Prime Media Group Limited (formerly Prime Television Limited) was an Australian-based media corporation that formerly owned regional television network

Prime7 Prime7, formerly Prime Television and other names, was an Australian television network. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as '' CBN-8'' in Orange, and later expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Ca ...

in eastern Australia and

GWN7 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. It was an affiliate of the Seven Network and served one of the largest geographic tel ...

in regional

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It also owned

ishop TV ishop TV is an Australian free-to-air television channel and a digital advertorial datacasting service that was launched on 30 April 2013. The channel is owned by Seven West Media (formerly Prime Media Group) and Brand Developers, broadcastin ...

, a

datacasting Datacasting (data broadcasting) is the broadcasting of data over a wide area via radio waves. It most often refers to supplemental information sent by television stations along with digital terrestrial television (DTT), but may also be applied ...

channel, co-owned by Brand Developers and two joint ventures with the

WIN Corporation WIN Corporation is a private Australian media company, that owns assets including the WIN Television network, Crawford Productions and several local radio stations. The company is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. History Founding The WIN b ...

Mildura Digital Television MDV is a joint venture television station between Seven West Media and WIN Corporation. Based in Mildura, Victoria, Australia, it is a digital-only Network 10 affiliate run under the company name ''Mildura Digital Television Pty Ltd'', and be ...

, and West Digital Television. Prime Media Group head office and Australian Securities Exchange registered office was located in Watson, Canberra. A secondary corporate office was located at Jones Bay Wharf, Pyrmont, Sydney (which was also the

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

's head office). Prime7 had sales offices located in each regional sub-market. There were also national regional sales offices at the Seven Network's metropolitan offices/studios in Sydney,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

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 ...

and

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

. Prime7's national broadcast facility was located in Canberra, with playout facilities (as of 2021) shared with hybrid-funded broadcaster

SBS Television The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from the Australian Government. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS Wor ...

at a facility operated by

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...

. Prime Media Group Limited was renamed PRT Company Limited on 3 January 2022.

History

Foundation of Prime

Prime Television began life in 1970, when mineral explorer Altarama Minerals was incorporated and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Following its movement into the automotive industry, the business changed its name to Altarama in 1973.

Paul Ramsay Paul Joseph Ramsay (5 January 1936 – 1 May 2014) was an Australian businessman and philanthropist. Biography Born in Sydney, he grew up in Burradoo in the Southern Highlands, New South Wales. He attended St Ignatius' College, Riverview, w ...

gained control of Altarama in 1985, subsequently renaming it once again to Ramcorp. As part of a diversification into television, advertising, and healthcare, Ramcorp appointed Allan Hoy as founding media CEO who spearheaded the purchase of regional television stations

RVN-2 CBN is an Australian television station licensed to, and serving the regions surrounding Orange, New South Wales, Orange, Dubbo and central and southern New South Wales. History Origins CBN-8 Orange commenced broadcasting on 17 March 1962, ...

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 56,000 as of June 2018, Wagga Wagga is the state's la ...

, AMV-4

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

CWN-6 CBN is an Australian television station licensed to, and serving the regions surrounding Orange, Dubbo and central and southern New South Wales. History Origins CBN-8 Orange commenced broadcasting on 17 March 1962, licensed to ''Country Br ...

Dubbo, CBN-8

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, ECN-8

Taree Taree is a town on the Mid North Coast, New South Wales, Australia. Taree and nearby Cundletown were settled in 1831 by William Wynter. Since then Taree has grown to a population of 26,381, and is the centre of a significant agricultural distr ...

and NEN-9 Tamworth in 1987. Soon after, the stations began to be known collectively as the

Prime Television Network A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

. In August 1991 Ramcorp was renamed Prime Television.

Aggregation and expansion

In the lead-up to television aggregation, Ramcorp signed a 10-year programming affiliation agreement with the

– the start of a close relationship between the two networks. In 1991 the business changed its name to Prime Television Limited, reflecting its new nature as a television broadcaster in regional

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and

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 ...

