History
The channel began life as the FX in 1995 and became available on Austar in April 1999. It was relaunched as W. in 2003, shortly before digital broadcasting began. W screened original Australian programming such as Beauty and the Beast, Love My Way, From Here to Maternity and Studio A with Simon Burke. It also had Pay-TV rights to many popular U.S. primetime drama series such as Pushing Dasies and The Wire and repeats of many other series.
Antonia Kidman, sister of actress Nicole Kidman was the face of the W channel, for quite some time and has presented a few parenting and entertainment programs for this and other channels. W2, the timeshift channel broadcasting programs two hours later, was launched in September 2006. A website for the channel was also launched in September 2006.
W. underwent a transformation in April 2009, which included an updated logo (now simply W) and several new additions to the primetime line-up. W HD was launched on 15 November 2009, on both Austar and Foxtel.
In 2012, it was announced that SoHo will broadcast the new Australian drama Wentworth, a re-imaging of the classic television show Prisoner. It will air in 2013.
Read more about this topic: W Channel (Australia)
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