Prime7, formerly Prime Television and other names, was an Australian

television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...

. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as '' CBN-8'' in Orange, and later expanded to cover regional

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Victoria and the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

. It was initially an independent affiliate owned by

Prime Media Group Prime Media Group Limited (formerly Prime Television Limited) was an Australian-based media corporation that formerly owned regional television network Prime7 in eastern Australia and GWN7 in regional Western Australia. It also owned ishop TV ...

before the network, and its sister GWN7, were acquired by

Seven West Media Seven West Media Limited is an Australian ASX-listed media company. It is Australia's largest diversified media business, with an extensive presence in broadcast television, radio, print and online publishing. Seven West Media owns the Seve ...

on 31 December 2021. Prime7 along with GWN7 national broadcast facilities were based in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

, with playout facilities (since 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 tax revenue. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World Movies, SBS ...

at a facility operated by Australian telecommunications provider

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...

. Seven West Media head office/administration is located in Pyrmont, Sydney.

History

Origins

Prime Television originally began as a group of separate stations and networks – Midstate Television in Orange,

Dubbo Dubbo (; ) is a city in the Orana (New South Wales), Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the ...

and

Griffith Griffith may refer to: People * Griffith (name) * Griffith (surname) * Griffith (given name) Places Antarctica * Mount Griffith, Ross Dependency * Griffith Peak (Antarctica), Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Glacier, Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Ridge, ...

; RVN/AMV in

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 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, m ...

and

Albury Albury (; ) is a major regional city that is located in the Murray River, Murray region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the twin city of Albury–Wodonga, Albury-Wodonga and is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of ...

; and 9-8 Television in Tamworth and Taree. CBN-8 Orange first aired on 17 March 1962, followed by CWN-6 Dubbo on 1 December 1965, and MTN-9 Griffith began on 15 December 1965. CBN and CWN were both licensed to Country Television Services (also the owner of radio station 2GZ in Orange). CWN was a full-time relay of CBN—the first Australian television station to relay another. The two stations thus formed the country's first regional television network. RVN-2 Wagga Wagga began broadcasting on 19 June 1964, while AMV-4 Albury launched on 7 September 1964. The two stations merged in 1971 as the Riverina and North East Victoria Television Service Pty Ltd with the callsign RVN/AMV on air. In northern New South Wales, NEN-9 Tamworth began transmission on 27 September 1965, with a relay in Armidale (NEN-1, later NEN-10) on 15 July 1966. ECN-8 Taree started on 27 May 1966. At one stage, ECN-8 merged with NRN-11

Coffs Harbour Coffs Harbour, locally nicknamed Coffs, is a coastal city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 a ...

(now owned by

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 ...

), however the two stations eventually split. NEN later merged with ECN as 9-8 Television.

Television 6-8-9

As a result of the financial difficulties that many independent stations faced, MTN-9 joined CWN-6 and CBN-8 to form Television 6-8-9 in 1973. Relays were launched in Portland, Lithgow,

Mudgee Mudgee () is a town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West of New South Wales, Australia. It is in the broad fertile Cudgegong River valley north-west of Sydney and is the largest town in the Mid-Western Regional Council Local gov ...

, Cobar, Kandos and Rylstone and Bathurst. In 1981, 6-8-9 changed its name to Midstate Television. Colour television was introduced at the same time as the rest of the country, on 1 March 1975 – one of the single most expensive processes undertaken by CBN to date. The station was a prominent broadcaster of local sporting events including tennis and rugby. In 1979, a documentary titled ''Goin' Down The Road'', about the 1978 National Rodeo Titles won the network a

Logie award The TV Week Logie Awards (known colloquially as The Logies) is an annual ceremony celebrating and honouring the best shows and stars in Television in Australia, Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The eve ...

for an 'Outstanding Contribution by a Regional Station'. Midstate produced a number of local programs, including the ''Weekend Report'', ''Early Shift'', ''Rural Roundup'' and ''Around the Schools''. From 1968, CBN was able to access a

Postmaster-General's Department The Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) was a department of the Australian federal government, established at Federation in 1901, whose responsibilities included the provision of postal and telegraphic services throughout Australia. It was ...

microwave link for national news bulletins and major events.

