NEW is a television station broadcasting in Perth, Western Australia, and is a member of Network 10. Out of the three commercial stations, NEW generally rates the lowest overall, but usually rates highest in its target demographic (people aged 16–49).

NEW broadcasts in digital television on VHF Channel 11 from Carmel, located in the Perth Hills. Its studios are located in Subiaco. NEW broadcasts reasonably good quality 1080i high definition digital programming, the second-highest quality in Perth. The callsign NEW-10 was chosen for promotional purposes when the station first launched.

The station's former studios in Dianella were formerly host to the facilities of the regional Western Australian television station WIN Television WA (from 1999 to 2007) until WIN Corporation bought out competitor STW-9 in June 2007 and moved all WA operations to their studios.

History

NEW was the last of the 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 Western Australia's first television 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^[2]

Hearings ran from 1984 until 1986, with four applicants submitting bids. In the other corner were the existing stations, Seven outlet TVW and Nine Network outlet STW, attempting to defer or prevent the new licence from being granted. Seven and Nine were the only two commercial stations in Perth, and they wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

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. However, Treasure 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 it increased the audience reach limits for networks from 60% to 75%, meaning that for the first time a coast-to-coast network of owned and operated stations was feasible.^[3] 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, making Perth the last of the capital cities to get full network service.^[4] By this time, it had been scaled back considerably and was little more than a low-cost relay of network programming from Sydney, without 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.

NEW commenced digital television transmission in January 2001, broadcasting on VHF Channel 11 while maintaining analogue transmission on VHF Channel 10.

The analogue signal for NEW was shut off at 9.00am WST, Tuesday, 16 April 2013.

On 2 December 2016, the final broadcast of Perth's 10 News First took place from Dianella studios after more than 28 years.

On 5 December 2016, the station left Dianella after 28 years and moved to the state-of-the-art studios at 502 Hay Street in Subiaco.^[5]

Digital multiplex

Programming

News and current affairs

Bell 206 of NEW at Perth Airport (2006).

NEW-10 produces a 90-minute local news program at 5pm on weeknights.

10 News First is presented from the network's Perth studios by Natalie Forrest with sports presenter Lachy Reid and weather presenter Beau Pearson. Reporters, camera crews and editorial staff are based at NEW-10's Subiaco studios.

At weekends, the network also produces a localised edition of the national program 10 News First: Weekend, broadcast from Sydney.

See also

• Television broadcasting in Australia

References