. Throughout the early 1990s, Ramcorp had incurred significant debts as a result of loans taken out throughout the 1980s in order to expand the company – Ramcorp's healthcare and media interests in Australia and the United States failed to turn a profit, resulting in falling share prices for the business. By 1993, Prime Television made a $7.4 million profit following accumulated losses of $47 million between 1989 and 1991, as well as a further $200 million expanding Prime Television's audience reach to 17 per cent, as part of aggregation. Prime expanded into

when it purchased the

Golden West Network GWN7 was an Australian Television broadcasting in Australia, television network serving all of Western Australia outside metropolitan Perth. It launched on 10 March 1967 as ''BTW-3'' in Bunbury, Western Australia, Bunbury. It was an affiliate ...

from Seven Network owner

Kerry Stokes Kerry Matthew Stokes (born John Patrick Alford on 13 September 1940) is an Australian businessman. He holds business interests in a diverse range of industries including electronic and print media, property, mining, and construction equipment. ...

in 1996. At the time, GWN was the monopoly commercial television network in the regional Western Australia license area, however

WIN Television WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single television station covering the Wollongong region. The WIN Netw ...

, Prime's competitor in parts of New South Wales and Victoria was granted a license by the

Australian Broadcasting Authority The Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) was an Australian government agency whose main roles were to regulate broadcasting, radiocommunications and telecommunications. The Authority took over the functions of the Australian Broadcasting Trib ...

a year later in 1997. In the same year, Prime Television expanded internationally with the purchase of the Canal 9 television network in Argentina. Prime paid A$224 million for the network, later renamed Azul Televisión in 1999, before selling half of its share to local media group

Torneos y Competencias Torneos y Competencias S.A. (abbreviated TyC, also referred as Torneos) is an Argentine sports communications firm created by businessman Carlos Ávila, associated with Jose Santoro, and Héctor Dayan. It is an important force in the world of Arge ...

for an undisclosed amount. Azul Televisión performed below expectations, largely due to a global economic crisis, and the Argentine network did not make a profit. Prime Television pulled out of Argentina in 2001, selling its stake for A$108 million. The network expanded further into New Zealand, with

Prime Television New Zealand Prime is a New Zealand free-to-air television network. It airs a varied mix of programming, largely imported from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was originally owned by Prime Television Limited in Australia. Prime late ...

on 30 August 1998. In 2002, Prime New Zealand entered into a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

with Australian company

Publishing & Broadcasting Limited Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) was one of Australia's largest corporations. With interests primarily in media and gambling, for the entirety of its existence it was largely controlled by the Packer family. History Predecessors PB ...

, owners of the Nine Network. Under the agreement, Prime Television was given access to Nine Network programs, expertise and money. In return, PBL was given the option to acquire 50% of Prime Television New Zealand in 2008. As a result, Prime Television New Zealand's ratings and profits increased significantly. Sky Television purchased Prime NZ for

NZ$ The New Zealand dollar ( mi, tāra o Aotearoa; sign: $, NZ$; code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcairn Islands. Within New ...

30 million in November 2005. For the 2007 Australian federal election, Prime's online division iPrime launched Federalelection.com.au, produced from

Prime Television Prime7, formerly Prime Television and other names, was an Australian television network. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as '' CBN-8'' in Orange, and later expanded to cover regional New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Cap ...

's Canberra headquarters in partnership with

Roy Morgan Roy Morgan, formerly known as Roy Morgan Research, is an independent Australian social and political market research and public opinion statistics company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. It operates nationally as Roy Morgan and internation ...

. The

purchased 14.9% of Prime Media Group and rumours emerge of an increased stake. In 2009, Lachlan Murdoch purchased an 8% stake.

Acquisition by Seven West Media

Seven made two attempts to purchase Prime. In December 2019, its first acquisition attempt failed after Prime shareholders Bruce Gordon and Anthony Catalano voted down, despite majority of shareholders voting in favour of the transaction; on 1 November 2021, Seven made its second attempt for $121.9 million. On 23 December 2021, majority of Prime's shareholders voted in favour of the takeover which took effect on 31 December 2021.

Assets

Television

(50% share with

) * West Digital Television (50% share with WIN Corporation)

iPrime

iPrime was an Australian internet portal produced by Prime Media Group. The portal was deployed across regions in which

and

currently broadcast television transmissions, which include the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. I ...

, regional

and regional

References

External links

Company website
{{Prime Media Group, state=collapsed Companies based in Canberra Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Seven Network Defunct broadcasting companies of Australia Television broadcasting companies of Australia Australian companies established in 1986 Australian companies disestablished in 2021 Mass media companies established in 1986 Mass media companies disestablished in 2021 2021 mergers and acquisitions