Aggregation

Midstate Television was bought out by media magnate Paul Ramsay's Ramcorp in October 1987. It was soon merged with Ramcorp's other stations, RVN/AMV and NEN/ECN. In 1988, Midstate Television was renamed Prime Television and began to show increased

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

programming in readiness for aggregation. When aggregation took place, Prime began broadcasting to both southern New South Wales and northern Victoria. Transmission problems meant that aggregation in southern New South Wales took place in two stages – first the Australian Capital Territory and NSW south coast on 31 March 1989, followed by Orange,

, and

on 31 December 1989. These changes led to the de-merger of RVN-AMV, with RVN becoming CBN-2.

remained a one-station market, however instead of taking programming from Prime in line with the network's other stations, MTN-9 relayed programming mainly from

WIN Television WIN Television is an Australian television broadcasting, Australian television network owned and operated by WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single television stat ...

in southern New South Wales. A supplementary licence, AMN-31, was successfully bid for by MTN in 1996, providing a relay of Prime Television. Soon after the station was purchased by

, which undertook a number of minor changes – mainly changing the news service to

WIN News ''WIN News'' is a local television news service in parts of regional Australia, produced by WIN Television. 14 regional bulletins and news update services are presented from WIN's headquarters in Wollongong, and until 2021 included production ...

, and using entirely WIN branding. AMN-31 remains a relay of Prime. Similarly, the

Mildura Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...

licence area remained separate from the remainder of Victoria, albeit with a single station, STV-8, later bought out by WIN Television in 1996. In 1997 Prime was successful in bidding for a new licence for the area at a cost of $3.2 million. PTV-31 began broadcasting the following year. Although advertising revenue increased post-aggregation, local programming declined as a result of the costs incurred by the network's expansion – an estimated $45 million had been spent by Ramcorp during and in the lead-up to aggregation. After losses of $50 million, it was not until 1993 that the renamed Prime Television posted a profit. In November 1996, Prime's parent company, Prime Television, purchased the Golden West Network, a merged group of four stations in regional Western Australia; BTW-3 Bunbury, VEW-8

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

, GTW-11

Geraldton Geraldton (Wajarri language, Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu language, Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West (Western Australia), Mid West region of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. As of the , Geraldt ...

and GSW-9 Albany. Western Australia, similar to Griffith and Mildura, remained a one-station commercial market until 1999 when GWN became a

affiliate, after

began transmission as an affiliate of both the

Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and 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 the five main free-to-air television ...

and

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK & Australia division and is o ...

. The network began to expand into New Zealand in 1997, when a number of licences were purchased from United Christian Broadcasters for an estimated $3.6 million. Prime Television New Zealand began broadcasting on 30 August 1998, with a nightly local news program in both

Waikato The Waikato () is a region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the nort ...

and

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

. Prime also expanded into Argentina with the purchase of the Canal 9 network.

2000s

The renamed Argentine network Azul Televisión was sold for $108 million in early 2000 due to lower-than-expected performance. During the same year, Prime benefited greatly from its affiliation with the

throughout its carriage of the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

in Sydney. The network's relationship with Seven was further developed throughout the early 2000s, leading to the introduction of ''7onPrime'' promotional branding for

-produced programs on 11 February 2001. Local news bulletins for

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

, the Gold Coast,

, and

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

were axed on 9 June 2001 due to falling ratings and the anticipated costs of the switch to

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

. This, and the closure of a number of news bulletins 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 ...

, prompted the

Australian Broadcasting Authority The Australian Broadcasting Authority was an Australian government agency whose main roles were to regulate broadcasting, radio communications and telecommunications. The Authority took over the functions of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal ...

to investigate the adequacy of regional news services The ABA later mandated that stations broadcast a minimum level of local content, based on a points systemtwo points per minute for local news, and one point per minute for other local content, excluding paid advertisements. Prime formed a partnership with the

(affiliated in Australia to competitor

), giving its owner, PBL Media the option to purchase a 50% share of Prime Television New Zealand in return for access to original programming, and cross-promotion in PBL's New Zealand magazine titles. Following this, Prime Television New Zealand began to take on branding and programming similar to that of the

. In November 2005, Prime Television New Zealand was purchased by

subscription television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

provider

Sky Network Television Sky Network Television Limited, more commonly known as Sky, is a New Zealand broadcasting company that provides pay television services via satellite television, satellite, media streaming services, and broadband internet services. Sky had 1,0 ...

for , completed after approval by New Zealand's Commerce Commission in February 2006. Mildura Digital Television, a digital-only station in

began transmissions in 2006 as a joint venture between Prime Television and

. Section 38B of the ''Broadcasting Services Act'' allowed for the provision of a third station owned by either one or both existing networks. MDT is a direct relay of 10 Melbourne, albeit with local advertising. Prime Television announced on 21 December 2009 that it would start broadcasting 7two on 23 December 2009.

