TVW

TVW is a television station broadcasting in Perth, Western Australia, wholly owned by the Seven Network, whose principal owner is Perth-born Kerry Stokes. It was the first television station in Western Australia, commencing service on 16 October 1959. It broadcasts a modulated 64-QAM signal of five DVB channels (Seven Network, 7Two, 7Mate, 7flix and Racing.com).[2] The primary channel was available as a PAL-B modulated simulcast on VHF channel 7 at 182.25 MHz before being discontinued in the first half of 2013, which was the station's primary signal since its inception. The TVW callsign stands for Television Western Australia.

This article is about the Australian television station. For other uses, see TVW (disambiguation).

TVW
Perth, Western Australia
ChannelsDigital: 6 (VHF – 64-QAM)
Virtual: 7
BrandingSeven
SloganOnly on 7
Love you Perth (2019)
Programming
AffiliationsSeven (O&O)
Ownership
OwnerSeven West Media Limited
(Channel Seven Perth Pty Ltd)
History
First air date16 October 1959 (1959-10-16)
Former channel number(s)7 (VHF) (analog) (1959-2013)
Call sign meaningTeleVision Western Australia
Technical information
ERP50 kW (digital)
HAAT280 m (digital)[1]
Transmitter coordinates32°0′30″S 116°5′3″E
Links
Website7plus.com.au

History

On 13 October 1958, the first commercial television licence in Perth was granted by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs to TVW Limited, a subsidiary of West Australian Newspapers (WAN), publisher of Perth's daily newspaper, The West Australian. Under the then founding general manager of the station Sir James Cruthers, TVW commenced broadcasting on 16 October 1959.[3] The then Governor of Western Australia, Sir Charles Gairdner opened the station at 7.30pm that night. Some of the first programs included Leave It to Beaver, Sea Hunt, Father Knows Best, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, The Epilogue and a local show called Spotlight which featured Rolf Harris.[3]

The signal was broadcast from the station's transmitter site at Bickley in the Darling Ranges.[3]

TVW-7 did not have a rival commercial television station until 1965 when STW-9 commenced broadcasting.[4] However the presence of a rival did not have a large negative impact on TVW, at least in the early years. In fact a survey by its rival found that more people agreed with a statement that "TVW fulfilled their viewing needs, and it would be a matter of indifference to them if the new station were to cease transmissions".[5] The advantage TVW built up in its six years as sole commercial operator flowed through for many more years to come, some would even argue that it is still present today considering how well Seven performs in the market compared to Nine, which for nearly two decades until the mid-2000s, generally won comfortably nationally.

After STW-9 entered the market, a 'cartel' was formed between the two stations for the duty of buying from both Australian and overseas production sources. The two stations set up a separate company, TV Facilities (the two stations being 50%/50% partners). This allowed the stations to purchase programs cheaper than if they were two separate entities, which would bid on shows and subsequently raise prices. This partnership was disliked by Eastern States stations who could not increase their charges to the extent which they would have liked. Allocation of programs was decided by a coin toss, which would allow the winner to pick first and then alternate the picking of programs. However TVW would always be in a more dominant position as it had the rights to continuing shows from the previous six years as well as half of the new programs.

In 1971 TVW Enterprises purchased SAS-10 in Adelaide, now SAS-7. Eight years later, TVW finally took on an affiliation, aligning with the Seven stations in the East. 1982 saw TVW (and SAS) purchased by Perth-based businessman Robert Holmes à Court's Bell Group.[6] This soon posed a problem for SAS, since Network Ten officials were unwilling to discuss network plans with Bell given that it owned a Seven affiliate. To solve this problem, SAS swapped affiliations and frequencies with Adelaide's original Ten affiliate, ADS, in 1987.[7]

In 1988, Perth finally got full network service when NEW signed on and aligned with Ten. 1988 also saw the station change hands when the Christopher Skase led Qintex group purchased the station.[8] Qintex collapsed a year later, leaving TVW in the hands of receivers.[9] In 1991 the network was floated on the stock exchange and, by 1995, Kerry Stokes was in charge of both TVW and the rest of the network. Since then, the station has continued to enjoy a dominant share of television ratings in the Perth market.

TVW commenced digital television transmission in January 2001, broadcasting on VHF Channel 6 while maintaining analogue transmission on VHF Channel 7.

The analogue signal for TVW was shut off at 9.00am WST, Tuesday, 16 April 2013.[10]

Stokes bought a 15 percent stake in West Australian newspapers in 2006.[11] In 2011, West Australian Newspapers bought the Seven Network to form Seven West Media,[12] thus fully reuniting TVW with its founding owner. In February 2015, TVW moved from their original broadcasting facility in Gay Street, Dianella to a new HD broadcast centre in Osborne Park located within West Australian Newspapers.

Programming

Seven Perth for the most part follows the programming of the Seven Network.

