QQQ is an Australian television station broadcasting in remote central and eastern areas of Australia, owned by

Southern Cross Austereo Southern Cross Media Group Limited, Trade name, doing business as Southern Cross Austereo, is an Australian media company which operates broadcast radio and Terrestrial television, television stations. It is the largest radio broadcaster in Au ...

. The station is available via satellite and terrestrial platforms – mostly through community retransmission sites, although it also transmits into the town of Mount Isa,

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

under the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

ITQ. The station is solely affiliated with the

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, ...

History

ITQ Channel 8 began broadcasting into Mount Isa on 11 September 1971, converting to colour in May 1975. QQQ began broadcasting into remote

and

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 ...

in 1988. In 1990, ITQ was purchased by North Queensland Television, who owned QQQ at the time, and became a relay of QQQ. In December 1998, the ITQ and QQQ signals – then known as ''Queensland Satellite Television'', or QSTV, and owned by Telecasters Australia Limited (previously Telecasters North Queensland) – were officially aggregated with that of

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 ...

into a ''Remote Central and Eastern Australia'' licence area. Previously, QSTV serviced western parts of Queensland and New South Wales, while Imparja serviced the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

(excluding Darwin), and remote

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

and Victoria, plus far-western New South Wales (excluding

Broken Hill Broken Hill is a city in the Far West (New South Wales), far west region of outback New South Wales, Australia. An inland mining city, it is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Hi ...

). As part of the aggregation, the '' Australian Broadcasting Authority'' further extended the combined licence area to cover more remote areas of New South Wales, Victoria and

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, who were not fully served by regularly licensed terrestrial television services. On 1 February 1999, QSTV changed its affiliation from predominantly

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 ...

, in line with Telecasters' stations in regional Queensland ( TNQ, now SCA 10), to the Seven Network, becoming ''Seven Central''. This closely followed the introduction of a Seven Network-affiliated service, ''Seven Darwin'' (TND), to Darwin in 1998. Telecasters Australia was purchased 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 July 2001, and its official name was eventually changed to ''Southern Cross Central''. However, unlike other Southern Cross-owned stations – including TND, which at the time was a dual Seven/Ten affiliate under the Southern Cross Television brand – QQQ/ITQ simply carried the Seven Network branding unchanged, leading some people to continue to refer it as "Seven Central". The station carried a simple "SCTV" text watermark in lieu of independent branding, denoting the origin of the signal. (Previously, the watermark has read "TAL" and "SCB", denoting the previous owners. "MSCM" was used briefly after the Macquarie acquisition.) On 19 May 2010, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) approved a licence for Central Digital Television, a third digital-only network to be jointly owned by Imparja Television and Southern Cross Austereo. The network launched on 30 June 2010 on the Viewer Access Satellite Television service. The same day, Southern Cross Central began broadcasting ''SCTV Central'', ''SCTV Central HD'' and ''7Two Central'' to coincide with the first analog television transmitter switch off in

Mildura, Victoria 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 ...

. This was so viewers in the area who lost adequate television coverage were able to utilise VAST as an alternative source. VAST officially launched on 10 December 2010, and began granting access to viewers in the Remote Central and Eastern Australia licence areas. This brought digital television to satellite viewers in the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia for the first time. Digital terrestrial transmissions began in Alice Springs, Northern Territory and Mount Isa, Queensland on 2 May 2011, with other areas launching between 2012 and 2013. Optus Aurora, the satellite service preceding VAST, was closed down on 10 December 2013.

News updates

Under previous owners, a local ''Seven News'' bulletin for Darwin and Central Australia was produced until 2000. Separate news update services for remote Australia were introduced in 2005 before being merged with updates for Darwin into one service in 2013. The shared three-minute short news updates throughout the day are broadcast on ITQ/QQQ serving remote areas and TND in Darwin, presented from

's studio in Hobart.

Availability

Terrestrial

Seven Central broadcasts

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 ...

digital television channels ''Seven Central'', ''7mate Central'' and ''7two Central'' via terrestrial transmissions in many regional cities and towns. The network is licensed to broadcast within the Remote Central and Eastern Australia TV2 and Mount Isa TV1 licence areas, which include Alice Springs, Bourke, Ceduna, Charleville, Coober Pedy, Cooktown,

Katherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in countries where large Christian populations exist, because of its associations with one of the earliest Ch ...

, Longreach, Mount Isa, Roma and Weipa, as well as others.

Satellite

A digital satellite transmission of Seven Central's channels is available free-to-view on the VAST service in all states and territories of Australia, except Western Australia. ''7mate Central'' is broadcast as a single channel to all viewers, while ''Seven Central'' and ''7two Central'' are each split into two separate channels. ''Seven Central North'' and ''7two Central North'' are broadcast in Australian Eastern Standard Time for viewers in

and

(Northern Australia TV3 licence area), and ''Seven Central South'' and ''7two Central South'' in Australian Eastern Summer Time for viewers in

, Victoria,

and

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island ( , ; ) is an States and territories of Australia, external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head, New South Wales, Evans Head and a ...

(South Eastern Australia TV3 licence area). ''Seven Central North'' and ''Seven Central South'' are broadcast in high definition. ''Seven Central'' is also available in

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

in Papua New Guinea though Digicel Pacific (shown on channel list as ''7 Central'').

References