NTD (Australian TV station)
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NTD is an Australian television station, licensed to and serving Darwin, Palmerston and surrounds. The station is owned by PBL Media, and is an owned-and-operated station of the Nine Network, under the company name Territory Television Pty. Ltd..
History
Origins
NTD-8 was officially launched at 8 p.m. on November 11, 1971, with the opening lineup at 5:30 p.m. beginning with Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, followed by Bandstand at 6 p.m. and at 7 p.m. An Evening with Burt Bacharach.
The station was officially inaugurated by Northern Territory Administrator, Fred Chaney, followed by speeches from Sir Myles Wright, Fred Yates, John Hickman, and assistant executive John May.
The opening lineup was concluded with All the King's Men at 8:30 p.m. and Danger Man at 10:30 p.m. followed a station close.
1980s
In the late 1980s, NTD-8 was purchased by Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, the owners of the Nine Network at that time. Following the acquisition of the station by Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, NTD-8 adopted a similar on-air presentation to the Nine Network with an Eight logo. NTD-8's news service revamped and rebranded along with the station, to become Eight National News.
1990s
NTD-8's first competitor was launched in 1998, owned by Telecasters Australia under the name Seven Darwin, now Southern Cross Television. The introduction of a second commercial television operator in the Darwin television market brought an end to NTD-8's solus commercial operations of the prior three decades.
Territory Television Pty. Ltd., attempted to gain Seven Network affiliation rights prior to Seven Darwin's launch, in a strategic move to dominate and force the incoming competitor to align with Network Ten. This would have seen NTD-8 broadcast both Nine Network and Seven Network programming, however after being rejected affiliation, the station gained Network Ten affiliation to supplement their parent company's Nine Network programming.
2000s
On New Year's Day 2003, Eight Darwin became Nine Darwin, in line with the rest of Kerry Packer's Nine Network owned-and-operated stations. Following the rebrand to Nine Darwin, the station decreased Network Ten programming from their line-up, and in 2005, the Network Ten affiliation rights were officially relinquished, and were then taken by Southern Cross Television's TND-34.
In 2005, in the midst of the tug-of-war for the AFL television rights, PBL announced that National Rugby League games will take precedence on the station over AFL games, a sign that Nine may have be about to give up the race for the rights to a proposed Seven-Ten consortium, which they did, but not without putting in a $780 million dollar bid for the rights.[1]
News
The 6:00pm Darwin National Nine News presenters include:
- Jonathan Uptin (Weeknights)
- Lisa Andrews (Weeknight Sports and reporter)
- Tim Arvier (fill-in and reporter)
- Stephen Mount (Weekend presenter and reporter)
Other reporters include:
- Camden Smith (reporter and Chief of Staff)
- Bethany Jensen (Court reporter)
- Justin O'Brien (Reporter)
Pre-Network Logos
NTD-8 used several logos throughout its pre-network history.
| File:NTD-8 1971.png | File:NTD1998.svg | File:NTD2001.svg |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 - 1979 | 1980 - 1993 | 1994 - 2002 |
Note: Post-network logos can be found at the following article; Nine Network.
References
- ^ Roy Masters (2005-04-01). "Darwin's wind of change blows for NRL". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
- "Tonight's The Night". Northern Territory News. 1971-11-11. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
See also
External links
- National Nine News Darwin National Nine News Darwin Team