Locally produced programs, which can also be seen in regional Western Australia on GWN7 include:

  • Go Racing: News/discussion about the racing scene in both Perth and the Eastern States
  • Have a Go TV: Features segments on travel, finance and investment, sport and recreation, health and wellbeing. Hosted by Tod Johnston.
  • Home In WA: Lifestyle, building and renovation
  • Fishing Western Australia: Explores fishing in WA.
  • Our WA: A long-running series of specials which highlight a specific aspect of WA life
  • Flashpoint: Demanding change, and discussing issues that matter to West Australians. Hosted by Tim McMillan and featuring Peter Rowsthorn.[13]

Locally produced programs, which can also be seen around Australia through the Seven Network and affiliates include:

Filmed at Dianella

Studio 1

Until February 2015 (when broadcast moved to new Osborne Park HD facility)

Past broadcasts form Dianella Studios

  • Telethon (until 2003)
  • The Early Bird Show
  • A*mazing - Previously filmed at BTQ-7 from 1994-96.
  • Time Masters - Previously filmed at BTQ-7 from 1996.
  • Fat Cat's Funtime Show
  • Good Morning Perth
  • Scratch and Win Telespin
  • The Adventures of Bush Patrol
  • Family Feud
  • In Perth Tonight
  • Rothman's World of Football
  • The Underground Video Show
  • The Late Late Breakfast Show
  • Reach for the Stars
  • Turpie Tonight
  • $50,000 Letter Box
  • Spellbound
  • Brooksey's Footy Show/The Footy Club/Basil's Footy Show
  • It's Academic
  • Perth at 5
  • FMTV
  • What A Week
  • Today
  • Channel 7 News/Seven National News/Seven Nightly News/Seven News: 1959-2010
  • State Affair: 1984-1989
  • Today Tonight: 1995-2010
  • Susannah Carr's Land Down Under/World Around Us: 1985-1999
  • Sports Centre Seven: 1980s

News and Current Affairs

Seven News

Seven News Perth broadcasts live each night at 6pm with an afternoon bulletin also airing on weekdays at 4:00pm. The main evening program is presented on weeknights by Rick Ardon and Susannah Carr with sport presented by Basil Zempilas and weather presented by Samantha Jolly. Ardon and Carr have anchored the 6pm bulletin for over thirty years (since 1985), making them the longest serving TV news presenting team in Australia and the world.

Angela Tsun and Tim McMillan presents the weekend news with sport by former West Coast Eagles player Adrian Barich. Chris Mainwaring was the weekend sport presenter until his unexpected death in October 2007.

Seven News stalwart Geof Parry is the current state political reporter. TVW's news director is David Cooper.[14] Even when Seven News was struggling nationally, Seven News Perth still maintains the highest ratings on average for almost two decades, attracting almost double the ratings of rival Nine News Perth.[15]

Long standing Seven News Perth presenter Jeff Newman announced his retirement from television on 1 July 2009, and retired from his role on Monday 10 August 2009. He was replaced by former Nine News Perth weather presenter Natalia Cooper, who began her new role during September 2009.

On Monday 2 April 2012, TVW launched a local edition of the network's 4:30pm news bulletin on weekdays, presented by Natalia Cooper. Cooper resigned from Seven Perth at the end of 2012 with ex-Nine weather presenter Angela Tsun taking over as her replacement for the 4:30pm news and 6pm weather forecasts, while Cooper returned to Nine, though this time in the higher-rating Sydney market. The 4:30pm bulletin evolved into an hour news bulletin on Monday 31 July 2017, with Samantha Jolly as the presenter.[16]

Other news programming produced by the network's Sydney-based national news centre includes the morning news program Sunrise, Seven Morning News, Weekend Sunrise and Sunday Night. On Seven, 7TWO & 7mate, National news updates are also produced from the Sydney newsroom throughout the afternoon and evening.

Today Tonight

Between 1995 and 2019, the nightly news was followed by a locally produced edition of current affairs program Today Tonight hosted by Monika Kos. The program used a mixture of reports from its sister program in Adelaide as well as reports from locally based reporters. Like Seven News Perth, the program was very successful ratings wise, consistently beating its rival A Current Affair.

On 29 November 2019, the show along with its Adelaide counterpart was axed.[17] This followed the axings of the combined Sydney and Melbourne edition, as well as the Queensland edition, in 2014.[18]

Mascot

Seven Perth has long been the home of Fat Cat, the name standing for Francis Aloysius Thomas Cat. Fat Cat is "put to bed" every night at 7.30pm signalling the end of programs suitable for children. Fat Cat, along with GWN's Doopa Dog, are the last WA television mascots to survive. Longtime rival STW-9 used a large elephant, Flapper, as its mascot and NEW-10 used Kenny Kidna from the Kangaroo Creek Gang as its mascot.

Fat Cat is now mainly used for things to do with Telethon; Fat Cat dolls are sold through Friendlies Chemists & Bendigo Bank for $19.95 to raise money for Telethon.

Seven also has an anthropomorphic TV character "TV Man" (an analogue TV with arms and legs with a red 7 on the screen) as a popular mascot used in on air promos nationally.

