MTN (TV Station)
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MTN is a television station licensed to serve Griffith and the surrounding Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA). The station is owned and operated by WIN Corporation as a
Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...
affiliate. As WIN is the sole commercial television broadcaster in the area, they also supply the stations AMN, a
Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...
affiliate, and the supplementary station MDN, a
Network 10 Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's UK & Australia division and is one of the five national free-to-a ...
affiliate. This twinstick operation was permitted due to the broadcasting authorities considering Griffith and the MIA too small for three television companies, but large enough for a single company running two stations. The broadcast region covers approximately 39,700 square kilometres, encompassing 20 urban centres which include Leeton, Narrandera, Hay, Hillston and Lake Cargelligo. According to 2006 Census data, it is estimated the region has a population of 64,200.


History

MTN began transmission on 15 December 1965 on channel 9. At its launch, MTN was owned by Murrumbidgee Television Limited, a publicly listed company, whose shareholders at the time included local radio station 2RG. The costs of operating a television station in such a small market led MTN to join with CWN–6 Dubbo and CBN–8 Orange in forming the ''Television 6–8–9'' network, in 1973. While the majority of the programming and identification came from the network, MTN did run its own news service as well as some programs of local interest and popularity, separate to the rest of the network. In March 1981, the network was rebranded as ''Mid State Television''. Rancorp, who were the existing owners of stations RVN/AMV in Wagga Wagga and Albury, acquired Mid State Television in October 1987, and thus adding additional stations to the network. In November 1988, Mid State Television rebranded as ''Prime Television''. During this time, regional areas were serviced by one commercial station and the ABC, and as a result, the regional commercial network hand-picked titles from the three metropolitan commercial networks to air in their region. Unfortunately, this meant that regional viewers were not able to watch all of the same shows as their metropolitan counterparts. As a result, the Hawke government introduced aggregation, whereby regional stations would be grouped together and become sole-affiliates for one metropolitan station, and additional stations would launch in regional areas so that regional viewers had access to the same amount of channels as metropolitan viewers. However, the government deemed Griffith and the MIA to be too small a market for aggregation, and as a result, MTN was abandoned by Prime Television in 1989 and remained independently owned. MTN then took up an affiliation with
WIN Television WIN Television is an Australian television broadcasting, Australian television network owned and operated by WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single television stat ...
, who in turn was a
Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...
affiliate in southern New South Wales. While the majority of the programming was the same as WIN's, it retained its news service and aired some
Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...
programming, such as its coverage of the
Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...
, in preference to Nine's
rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
. In 1979, MTN was purchased from Murrumbidgee Television Limited by Henry Jones Limited. Other owners since have included , Lochfield Consultants, MTN Television, and Associated Media Investments. The Australian Broadcasting Authority relaxed the rules regarding station ownership in solus markets in the mid-1990s. The changes allowed for one company to operate two stations without competition, provided the Authority did not have reason to believe another company would be interested. MTN applied for a Section 38A licence in 1995, and after being refused once, challenged the Authority, and was successful on appeal – ultimately being granted the second license on 18 July 1996. The second channel launched on 5 October 1997, on UHF channel 31 using the callsign AMN (a variation of Victorian station AMV). It was a direct feed of Prime Television Orange, with the exception of its local news, which AMN replaced with alternative programming. Since then, AMN has changed from being a direct feed of Prime7 to being a feed of Seven Network Sydney. WIN Corporation brought MTN and AMN from then-owner Associated Media Investments on 6 July 1998. Following the sale of the station, minor changes occurred, including MTN changing its on-air branding from ''MTN Television'' to ''WIN Television'', and the news service rebranded as ''WIN News''. In 2000, the government introduced changes to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 which allowed for two-station markets such as the MIA to be granted a third license to be broadcast in digital-only. This change in the Act became Section 38B, and saw the region allocated a third license on 14 June 2011. This third station, using the call sign MDN and broadcasting on channel 32, launched on 13 January 2012. On 1 July 2016, to reflect WIN's new affiliation agreement with Network Ten, AMN and MDN swapped affiliates – with AMN becoming a Ten affiliate while MDN became a Nine affiliate. On 1 July 2021, to reflect WIN's new affiliation agreement with Nine Network, AMN and MDN swapped affiliates – with AMN becoming a Nine affiliate while MDN became a 10 affiliate.


