QQQ
is an Australian television station broadcasting in remote eastern, southern and central areas of Australia, owned by Macquarie Media Group (following their purchase of Southern Cross Broadcasting in 2007). The station is available via satellite and terrestrial platforms - mostly through community retransmission sites, although it also transmits into the town of Mount Isa, Queensland under the call sign ITQ
. The station is primarily affiliated with the Seven Network, while carrying a limited amount of sport programming from Network Ten.
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QQQ TICKETS
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History
In December 1998 the ITQ and QQQ signals - then known as
Queensland Satellite Television
, or QSTV, and owned by
Telecasters Australia Limited (previously Telecasters North Queensland) - were officially aggregated with that of
Imparja Television into a
Remote Eastern and Central Australia
licence area. Previously, QSTV serviced remote
Queensland and
New South Wales, while Imparja serviced the
Northern Territory (excluding
Darwin), and remote
South Australia and
Victoria, plus far-western New South Wales. As part of the aggregation, the
Australian Broadcasting Authority further extended the combined licence area to cover more remote areas of New South Wales, Victoria and
Tasmania, who were not fully served by regularly-licensed terrestrial television services.
[1]
On
1999-
02-01, QSTV changed its affiliation from predominantly
Network Ten, in line with Telecasters' stations in regional Queensland (
TNQ, now
Southern Cross Ten), to the Seven Network, becoming
Seven Central
.
[2] This closely followed the introduction of a Seven Network-affiliated service,
Seven Darwin
(TND), to Darwin in 1998.
Telecasters Australia was purchased by
Southern Cross Broadcasting (SCB) in July 2001
[3], and its official name was eventually changed to
Southern Cross Central
. However, unlike other Southern Cross-owned stations - including TND, which is now a dual Seven/Ten affiliate under the
Southern Cross Television brand - QQQ/ITQ simply carries the Seven Network branding unchanged, leading some people to continue to refer it as "Seven Central". The station carries a simple "SCTV" text watermark in lieu of independent branding, denoting the origin of the signal. (Previously, the watermark has read "TAL" and "SCB", denoting the previous owners. "MSCM" was used briefly after the Macquarie acquisition.)
Southern Cross News Update
Short
Southern Cross News Update
bulletins are aired eight times per day, featuring local news headlines from the central regions of Australia. The updates consist of the anchor reading the day's relevant news, with no video footage. The weather for most central towns is also displayed during the update. The 60-second updates are currently presented by
Dayna New.
Availability
Southern Cross Central is delivered through the
Optus Aurora satellite platform to all areas of Australia (except Western Australia and nearby islands) where no sufficient terrestrial commercial television is available. The area of reception is limited by the need to use an authorised
smart card to receive it. The service is also transmitted terrestrially in many towns and cities in remote
Queensland,
South Australia, and
Northern Territory.
Southern Cross Central is also available in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea though the HiTRON subscription television service (shown on channel list as 7 Central).
[4]
References
- Australian Broadcasting Authority (1998-12-23). Additional television services in remote regions of Australia. Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
- Alice Springs News, February 24, 1999. Retrieved on 2007-08-02.
- Southern Cross Broadcasting 2001 Annual Report. Retrieved on 2007-08-02.
- HiTRON Limited - Papua New Guinea :: MMDS TV - top programming - more channels - better reliability