GTS/BKN are

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

n regional television stations serving the

Spencer Gulf The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets (the other being Gulf St Vincent) on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe a ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

and the

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It ...

area of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. Based in

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South A ...

with satellite offices in Broken Hill,

Port Augusta Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a seaport, it is now a road traffic and railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about north of the state c ...

Whyalla Whyalla was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Gawler and along with Port Pirie and Port Augusta ...

and

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

, and studio and playout facilities based in

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/ Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

, the station's name originates from the Port Pirie and Broken Hill stations' callsigns, GTS Port Pirie and BKN Broken Hill.

History

GTS signed on for the first time on 1 March 1968. BKN followed soon afterward, on 16 August. In 1974, the stations (and their repeaters) merged to form Spencer Gulf Telecasters and broadcast under the name ''GTS/BKN Television''. The company was bought by

Southern Cross Broadcasting Southern Cross Broadcasting (Australia) Limited was a diversified Australian media company, that owned and operated a variety of media businesses, primarily in radio and television. History Tony Bell was managing director of the business betwe ...

(SCB) in 2001, though it retained the Central name until the end of 2005. Due to their areas' sparse populations, after aggregation they remained among the few stations in Australia that continued to cherry-pick programming from all three networks, though from 2001 onward it began favouring Seven through its affiliation with

Southern Cross Television Seven Regional is an Australian television network owned by Southern Cross Austereo that is available in Tasmania, Darwin, Spencer Gulf, Broken Hill and Remote Australia (Eastern and Central). The network is the primary affiliate of the S ...

. In 2003, Spencer Gulf Telecasters won the right to broadcast a second station in the same area, and in January 2004 started broadcasting

SGS/SCN SGS/SCN are Australian regional television stations serving the Spencer Gulf of South Australia and the Broken Hill area of New South Wales, owned by Southern Cross Austereo. The station is based in Port Pirie, South Australia with satellite off ...

as a Ten affiliate. Since 31 October 2010, GTS/BKN has also operated a third station relaying

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

programs from Sydney and Adelaide (callsign GDS in Port Pirie and BDN in Broken Hill). In January 2006, Central GTS/BKN was renamed ''Southern Cross GTS/BKN'', changing its logo to the star logo used by

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

Tasmania and TND Darwin. In July 2018, Southern Cross GTS/BKN was renamed ''Seven GTS/BKN'', changing its logo to the Seven logo as currently used by the other SCTV stations.

Digital channels

On 31 October 2010, GTS/BKN launched GDS/BDN, a Channel Nine affiliate rebroadcasting

TCN TCN is the flagship television station of the Nine Network in Australia. The station is currently located at 1 Denison Street, North Sydney. The licence, issued to a company named Television Corporation Ltd headed by Sir Frank Packer, was one o ...

Sydney. On 11 January 2011, GTS/BKN launched Ten's SD multichannel Eleven. Starting from 7 November 2011, GTS/BKN slowly rolled out

9Gem 9Gem is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, launched by the Nine Network in September 2010. The channel provides general entertainment and movie programming, from which the original name "GEM" is derived. History Nine N ...

9Go! 9Go! is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Nine Network on 9 August 2009, replacing Nine Guide. It is a youthful channel that offers a mix of comedy, reality, general entertainment, movies, ani ...

, 7two,

7mate 7mate is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 25 September 2010. The channel contains sport and regular programs aimed primarily to a male audience, with programming drawn from a ...

and

One 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

as digital channels across the GTS/BKN areas. On 7 December 2013, GDS/BDN switched to a feed of NWS Adelaide. On 30 September 2018, GDS/BDN launched

9Life 9Life is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel owned by Nine Entertainment. The channel airs mostly foreign lifestyle and reality programs, with the channel having a licensing agreement with Discovery Inc. (previously Scripp ...

Programming

The main GTS/BKN service carries programming from the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

, including the Adelaide edition of

Seven News ''7NEWS'' is the television news service of the Seven Network and, as of 2021, the highest-rating in Australia. National bulletins are presented from Seven's high definition studios in Martin Place, Sydney, while flagship 6pm bulletins ar ...

' nightly 6pm bulletin. GDS/BDN broadcasts programs from the

and the state bulletin from NWS from

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. GTS/BKN during the late 1970s & mid 1980s produced their own local commercials and TV shows like Panel Probe, Woman's World, Cue and local documentaries.

News

GTS/BKN produces a half-hour regional news program titled ''Nightly News'' (formerly ''Southern Cross News'' until 14 December 2018), airing at 6:30pm on weeknights, following '' Seven News Adelaide''. The bulletin is presented from

Southern Cross Austereo Southern Cross Media Group Limited, doing business as Southern Cross Austereo, is an Australian media company which operates broadcast radio and television stations. It is the largest radio broadcaster in Australia, operating 86 radio stati ...

's studio in

, with reporters and video journalists based at news bureaus in

and

. Since 2019, it is presented by Madeline Kerr or John Hunt, with Alex Sykes presenting the weather. The bulletin adopted the current title on 14 January 2019. The day's bulletin is later uploaded by the station's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel. Previous presenters of the program during its tenure as Southern Cross News include Virginia Langeberg, Tim Hatfield, Fraser Goldsworthy and Julie Snook, while Will McDonald, Nicole Haack and Rosanna Mangiarelli presented under the Central News title. The current team of ''Nightly News'' video journalists consists of: Annabel Francis (Port Pirie), Daniel Pizarro (Port Augusta), Edward McCarroll (Whyalla), Henry Milic (Port Lincoln) and Josh Mercer (Broken Hill). In 2019, Southern Cross Austereo shifted the bulletin to 7two at 7:00 pm rather than airing on the main channel.

Channels

The following is a list of channels broadcast on GTS and BKN respectively. GTS/BKN: GDS/BDN:

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gts Bkn Southern Cross Media Group Television channels and stations established in 1968 1968 establishments in Australia