Telethon
Main article: Channel Seven Perth Telethon

TVW also produces an annual Telethon for the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, the Telethon Kids Institute and around forty other beneficiaries spread throughout the Western Australian community. Since 1968 it has raised over $268 million (as of 2017 total).[19] Although the fundraising takes place 365 days a year through the community, it culminates in a 26-hour live broadcast from Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in the heart of Perth city over a weekend, usually in October. Seven network personalities fly to Perth for the weekend to help raise money, as do a lot of Aussie artists. Many international stars have also been part of Telethon over the years, including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion and Harry Connick Jr. The show is simulcasted around the state of Western Australia on Network affiliate GWN7. This Telethon is regarded as the highest fundraising Telethon (per capita) in the world ($13.94 per head of population in WA). In 2017 Channel 7 celebrated its milestone 50th Perth Telethon, raising $36.4m ($10m more than the previous year's record amount)[19] and distributed this to over forty beneficiaries throughout Western Australia. It is broadcast on TVW7 across Perth metro area and across Western Australia by GWN7.[19]

Christmas Pageant

The station organises an annual Christmas parade through the streets of the Perth CBD, traditionally on the first Saturday of December. It is claimed to be the largest Christmas parade in the southern hemisphere. More than 600 floats and 60,000 participants have taken part in the procession in the history of the parade, which commenced in 1972. Each year several thousand people line the route to watch the parade. It was cancelled once in 2015 due to inclement weather.[20]

Broadcasting details
Locations of transmitters broadcasting TVW-7

Digital transport frequency: VHF-6 @ 177.5 MHz (Bandwidth: 7 MHz 64-QAM)

Digital Channels
LCN Service Image Quality Compression Quality Alt Image Quality Alt Compression Quality
7 7 1440x1080i 16:9 HD Lite H.262 video @ 10770 kbit/s
Dolby Digital audio @ 384 kbit/s
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II @ 256 kbit/s		 720x576i 16:9 SD H.262 video @ 6500 kbit/s
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II @ 256 kbit/s
72 7TWO 720x576i 16:9 SD H.262 video @ 6500 kbit/s
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II @ 256 kbit/s
73 7mate 1440x1080i 16:9 HD Lite H.262 video @ 10770 kbit/s
Dolby Digital audio @ 384 kbit/s
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II @ 256 kbit/s		 720x576i 16:9 SD H.262 video @ 6500 kbit/s
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II @ 256 kbit/s
76 7flix 720x576i 16:9 SD H.262 video @ 6500 kbit/s
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II @ 256 kbit/s

Note: HD quality switches between 7 and 7mate due to sporting events. Only one channel broadcasts HD at any one time.

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See also

Sources

References
  1. "Calculation of Effective antenna heights using the SRTM3 database". Itu.int. 14 April 2003. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  2. https://7plus.com.au/
  3. Ashton, Richard (10 March 2009). "TVW Opening". WA TV History. Archived from the original on 4 September 2009. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  4. "Nine Perth turns 50". Television.AU. 12 June 2015. Archived from the original on 20 October 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  5. http://www.mcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/film/image/Fisher.html. Retrieved 17 February 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. McIlwraith, John, "Holmes à Court, Michael Robert (1937–1990)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 20 August 2018
  7. James Barrington (31 March 2006). "Switching Signals". Intertel. Transdiffusion Broadcasting System. Archived from the original on 22 June 2006. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
  8. "Update on documenting our TV heritage". WA TV History. 24 June 2011. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  9. Head, Mike (13 August 2001). "Christopher Skase—a convenient scapegoat for Australian business". World Socialist Web site. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  10. "Analogue tv signal switched off in Perth". ABC News. 16 April 2013. Archived from the original on 11 June 2013. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  11. Moore, Ali (19 October 2006). "Seven share raid continues". ABC News. Archived from the original on 20 August 2018. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  12. Lower, Gavin (21 February 2011). "West Australian Newspapers agrees to buy Seven Media Group". The Australian. News Corp. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  13. https://7plus.com.au/flashpoint
  14. https://twitter.com/dkcooper7?lang=en
  15. Bodey, Michael (20 July 2015). "TV ratings: Nine's the one again when it comes to news". The Australian. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  16. https://www.facebook.com/7NewsPerth/posts/live-nowperths-4pm-news-with-samantha-jollywatch-on-channel-7-or-on-the-go-httpw/10156116440614072/
  17. Knox, David (26 November 2019). "Axed: Today Tonight". TV Tonight. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  18. Lallo, Michael (3 February 2014). "Seven axes Today Tonight on east coast". The Age. Melbourne: Fairfax Media. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  19. "Telethon 2017 raises $36,431,381 for the kids of WA". Telethon. 22 October 2017. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  20. Clayton, Cly (27 November 2017). "Christmas Pageant set to light up the city". The West Australian. Seven West Media. Archived from the original on 19 August 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2018.


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