Founding The WIN brand began from a sole free-to-air terrestrial television station in Wollongong,
WIN-4, owned by Television Wollongong Transmissions (TWT). In 1979, then-owner
Rupert Murdoch sold his 76 per cent controlling interest in TWT to
Oberon Broadcasters, a private investment group which included
Paramount Television programming executive
Bruce Gordon. This allowed Murdoch to purchase Sydney station
TEN-10. In 1985, TWT was made public on the
Sydney Stock Exchange as
TWT Holdings Limited with Gordon retaining a 70 per cent stake. Gordon privatised the business in 1992 to become
WIN Corporation.
Expansion, aggregation and industry consolidation In the late 1980s, the Federal Government's
television equalisation program (known as aggregation) gave Gordon the opportunity to initiate a period of growth by acquiring television stations in regional
Queensland,
Victoria, and
Tasmania. In the late 1990s, WIN acquired their
South Australian station and developed a new
Western Australian station from scratch. These stations were integrated into what is now known as the
WIN Network. The
WIN Network covers large areas of regional Australia and has a total audience reach of 4.842 million people. Through Bruce Gordon's leadership, in the late 1990s and 2000s, WIN built stakes in
PBL,
Network Ten, and
TPG Telecom. TPG Telecom was at the time known as
SP Telemedia and owned fellow Nine affiliate
NBN Television. August 2005 saw WIN purchase a controlling 50.1 per cent stake in satellite subscription television carrier
SelecTV, however failure in adequately growing the subscriber base along with high debts saw the business placed in voluntary administration in February 2011. On 21 April 2007, the board of
Sunraysia Television endorsed WIN's revised offer of $163 million for
Channel Nine Perth , which went through on 8 June 2007. On 30 May 2007,
Southern Cross Broadcasting announced its sale of
Channel Nine Adelaide to WIN for $105 million. In June 2013, WIN offloaded the Nine-branded metropolitan Adelaide station to
Nine Network's parent
Nine Entertainment Co. for $140 million along with an option to purchase the Perth station, which was exercised in September 2013. In October 2015 WIN Corporation purchased a 14 per cent stake in
Nine Entertainment Co. from investment fund operator Apollo. In 2008, WIN invested in a 50 per cent share of the Australian Poker League, buying from its founder Martin Martinez. However this stake was sold in 2012. On 4 June 2009, signalling their continued interest in digital assets, WIN increased to 18.4 per cent their stake in publicly listed company
Quickflix, an Australian provider of online DVD rental and subscription movie and television series downloads. In the following years, WIN's share of the business dwindled down to 3.5 per cent as of 2014 as Quickflix continued to raise capital through issuing new shares. In April 2016, Quickflix entered voluntary administration. WIN held a long-term interest in a small cinema chain in
Tasmania through a joint venture with
Village Roadshow until 2013. The joint venture owned four cinemas which were branded as 'Village Cinemas'. This interest was originally acquired by
ENT Ltd. in 1988.
Today In early 2006, WIN Corporation bought a 25% stake in the St. George Illawarra Dragons from the Illawarra Steelers for $6.5 million. In August 2018 WIN Corporation purchased the Illawarra Steelers remaining 25% stake for a "commercially in confidence" sum, taking its stake to 50%. It was announced on 23 May 2016 that
WIN Television had signed an affiliation agreement with
Network Ten for a five-year period starting on 1 July 2016. WIN's former affiliation partner,
Nine Network, signed with
Southern Cross Austereo in April 2016 having secured a 50 per cent revenue share deal. WIN plays a prominent role in the local Illawarra community through investment in long-term naming rights to the Dragons' Wollongong home ground,
WIN Stadium. WIN also holds naming rights to the neighbouring
WIN Entertainment Centre, home to basketball's
Illawarra Hawks. In June 2019, WIN closed several newsrooms throughout New South Wales and Queensland, including Orange, Wagga, Albury and Queensland's Hervey Bay. On 13 February 2025,
Network 10 announced they would be acquiring
NRN from
WIN Television. In January 2026, it was announced that WIN would acquire
NBN Television from
Nine Entertainment, to be operated as a Nine Network regional affiliate. ==Assets==