2010s

On 25 September 2010, Prime began transmission of the new HD digital channel

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 c ...

aimed at men 16–49. The first program to be broadcast was the drawn 2010 AFL Grand Final. On 15 January 2011, Prime Media Group reported that Prime and GWN were set to rebrand as Prime7 and GWN7 respectively. Their news bulletins had quickly changed their names to Prime7 News and GWN7 News, while 7two dropped the "Prime" logo on the multichannels. Prime and GWN relaunched on 16 January 2011 at 18:00 (6pm). Prime7 began broadcasting 4ME (then Television 4) on 18 September 2011 on LCN 64. Prime7 began broadcasting ishop TV on 30 April 2013 on LCN 65. Prime7 ceased to broadcast 4ME on 30 April 2016, due to financial problems. In December 2016, Prime7 transferred its playout facilities to MediaHub Australia located within the Sydney suburb of Ingleburn. The facility is a joint venture between public broadcaster

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

and rival regional network

. Network officials noted that its existing Canberra facilities cannot be upgraded with technological advancements, causing Prime7 to be incapable of relaunching its HD simulcast as well as introducing

7flix 7flix is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 28 February 2016. 7flix targets a variety of viewers and offers drama, comedy, reality, docusoap, and movies. History On 18 Decembe ...

to its viewers. On 3 August 2017, 18 months after launching in metropolitan areas, Prime7 announced that it would carry 7flix to its regional stations in northern and southern New South Wales, regional Victoria and

from 3 September 2017. The channel became available on digital channel 66 in MPEG-4 format. On 15 January 2018, Prime7 quietly relaunched its primary HD service, Prime7 HD, on digital channel 60 in MPEG-4 format.

2021: Merger with Seven

On 1 November 2021,

announced that it would acquire all the shares and subsidiaries of

, including Prime7. This was Seven West Media's second attempt at purchasing Prime, after its previous attempt in 2019 was thwarted by

Australian Community Media Australian Community Media (ACM) is a media company in Australia responsible for over 160 regional publications. Its mastheads include the '' Canberra Times'', '' Newcastle Herald'', '' The Examiner'', '' The Border Mail'', '' The Courier'' an ...

boss Antony Catalano and rival

owner Bruce Gordon, who cited Seven's debt problems at the time and its poor ratings performance as their reason for their refusal. This development would mark an end to the Prime branding after 33 years in favour of the

's branding, and would see all news bulletins carry the ''

Seven News Seven News (stylised 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 South Eveleigh, Sydney, while its flags ...

'' brand. Prior to this, Prime7 (and sister GWN7 in regional and remote Western Australia), as well as

Nine 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Hindu–Arabic digit Circa 300 BC, as part of the Brahmi numerals, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bot ...

affiliate

Imparja Television Imparja Television (IMP) is an independent Australian television station servicing over , across six states and territories: Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. It is based in Alice Spri ...

were the only networks not to fully use its metro affiliate branding despite carrying Seven (Nine for Imparja) branded promos, since WIN Television (except for WIN News) and Southern Cross Austereo use full

, Ten and Seven branding on their stations. It was also announced that Seven would look to expand its investment in local news following the merger. The majority of Prime's shareholders voted in favour of the deal on 23 December, with the sale completed on 31 December. On 23 May 2022, Seven West Media announced that the current branding of Prime7 and GWN7 would be unified into Seven Network branding across all stations including for Prime7 Local News, officially retiring the Prime7 name. In June 2022 the Prime7 brand was retired. On 22 July 2022 the final retirement of the Prime7 branding took place with all local news bulletins becoming "7NEWS (region)" for example "7NEWS Border" as of Monday 25 July.

