The building that houses Seven Tasmania in Launceston is set to be redeveloped, with plans lodged with the City Of Launceston.
Seven Tasmania’s owner, Southern Cross Austereo, no longer owns the building but leases back a portion of the site for operations including news production.
The proposal will see Seven Tasmania remain at the premises in a smaller capacity, with remaining unused space to be redeveloped into a multi-tenant commercial site. Examples of potential tenants given in the proposal include a bank, call centre, consulting room, funeral parlour, medical centre, office, post office, real estate agency, residential support services, travel agency and veterinary centre.
The studio complex, located at Watchorn Street, South Launceston, dates back to 1962, housing the new TV station TNT9 (now Seven Tasmania) and radio station 7EX. It is one of a handful of heritage TV studio sites still in use in Australia and the only one remaining in Tasmania.
In its early days, the studios produced local programs including Hunter’s Tele-Quiz, Sports Club, Children’s Time, Easy Beat, Quiz Quest, Talk Of The Town and At Home With Nine as well as the nightly 15-minute news service produced in association with The Examiner newspaper. In the 1970s, TNT9 produced the Logie-award winning Saturday Night Show with Graeme Goodings and Jim Cox, a local New Faces talent quest as well as children’s and sports programs.
In the late 1980s, TNT9 became part of Southern Cross Broadcasting and with aggregation in 1994 signed up to dual affiliation with both Seven and Ten networks.
The station has downsized its operations, shifting its news bulletin to a smaller studio on-site in 2018:
YouTube: Nightly News 7 Tasmania
Also in 2018, Southern Cross Television was re-named Seven Tasmania.
Source: Pulse Tasmania, Real Commercial, City Of Launceston
