2006 in Australia - Television

Television

  • 1 January – Mildura Digital Television, a joint venture between WIN Television Mildura & Prime Television, goes on air in the Mildura area of Victoria as a Network Ten digital-only affiliate.
  • 2 January – The Seven and Ten Networks outbid Channel Nine and win the rights to broadcast the AFL from 2007–2011 for a record $780 million.
  • 30 January – Channel Nine launches a new logo, dropping the famous dots and replacing it with a stand-alone nine in a blue box.
  • February 2006 – Wheel of Fortune returns and starts in 2006. Larry Emdur & Laura Csortan will definitely host WOF in a partnership instead of one. On the very first episode in 2006, the car was won! The final edition of the version was screened on 28 July.
  • 9 February – It is announced that Eddie McGuire will become Channel Nine's new CEO.
  • 13 February – Network Ten's motto, Seriously... becomes Seriously Ten (this was Network Ten's 2001 motto), and has its new look Ten Watermark on the bottom right of the TV screens
  • 17 February – ABC premiered The Chaser's War On Everything
  • 20 February – Television Sydney formally launches after three months of testing, giving Sydney community television for the first time in almost two years.
  • 21 May – Brant Webb & Todd Russell speak to A Current Affair's new host Tracy Grimshaw about their time underground in Beaconsfield in a 2 hour special called The Great Escape. They are paid a reported $2.6 million by Channel Nine for the right to talk to them.
  • 4 June – After 12 years & a record-breaking 510 episodes, the last episode of the Seven Network show Blue Heelers goes to air.
  • 14 September – Today Tonight host Naomi Robson is deported from Indonesia after doing a story on a West Papuan boy called Wa Wa who, supposedly, was going to be eaten by cannibals. This sparks a war of words between Seven & Nine, who ran the original story on Wa Wa in May on 60 Minutes. Naomi presents her final edition of Today Tonight on 1 December.
  • 16 September – Television in Australia turns 50. The next day, this is commemorated with a live TV special from Star City, Sydney on the Seven Network.
  • 29 September – Backyard Blitz finishes its 6 year run on the Nine Network. Jamie Durie leaves Nine and signs up with the Seven Network, the next year, he dances his way on Dancing with the Stars.
  • 30 September – The Fox Footy Channel ceases broadcasting. It is replaced by Fox Sports 3 & Fox Sports News on 1 October.
  • 18 October – PBL announces the sale of 50% of the Nine Network, including its 50% stake in ninemsn & ACP to CVC Asia Pacific for $4.5 billion.
  • 26 November – Irishman Damien Leith defeats 17 year old Jessica Mauboy to be based only on Sony BMG after being crowned the title of Australian Idol 2006 at the Sydney Opera House.
  • 27 November – The last ever episode of The Glass House goes to air on ABC TV.

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Famous quotes containing the word television:

    “It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
    —Gore Vidal (b. 1925)

    “Never before has a generation of parents faced such awesome competition with the mass media for their children’s attention. While parents tout the virtues of premarital virginity, drug-free living, nonviolent resolution of social conflict, or character over physical appearance, their values are daily challenged by television soaps, rock music lyrics, tabloid headlines, and movie scenes extolling the importance of physical appearance and conformity.”
    —Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)

    “Television is an excellent system when one has nothing to lose, as is the case with a nomadic and rootless country like the United States, but in Europe the affect of television is that of a bulldozer which reduces culture to the lowest possible denominator.”
    —Marc Fumaroli (b. 1932)