Programming

Prime's programming schedule was almost identical to those of Seven Network metropolitan counterparts

ATN ATN is the Sydney Flagship (broadcasting), flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of Fairfax Media, John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the ...

in Sydney and HSV in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, with some differences. Since the Prime network's inception it featured a broad range of original local programming, which included children's program ''Possum's Club'' with Madelaine Collignon and station mascot ''Prime Possum'' as well as community service segment ''Prime7 InfoNet'', a series of short updates listing local community events. Prime7's overnight schedule also differed from the Seven Network feed, containing infomercials from Danoz Direct, Home Shopping, and a feed from pay television channel Expo. Past programming from Prime Television has been recognised nationally, with some local productions winning the

Logie Award The TV Week Logie Awards (known colloquially as The Logies) is an annual ceremony celebrating and honouring the best shows and stars in Television in Australia, Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The eve ...

for 'Outstanding Contribution by a Regional Television Station'. The network has won Logies for ''Goin' Down The Road'' (CBN-8, 1979), ''Naturally'' (NEN-9/ECN-8, 1984), ''Stranded'' (Prime Television, 1993), ''Rest in Peace'' (Prime Television, 1994), and ''No Time For Frailty'' (Prime Television, 1996).

Prime7 News

''Seven News Regional'' (formerly known as ''Prime7 News'' and ''Prime News'') was the network's local news service. Full bulletins were produced for the towns and surrounding regions originally covered by the stations "Midstate 6,8,9 Television",

/ Orange, "RVN-2/AMV-4",

and "9/8 Television" (NEN-9/ECN-8) Tamworth/ Taree, prior to the aggregation of regional television services in New South Wales that occurred in the early 1990s. In other areas two-minute news updates were shown at various times of the day. ''Prime7 News'' bulletins were presented from Canberra weeknightly as Prime7 Local News at 18:00 (6pm) in the Albury and Wodonga Border, North West, North Coast, Central West and Wagga Wagga broadcast areas. ''Prime7 News at 6:30 (with Daniel Gibson)'' (at 18:30) also came from the Canberra news centre.

Availability

Prime7 was available in

standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a similar resolution to the ...

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

format. Since June 2007 a

1080i In high-definition television (HDTV) and video display technology, 1080i is a video display format with 1080 lines of vertical resolution and Interlaced video, interlaced scanning method. This format was once a standard in HDTV. It was particular ...

high definition simulcast had also been available, replacing the network's former 576p service. Prime7 was viewed mainly through

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

terrestrial

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

s, although

subscription The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century. It ...

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

also provided by

TransACT TransACT is the trading name of TransACT Capital Communications, an Australian telecommunications company based in Canberra which provides broadband internet access, fixed telephony, cable television services, and mobile phone services in Canb ...

and Neighbourhood Cable in the

and

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

, respectively. Prime7 broadcast to southern

through stations based in Orange and

, northern New South Wales from stations in Tamworth and Taree, Victoria from its Albury-Wodonga-based station AMV and

via PTV.

Prime7 HD

Prime7 HD originally launched on 15 October 2007 as a sister to the Seven Network's high definition simulcast, Seven HD. Then-known as ''Prime HD'', it broadcast in 1080i high definition on digital channel 60 on Prime's regional stations NEN Northern New South Wales, CBN Southern New South Wales, AMV Victoria and PTV Mildura. The channel broadcast breakaway programming from 10 December 2007 until 4 October 2009, when it was turned into a straight HD simulcast. Prime HD fully ceased broadcasting on 25 September 2010 with the launch of the HD channel 7mate. Prime7 re-launched their HD simulcast service, now known as ''Prime7 HD'' on 15 January 2018.

Logos

Prime Television became a network in May 1988, with shared logos produced and used across the regional stations, featuring the word ''Prime Television'' either above an outlined triangle or rectangle. Aggregation occurred across the network on 31 March 1989, along with the introduction of a green logo featuring the word ''Prime'' with the letter ''i'' dotted with a stylised globe, introduced in December 1988. This logo was used on its own across the network until 1996, when a new circular logo was introduced in 1990. Following a decade in use, 2001 saw the launch of a new simplified yellow logo, with the removal of the circle. This logo was launched concurrently with a similarly design logo on the Golden West Network. Following the 2011 relaunch, a new red logo was introduced which incorporates the Seven Network logo. The relaunch logo featuring Seven Network was revised in 2012 from multi colour to be a single colour logo. File:Prime Television (1988).svg, 1988–1990 File:Prime Television (1990).svg, 1990–10 February 2001 File:PrimeTelevision2001.svg, 11 February 2001 – 16 January 2011 File:Prime7.svg, 16 January 2011 – 25 July 2022 File:Seven Network logo.svg, PTV

Notes

References

{{good article Prime Media Group Seven Network English-language television stations in Australia Television channels and stations established in 1962 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2022 1962 establishments in Australia 2022 disestablishments in Australia Defunct television channels in Australia