10 (Southern Cross Austereo)
10 is an Australian television network distributed by Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) in the Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill.
[9] The network expanded into the Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill areas on 31 December 2003[10] under a supplementary license granted to Southern Cross GTS/BKN by the ABA.
[citation needed] Three-minute local news updates were introduced in 2004, following recommendations put into place following the ABA's report.
It was anticipated that the network would be acquired by the Macquarie Media Group, following a A$1.35 billion takeover recommendation made to shareholders by Southern Cross Broadcasting on 3 July 2007,[12] and on 5 November 2007, this purchase was completed.
Southern Cross Ten began broadcasting its own datacast channel, Aspire TV on 21 May 2013 on LCN 56.
Southern Cross' Northern NSW station, NRN, was not part of the deal as the Nine-owned NBN Television already operated in the region.
[20] However, on 24 June 2016, Southern Cross announced that it had been "working tirelessly to get HD to air as quickly as possible", and 9HD became available from launch day on channel 50.
[22][23] Southern Cross announced on 25 July 2016 that it would broadcast the New Zealand-based home shopping channel Yesshop as a datacast service.
[24] However, Yesshop's owner (Yes Retail) made the decision to cease trading on 29 September 2016 citing lack of funds to pay wages and the company's current losses of approximately 20 million dollars.
[26] Following months of negotiations, Southern Cross finalised an agreement on 28 March 2017 to sell their Ten-affiliated Northern NSW station, NRN, to WIN Television for a total of $55 million,[27][28][29] with the sale taking effect on 31 May 2017.
On 17 July 2017, Southern Cross launched American religious channel SonLife Broadcasting Network (SBN), owned by evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, as a datacast service.
[32][33] On 12 March 2021, Nine announced that it would return to WIN Television as its regional affiliate in most markets beginning on 1 July 2021, in a deal that would last at least seven years.
Prior to 2017, short local news updates were aired throughout the day for each of the seventeen licence areas served throughout regional Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT and Victoria.
The updates were produced from Southern Cross Austereo's studio in Canberra and made use of news content from local radio stations owned by SCA in each market.
Prior to the formation of the Southern Cross Ten network, the Canberra and North Queensland stations broadcast one-hour nightly localised news bulletins.
[44] The bulletins were produced by Nine News, presented from Nine's existing studio facilities in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne respectively.
[49] Following the switch back to Network 10 affiliation on 1 July 2021, Southern Cross returned to producing local news updates after a five-year absence.
The updates, which typically don't include any corresponding news footage or soundbites, are researched, produced and presented by a single journalist.
