MTN (TV station)
|
Griffith and the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area Australia |
|
|---|---|
| Channels |
Digital: MTN: 29 (UHF) AMN: 30 (UHF) MDN: 32 (UHF) Virtual: MTN: 6 AMN: 8 MDN: 5 |
| Subchannels | See Channels below |
| Affiliations |
MTN: Seven Network AMN: Network Ten MDN: Nine Network |
| Owner |
WIN Corporation Pty Ltd (WIN Television Griffith Pty. Ltd.) |
| First air date |
MTN: 15 December 1965 AMN: 5 October 1997 MDN: 13 January 2012 |
| Call letters' meaning |
Murrumbidgee Television New South Wales Albury Murray New South Wales |
| Former channel number(s) | Analogue: MTN: 9 AMN: 31 Digital: MTN: 6 |
| Former affiliations | See table below |
| Transmitter power | See table below |
| Height | 418 m |
| Transmitter coordinates | See table below |
| Website | www |
MTN is a television station licensed to serve Griffith and the surrounding Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (M.I.A.). The station is owned and operated by WIN Corporation as a Seven Network affiliate.
As WIN is the sole commercial television broadcaster in the area, they also supply the supplementary stations AMN, a Network Ten affiliate, and MDN, a Nine Network affiliate. This twinstick operation was permitted due to the broadcasting authorities considering Griffith and the M.I.A. too small for three television companies, but large enough for a single company running two stations. The broadcast region covers approximately 39,700 square kilometres, encompassing 20 urban centres which include Leeton, Narrandera, Hay, Hillston and Lake Cargellico. According to 2006 Census data, it is estimated the region has a population of 64,200.
MTN began transmission on 15 December 1965 on channel 9. At its launch, MTN was owned by Murrumbidgee Television Limited, a publicly listed company, whose shareholders at the time included local radio station 2RG.
The costs of operating a television station in such a small market led MTN to join with CWN–6 Dubbo and CBN–8 Orange in forming the Television 6–8–9 network, in 1973. While the majority of the programming and identification came from the network, MTN did run its own news service as well as some programs of local interest and popularity, separate to the rest of the network. In March 1981, the network was rebranded as Midstate Television. Rancorp, who were the existing owners of stations RVN/AMV in Wagga Wagga and Albury, acquired Midstate Television in October 1987, and thus adding additional stations to the network. In November 1988, Midstate Television rebranded as Prime Television. During this time, regional areas were serviced by one commercial network and one national network, and as a result, the regional commercial network hand-picked titles from the three metropolitan commercial networks to air in their region. Unfortunately, this meant that regional viewers were not able to watch all of the same shows as their city counterparts. As a result, the Hawke government introduced aggregation, whereby regional stations would be grouped together and become sole-affiliates for one metropolitan station, and additional stations would launch in regional areas so that regional viewers had access to the same amount of channels as metropolitan viewers. However, the government deemed Griffith and the M.I.A. to be too small a market for aggregation, and as a result, MTN was abandoned by Prime Television in 1989 and remained independently owned. MTN then took up an affiliation with WIN Television, who in turn was a Nine Network affiliate in southern New South Wales. While the majority of the programming was the same as WIN's, it retained its news service and aired some Seven Network programming, such as its coverage of the Australian Football League, in preference to Nine's rugby league.
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Wikipedia