Digital television

In 2000, the government introduced changes to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 which sought for all broadcasters to transmit in
digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...
by 1 January 2004. To assist solus markets such as the MIA, the government allowed networks to multichannel the digital broadcasts, whereby the two stations are transmitted on the one channel or frequency. Digital television transmission began in the region in 2003, with both WIN and Prime broadcasting on the one channel (channel 6). On 1 December 2010,
Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK & Australia division and is o ...
began broadcast into the area for the first time. In May 2011, WIN announced that it would broadcast the multichannels of the Nine, Seven and Ten networks, including high-definition channels, by December 2011. However, WIN did not meet the deadline, despite the Minister for Communications setting a deadline of 4 December 2011 for the full suite of channels. WIN commented in December 2011 that Go!, Eleven,
One 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
and Gem would launch by the third week of January 2012. began broadcasting on 13 January 2012. At first, interference from the analogue signals caused issues with some channels, mainly Network Ten channels, which meant a duplicate service of Ten and WIN was provided (on LCN 51 and 81 respectively) and ceased on the day of the switch over. Ultimately, the duplicate channels were replaced by the Seven Network's multi-channels 7TWO and 7mate. 7mate launched on 20 April 2012, replacing WIN's duplication on LCN 81; and 7TWO launched on 5 June 2012, the day of the analogue switchoff, .
Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
, a
datacasting Datacasting (data broadcasting) is the transmission of data over a wide area using radio waves. It typically refers to supplemental information sent by television stations alongside digital terrestrial television (DTT) signals. However, datacas ...
channel, began broadcasting in the region on 8 May 2012. As part of Australia's digital transition, MTN and AMN ceased broadcasting in analogue on 5 June 2012. As part of the transition, MTN changed from broadcasting on channel 6 to channel 29. On 13 July 2013, WIN launched datacasting channel Gold 2 – a five-hour timeshift of existing datacasting channel ''Gold'' – on channel 82. On 2 March 2016 (one day later than planned), WIN began broadcasting WIN HD and
9Life 9Life is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel owned by Nine Entertainment. The channel airs mostly foreign lifestyle and reality programs, with the channel having a licensing agreement with Discovery Inc. (previously Scr ...
in the region. However, unlike existing digital channels, these two channels are broadcast in
MPEG-4 MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related ...
as opposed to
MPEG-2 MPEG-2 (a.k.a. H.222/H.262 as was defined by the ITU) is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods ...
. On 21 January 2016, WIN replaced datacasting channel ''Gold 2'' with the Nine Network owned datacasting channel Extra. As a result of the 2016 affiliate changes, WIN – in addition to its high definition simulcast – swapped its stations from airing Nine Network programming to Network Ten programming. WIN remained in the 8/80's channel range, but as the new Ten affiliate. Meanwhile, WIN's former affiliate, Nine, had its primary channel, 9Go!, and 9Gem moved to the 5/50's channel range. But as a consequence, 9Life ceased to be available in the region, and Extra was replaced with Network Ten datacasting channel TVSN.


End of local advertising on Seven through WIN and Seven Network switchoff

On 30 June 2024, WIN ended their advertising agreement with the
Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...
, ending the ability for local advertisers to book advertising on Seven through WIN. Since 1 July 2024, the station has been a full-time dirty feed of
ATN ATN is the Sydney Flagship (broadcasting), flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of Fairfax Media, John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the ...
-7 Sydney complete with Sydney commercials. AMN (Nine) and MDN (10) continue to insert local commercials into their ad breaks. On 15 June 2025, WIN Television was unable to reach an agreement with the Seven Network to continue providing Seven channels in the Griffith and Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area regions. On 16 June 2025, WIN Television announced they will cease broadcasting Seven Network programming into Griffith and the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area beginning 1 July 2025.


Programming

AMN carries programming from
Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...
, which includes the Nine News Sydney bulletin as well as the amalgamated Wagga Wagga and MIA WIN News bulletin. The station also carries the Sydney feeds of
9Gem 9Gem is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, launched by the Nine Network in September 2010. The channel provides general entertainment and movie programming, from which the original name "GEM" is derived. History The la ...
,
9Go! 9Go! is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Nine Network on 9 August 2009, replacing Nine Guide. It is a youthful channel that offers a mix of comedy, reality, general entertainment, movies, anima ...
and
9Life 9Life is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel owned by Nine Entertainment. The channel airs mostly foreign lifestyle and reality programs, with the channel having a licensing agreement with Discovery Inc. (previously Scr ...
. ''MTN'' carries programming from
Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...
, which includes the Seven News Sydney bulletin. The station also carries the Sydney feeds of 7two and 7mate. ''MDN'' carries programming from
Network 10 Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's UK & Australia division and is one of the five national free-to-a ...
, which includes the 10 News First Sydney bulletin. The station also carries the Sydney feeds of 10 Bold Drama and 10 Peach Comedy.


Station details

The following transmitter details are correct as of January 2016.


Channels

The following is a list of channels broadcast on MTN and MDN respectively. MTN–29: AMN–30: MDN–32:


See also

* WIN Corporation * Regional television in Australia


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mtn (Tv Station) WIN Television Television stations in New South Wales MTN MDN Griffith, New South Wales