Origins The Southern Cross brand was first used in 1982 by a small network of three stations in regional
Victoria. The then
Victorian Broadcasting Network comprised
GLV-8 Gippsland,
BCV-8 Bendigo, and STV-8
Mildura. GLV was the first
regional television station in the country, launched on 9 December 1961. This network began as a "cherry picking" network, taking programs from all three metropolitan commercial networks at the time. At aggregation, it became an affiliate of
Network Ten.
1960s to the 1970s Tasmanian television station
TNT-9 commenced broadcasting at 5:57 pm on 26 May 1962. Fred Archer was the first person to appear on the station, during its first five hours of transmission. On the opening night the station was officially inaugurated by
Lord Rowallan, the
Governor of Tasmania.
The Mickey Mouse Club was the first programme to be broadcast, and advertisements included: Abbott's cordial, Hydro, Launceston Bank for Savings, Peters Ice Cream, Hicks Atkinson and the Saturday Evening Express.
GTS/BKN began transmissions as a solus commercial television service by Spencer Gulf Telecasters in the upper
Spencer Gulf in 1968, with
Port Lincoln and
Broken Hill commencing in 1970 and 1974 respectively.
1980s to the 1990s On 13 May 1989,
TNT-9 was sold by
ENT Ltd. to
Southern Cross Broadcasting and was integrated into the Southern Cross network.
Tasmania was aggregated on 30 April 1994, albeit with only two stations – Southern Cross became a dual Seven and Ten affiliate, The station, named
Darwin Digital Television, began broadcasting on 28 April 2008. It is a
digital-only
Network Ten affiliate, similar to other digital only joint venture channels introduced in Australia. On 3 July 2007 Southern Cross Television's parent company,
Southern Cross Broadcasting, recommended
Macquarie Media Group's offer of
A$1.35 billion, for a takeover of the corporation. On 5 November 2007, the network was officially purchased by the Macquarie Media Group. In early 2009, Southern Cross Tasmania dropped all of its remaining Network Ten programming, except for AFL telecasts, as it has gradually dropped other programming since 2004 when TDT was launched, which broadcast all Network Ten programming. It is now affiliated only with Seven and broadcasts
all of its programming. Southern Cross began broadcasting
Racing.com on 29 August 2015, the same day the channel was officially launched, on LCN 68 in Tasmania, Broken Hill and the Spencer Gulf and on LCN 78 in Darwin. Southern Cross announced on 25 July 2016 that it would broadcast New Zealand-based home shopping channel
Yesshop as a
datacast service. The channel became available on 1 August 2016 on LCN 64 in Tasmania and on LCN 74 in Darwin. 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. Employees were terminated the same day, and the channels were removed on Freeview later that day. On 14 March 2017, a HD simulcast was announced for launch on 22 March 2017, specifically for the Tasmanian station. the rebrand was delayed until further notice, citing concerns from Seven about using their news brand but not under their editorial control. On 3 December 2018, the
Tasmanian station's news bulletin changed its title to
Nightly News, followed on 14 January 2019 by
GTS/BKN's bulletin. Around the same time, studio production for the Spencer Gulf edition of
Nightly News was relocated from Southern Cross' Canberra headquarters to TNT's
Hobart studio.
2025 sale to Seven West Media On 27 February 2025, SCA announced the sale of their television stations in Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill, Tasmania, Darwin, and Remote Central and Eastern Australia to
Australian Digital Holdings. Following the earlier announced sale of their 10-affiliated stations, this will mark SCA's exit from television broadcasting. In May 2025, it was announced that the sale of television assets to Australian Digital Holdings had fallen through, and that
Seven West Media would instead acquire the remaining television stations from SCA for $3.75 Million. The sale of these stations was finalised on 1 July 2025. ==News==