Mr Lancaster said WIN’s Bermuda-based billionaire owner Bruce Gordon had given company management his “full support in this new era for WIN”.

“As we have always done, we will move forward into a new era and continue to be the biggest television network in Australia and the strongest regional network with the best people in regional broadcasting,” Mr Lancaster said.

Reminding staff that Mr Gordon and WIN were “now the largest shareholders in both the Nine and Ten networks”, Mr Lancaster said WIN was proud to produce “more local news bulletins than our competitors”.

But a further statement from Southern Cross Austereo CEO Grant Blackley has described the difficulty of running local news programs with Channel Ten’s lower-rating shows providing the revenue.

“It strangled us in part from doing all of the things we might have wished to do with local content,” he told Fairfax Media. 

EARLIER: Uncertainty surrounds WIN Television’s local operations after the broadcaster looks set to confirm it has signed a deal with Channel Ten. 

The split from its current partner Nine was announced on Friday, and the changeover – with Southern Cross Austereo taking Nine content locally – will take place once the current partnerships end on June 30. 

While Southern Cross has said it would continue or even expand local programming under its deal with Nine, WIN TV has so far refused to talk about what the deal might mean for areas like Ballarat. 

WIN News Ballarat has already seen major changes in the last year, with redundancies and moves for key staff. 

Bruce Roberts now reads Ballarat news from Wollongong, and management positions have been lost from the Walker Street studio. 

But the momentous changes could see the new Southern Cross Nine partnership boost its news production. 

Southern Cross Austereo CEO Grant Blackley said they would copy WIN’s formula of a strong local presence in places like Ballarat. 

“As WIN has done over many years, we will seek to bring the best national and international content to regional markets but then complement that with strong local content, and we’ll do that in a manner not dissimilar to what audiences have been used to,” he said.

“We know that local content resonates strongly with regional audiences.” 

WIN TV Victoria and South Australia manager Rod Jerman did not return calls. 

Ten currently has an hour-long news bulletin at 5pm on weekdays before entertainment shows run in competing timeslots with other networks’ news. 

WIN owner Bruce Gordon owns 14.99 per cent of Nine and Ten, but has recently fought Nine in court over its streaming of metropolitan content all over Australia. 

WIN, under Mr Gordon, has been vociferous in its support of relaxing media regulations.