Television Broadcasting in Australia - Commercial Television

Commercial Television

In order to allow for commercial licensing, the country was divided into a number of license areas. When these were drawn up in the 1950s, each major city or regional area - about 50 in all - was considered its own market region. In each of the five major capitals, three commercial licenses were granted (the exception being Perth which did not receive its third commercial station until 1988), while smaller cities or regions were granted a single license.

The process of aggregation began in 1989. Regional markets were merged and (usually) three licenses were granted in the new, aggregated, area. As some markets were formed by the merger of up to six different individual markets, this meant that some stations had to merge or form partnerships in order to remain competitive. Around the same time, many remote market regions were replaced with two satellite market regions - one for regional Western Australia, and one for remote central and eastern Australia - although each of these regions was only granted two licenses.

Some remained un-aggregated, and are today known as diary markets. Some of these were granted a second license, often to the same company that owned the existing license, while other existing two-license areas were also granted a third license, to a joint venture company formed as a partnership of the two existing broadcasters. Examples of these include Tasmanian Digital Television and Mildura Digital Television, as well as the upcoming Darwin Digital Television service.