Central Australian TV viewers will now lose a few regular programs from their schedules with the Alice Springs-based Imparja Television now aligning itself solely to the Nine Network for its national programs.
For almost the last decade, Imparja has had program supply from both the Nine and Ten networks. Prior to the aggregation of Imparja’s service area with Queensland-based Seven Central, Imparja was able to ‘cherry pick’ programs from all three commercial networks.
Imparja has decided that it was costing too much money to have dual affiliation status, even though it gave them access to programming from two networks, they only have one channel to use it on so a lot of content that was being paid for wasn’t going to air.
The change means that viewers in Imparja’s coverage area will not have access to Ten programs such as Neighbours, So You Think You Can Dance, House, Rove, The Biggest Loser and Big Brother. Significantly, for AFL supporters, the change will also mean that Network Ten’s AFL coverage will also be missing from local screens. This could be a blow for viewers in the Northern Territory and South Australia where AFL has a strong following, though Imparja claims that most of its viewers reside in Queensland which, being NRL territory, means the loss will be less felt. It also puts into doubt access to the AFL Grand Final every second year, as Imparja’s rival Seven Central will relay this year’s telecast from the Seven Network but may not have access when it’s Ten’s turn next year.
In aligning itself to Nine’s program, Imparja is now structuring its schedule in line with the eastern states’ timezone whereas in the past it had scheduled according to Central Standard Time.
Imparja is also said to be increasing its news capacity using the savings made by not paying for Ten’s affiliation, but curiously has used this change to program structure as an opportunity to axe its nightly Alice Springs-based news bulletin and replace it with National Nine News fed from Brisbane. The local news component will now be comprised of 10 one-minute daily updates, and a new weekly current affairs program.
Imparja CEO Alistair Feehan said that losing access to Network Ten programs was regrettable but was hopeful that a third commercial outlet will be licenced to the region in coming years, enabling access to Ten Network programs. However it may also be possible for rival Seven Central to instead take on a dual Seven/Ten program affiliation as its sister station Southern Cross Television in Darwin had already done after the Darwin-based NTD8 dropped its Nine/Ten schedule to a solely Nine-based lineup.
Source: Imparja
YouTube video: WATelevision
6 thoughts on “Imparja says ta-ta to Ten”
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Do you want to know how remote Queenslanders feel??? Shafted. Sadly Imparja has always shown a leaning towards Nine programming – and while I agree Qld is more aligned to NRL – in regional areas its more like a 60/40 split towards NRL over AFL – compared with the coastal cities being more like 80/20 in favour of NRL – but who cares about the coastal cities?? – Imparja is broadcast to Central Western Qld.
Once again, those of us who choose to live in remote areas, which support the state and nation’s growth with huge mining resources and industries and the taxes gained from them, have been forgotten, becasue some poor bugger of a CEO decided he didn’t want to fork out the pennies to provide the service that he was employed to look after.
– from one annoyed mt isa resident
I think this is a terrible decision on the part of Imparja. Many people’s favourite shows are on channel ten… and honestly, out of the two channels, channel nine is not as good. Many of it’s shows do not have a following as large as those on channel 10.
Those of us in rural qld feel quite annoyed that most of our television is not applicable to us. For goodness sake, not long ago I watched an advertisement for a store in Mt Isa, which is incredibly far away! I would rather watch advertisements for say Toowoomba, than Mt Isa! At least Toowoomba is only 4 hours drive away- compared to the 18+ hours away that Mt Isa is!
I really do believe that Imparja should take a good hard look at their coverage and what they show- because it’s really just terrible television allot of the time.
Robyn in Roma
I could not agree more with the disappointment over Imparja’s decision. However, worse is to come if you use an Aurora card as these clowns have decided to charge $50 for you to register and $33 for every re-activation. SO MUCH FOR FREE TO AIR!
This is a tragedy for the nomads who want TV when they are on the road. Does Imparja care? Not one jot.
We have taken the decision not to renew with them which means that all their advertisers are advertising to a ever decreasing market. Channel 9 must also be missing exposure.
Saving their way out of business, would be my view, but then again when they have no income, they can always go back to the taxpayer for more!!
Geoff
On the road at the moment.
Talk about 3rd Class Citizen’sWhat a joke Country Folks left out in the cold once again No 3d Broadcast. The way it is 3d TV’s should only be sold in the city crente’s and not in country area’s and everyone made aware that you will not be getting any 3d broadcasts
Ever read the book “Who killed channel Nine” Looks like they are now trying for a complete wipe out.
$55.00 to watch nines programmes is a bit rich. To say it is a work related charge is total bullshit. I know it takes some ten minutes to do the switching. All done by computer keyboard. They must have some real dumb typists there in nine.
So there revenue goes down even lower, dumb buggers have no foresight at all.
You know what mate, whenever I go to Qld and watch free to air channels, Imparja does not have any good shows but HOTSEAT. But compared to other stations Imparja is the least I touch upon,it is down the bottom of my fav channels, it is the minnow of them all, an obsolete particle of the boredom universe.