NEW (TV Station) - History

History

NEW was the last of the Network TEN stations in major metropolitan cities to go to air. The reason for the late launch (in comparison to other VHF 0/10 stations, which were 20 years before) was the smaller market size. Though this was true in the early days of television, it ceased to be the case in the 1980s, by which time the Perth market exceeded Adelaide in value so a situation existed where two stations in Perth shared a market as large as that of three stations in Adelaide. Because the demand for air time was high, advertising rates were higher than in Adelaide. The Perth market was therefore very profitable for the stations but was providing viewers with less choice than they had in other capital cities. The case for a new licence was made to ACMA, then the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal by Brian Treasure, one of the founders of Perth's first commercial station TVW-7 who was sacked by a hostile board in 1975. In April 1984, the Minister for Communications, Michael Duffy, called for applications for a third licence

Hearings ran from 1984 until 1986, with four applicants in one corner and the existing licencees in the other, attempting to defer or prevent the new licence from being granted.

Treasure's West Coast Telecasters, funded by Kerry Stokes and Jack Bendat, was the successful applicant, defeating Western Television, in spite of Treasure being forced to resign as Chairman due to a dispute with the Australian Taxation Office. But they sold the company to Frank Lowy's Northern Star Holdings before they went to air. The reason for this was a change in government policy.

In 1985 the government had removed the two cities requirement, making it possible for networks to own more than two capital city stations. In 1986 they increased the audience reach limits for networks from 60% to 75%, meaning that for the first time a national network of stations was feasible. The increase was part of the Federal government's push for equalisation of television services and Australia's first satellite, AUSSAT was part of this initiative. Satellite revenue generated from national television networks was expected to be significant (though this was not initially the case) and would subsidise the provision of new services to regional and remote areas. Increasing the audience ownership limits meant national networks and therefore revenue streams for AUSSAT.

The possibility of truly national television networks (and perhaps misunderstandings as to the economic benefits of satellite technology) led to inflated ideas of their worth. Those wanting to establish national networks offered very high premiums to small unaligned stations and the new licence-holder in Perth was made an extremely generous offer by Lowy, a newcomer to television networking with a large cheque book.

The station commenced broadcasting, on 20 May 1988. and TEN became a low-cost network relay station without ever creating the local content that Treasure had wanted to produce.

The first news team included former Nine newsreader Greg Pearce, Alan Hynd, Gina Pickering, Peter Perrin, Debra Bishop, Ian Brayshaw and John Barnett.