Events
- 1 January – Australia's first Digital commercial free-to-air channel, Tasmanian Digital Television begins broadcasting in Hobart as a supplementary broadcaster to existing broadcasters Southern Cross Tasmania & WIN Television. On the same day, WIN TEN goes on air in the Mount Gambier & Riverland regions of South Australia as a supplementary broadcaster to existing solus broadcaster WIN Television.
- 1 February – Deal or No Deal debuts its 5.30pm timeslot on Seven. This proves to be a massive ratings hit. Its success proves too much for the Nine Network, with reworked game shows including The Price is Right, Bert's Family Feud and Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune all failing in the dreaded 5:30pm timeslot.
- February – Top-rating game show Wheel Of Fortune makes a rebranding and a super new-look over to continue its long-run on Seven Local TV.
- 28 April - A live episode of Blue Heelers goes to air on the Seven Network, titled "Reasonable Doubt". Although this particular episode earned reasonable ratings, the rest of the season is a failure ratings-wise.
- 14 March – Foxtel launches its new digital service, Foxtel Digital.
- 12 May – After 18 years at SBS, Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton resign from the station to move to the ABC to present a new program, At the Movies. Four younger presenters replace them on The Movie Show: Megan Spencer, Fenella Kernebone and Jaimie Leonarder, with Marc Fennell presenting a segment on newly released DVDs.
- 1 May – The Ten Network breaks with years of tradition and abandons the Sunday night movie after poor ratings. Instead, it screens episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Most other networks follow suit later on.
- 17 June - Dean Cartechini becomes the first person to win Deal or No Deal's top prize, winning $200,000.
- 26 July – Broken Hill resident Trevor Butler proposes to his girlfriend immediately after winning A$1,000,000 on Big Brother.
- 30 August - Immediately after the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympics, the first ever Sunrise is broadcast from the Seven Network's new Martin Place studios. On the same night, Seven News relaunches nationwide with a complete overhaul of graphics and new sets in Sydney and Melbourne.
- 21 November – 17 year old Casey Donovan wins the second series of Australian Idol defeating 21 year old favourite, Anthony Callea.
- 11 December – The Network Ten is the next Australian television network to introduce a watermark on its programs, although the watermark is now broadcast on Ten News. It was located on the bottom left of the screens before switching to bottom right in 2006.
- December – Seven, Nine & TEN withdrawn their opening to movies - movie openers are replaced by classification boards instead.
Read more about this topic: 2004 In Australian Television
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