The alignment of Southern Cross and Channel Nine was officially launched on Thursday night.
Officials gathered at Ballarat’s Regent Cinemas for the switch over to ‘Nine Ballarat’, set for 12.01am on July 1.
Southern Cross Austereo general manager (of) central and western Victoria Jason Priestley said it was a “landmark occasion” for the biggest realignment of commercial free-to-air TV since the aggregation of regional services in the early 1990s.
Tonight’s the launch night of what will be called Channel Nine Ballarat,” he said.
“It’s a landmark in itself because it’s never happened before in regional television where a new affiliation agreement has been signed.
“As of midnight tonight, we’ll now have Channel Nine and not Channel Ten. We’ll be known locally as Channel Nine Ballarat.”
WIN will host Channel Ten content from July 1.
NINE’S CHANNELS
Southern Cross Austereo is dropping the “Southern Cross Ten” brand to carry Nine’s name, its primary channel with shows like The Voice, Love Child and 60 Minutes, and offshoot channels GO! and Gem.
Viewers in regional Victoria, Queensland, ACT and southern NSW who currently press channel numbers 8 and 80 to 84 on their remote control to find those shows and channels will, from Friday, find them on channels 5 and 50 to 54.
Southern Cross Austereo’s relay of Nine’s primary channel will be on channel 5.Gem will be on 52, GO! on 53 and 9HD - a high-definition simulcast of Nine’s main channel - on 50.
Lifestyle and reality TV channel 9Life will be off-air from the July 1 switch-over until “mid-August” when it re-appears on 54. Shopping channel Aspire is on 56.
WIN’S CHANNELS
After 30 years with Nine, WIN will pick up Ten’s primary channel, which will be named WIN and show the likes of Masterchef, The Project and The Bachelor, and Ten’s offshoot channels ONE and Eleven.
Regional viewers currently press numbers 5 and 50 to 55 on their remote controls to find those shows and channels. But from Friday they will be found on channels 8 and 80 to 84.
WIN’s relay of Ten’s main channel, including the local bulletins of WIN News at the new time of 6pm, will be found on channel 8. The ONE channel will be on 81, Eleven on 82 and WIN HD - a high-def version of WIN’s main channel - will be on channel 80. Shopping and lifestyle channels TVSN and GOLD will be on 84 and 85.
