bulletin was produced and broadcast from GWN7's Spencer Street newsroom in
Bunbury CBD
with reporters and camera crews also based at newsrooms in
Perth
,
Albany
,
Kalgoorlie
,
Karratha
,
Geraldton
and
Broome
.
Since Seven's acquisition of Prime Media would mean GWN7 News and Seven News will fall under one corporate umbrella, it is unclear if the network makes changes to its regional WA news production, since Seven West Media's headquarters are located in Perth's suburb of
Osborne Park
(where Seven O&O
TVW
produces news content for the city and the state of WA).
In July 2022, the
GWN7 Local News
branding has been retired and now falls under the Seven News Regional WA brand.
Availability
[
edit
]
GWN7 was available statewide in digital terrestrial and digital satellite format. The full suite of digital services, including 7TWO, 7mate, ishop TV and RACING.COM, were available in all areas with digital transmissions.
Below is a table showing the
logical channel numbers
(LCN) for the full suite of digital services.
LCN
|
Service
|
6
|
GWN7
|
62
|
7TWO
|
63
|
7mate
|
65
|
ishop TV
|
68
|
RACING.COM
|
Terrestrial
[
edit
]
Digital terrestrial transmissions were available in all populated cities and major towns of regional Western Australia. Analog terrestrial services ceased transmission statewide on 25 June 2013.
Satellite
[
edit
]
Digital satellite transmissions were available direct-to-home on the
Viewer Access Satellite Television
platform in areas that weren't covered by adequate terrestrial transmissions.
[18]
Logos
[
edit
]
The Golden West Network became a network in 1986, with a shared logo produced and used across the regional stations, featuring the letters
GWN
inside an outlined oval surrounded by an orbiting ring.
[26]
This logo was used across the network until 1995, when a new logo was introduced with the removal of outlined oval surrounding the letters
GWN
.
[26]
Following this, 2001 saw the launch of a new simplified yellow logo, with the removal of the orbiting ring. This logo was launched concurrently with a similarly design logo on
Prime Television
.
[26]
Following the 2011 relaunch, a new logo was introduced which features the
Seven Network
logo. The relaunch logo featuring
Seven Network
was revised in 2013 from multi colour to be a single colour logo.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Jenkins, Tom (17 November 1981). The South West's own TV station. -Golden West Network in Western-. In West Australian. (17 Nov 1981), supp.34.
- ^
a
b
Goodbye Prime Possum? Seven eyes brand changes ahead of Commonwealth Games
Archived
29 May 2022 at the
Wayback Machine
Sydney Morning Herald
29 May 2022
- ^
Golden West Network. (2011).[From South Western Telecasters Ltd] In Trove. Retrieved 13 July 2011, from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-631450
- ^
Earl, Greg (13 June 1985). "Golden West wins licence for remote TV by satellite".
Australian Financial Review
. p. 5.
- ^
Lawson, Mark (28 November 1985). "Media portfolio sells 86pc stake in Mid-Western".
Australian Financial Review
. p. 24.
- ^
Earl, Greg (17 March 1987). "Bendats buy fourth TV station".
Australian Financial Review
. p. 5.
- ^
Power, Julie (21 April 1987). "This week... The market".
Australian Financial Review
. p. 25.
- ^
Peers, Martin (10 August 1987). "Stokes makes a loss on TV deal".
Australian Financial Review
. p. 1.
- ^
Frith, Damon (30 December 1987). "Northern Star finalises re-sale of Golden West".
Australian Financial Review
. p. 11.
- ^
Jones, Megan (17 April 1996). "Seven yes to Golden West deal".
The Age
. p. 3.
- ^
Anderson, Simon (5 June 1996). "Seven drops plan to buy Golden West".
Australian Financial Review
. p. 19.
- ^
Kidman, Matthew (13 November 1996). "Prime buys Golden West".
Sydney Morning Herald
. p. 29.
- ^
Schulze, Jane (12 January 1999). "Prime signs with Seven so WIN joins Nine, Ten".
The Age
. p. 2.
- ^
Cairns, Samantha (14 November 2006). "Joint TV service".
Kalgoorlie Miner
. p. 1.
- ^
Brown, Pam (11 June 2010).
"Digital signal for viewers in Kalgoorlie"
. Today.
The West Australian
. p. 5. Archived from
the original
on 16 September 2012
. Retrieved
8 July
2010
.
- ^
Knox, David (15 January 2011).
"Prime, GWN rebrand with 7"
.
TV Tonight
.
Archived
from the original on 20 October 2012
. Retrieved
4 April
2013
.
- ^
Knox, David (19 July 2011).
"7TWO and 7mate join VAST in the West"
.
TV Tonight
.
Archived
from the original on 1 April 2012
. Retrieved
4 April
2013
.
- ^
a
b
"Viewer Access Satellite Television service for Western Australia"
(PDF)
.
Digital Ready Taskforce (DBCDE)
. March 2013. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 15 December 2013
. Retrieved
4 April
2013
.
- ^
Acquisition of Prime completed
Archived
18 May 2022 at the
Wayback Machine
Seven West Media 31 December 2021
- ^
"Seven West Media to buy regional affiliate Prime for $132m"
.
Sydney Morning Herald
. 1 November 2021.
Archived
from the original on 2 November 2021
. Retrieved
2 November
2021
.
- ^
"Prime Media shareholders give the green light for Seven West Media merger"
.
7News
. 23 December 2021.
Archived
from the original on 23 December 2021.
- ^
a
b
"Prime Media Group: Prime7 Television"
.
Prime Media Group
. Archived from
the original
on 10 April 2013
. Retrieved
4 April
2013
.
- ^
"Doopa's Club ? GWN7 ? Yahoo!7"
.
GWN7 on Yahoo!7
.
Archived
from the original on 25 September 2011
. Retrieved
4 April
2013
.
- ^
"InfoNet ? GWN7 ? Yahoo!7"
.
GWN7 on Yahoo!7
.
Archived
from the original on 22 March 2013
. Retrieved
4 April
2013
.
- ^
Taylor, Paige (13 March 2012).
"WIN WA regional TV news bulletins axed on poor ratings"
.
The Australian
.
Archived
from the original on 15 March 2012
. Retrieved
4 April
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
Brooklyn Ross-Hulands.
"Golden West Network History"
. AusTVHistory.
Archived
from the original on 10 March 2008
. Retrieved
9 March
2008
.
External links
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edit
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