TVW

On 13 October 1958, the first commercial television licence in Perth was granted by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs to TVW Limited, a subsidiary of West Australian Newspapers (WAN), publisher of Perth's daily newspaper, The West Australian. Under the then founding general manager of the station James Cruthers, TVW commenced broadcasting on 16 October 1959.[3] The Governor of Western Australia, Sir Charles Gairdner opened the station at 7.30pm that night. Some of the first programs included Leave It to Beaver, Sea Hunt, Father Knows Best, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, The Epilogue and a local show called Spotlight which featured Rolf Harris.[3]

The signal was broadcast from the station's transmitter site at Bickley in the Darling Ranges.[3]

TVW-7 did not have a rival commercial television station until 1965 when STW-9 commenced broadcasting.[4] However the presence of a rival did not have a large negative impact on TVW, at least in the early years. In fact a survey by its rival found that more people agreed with a statement that "TVW fulfilled their viewing needs, and it would be a matter of indifference to them if the new station were to cease transmissions".[5] The advantage TVW built up in its six years as sole commercial operator flowed through for many more years to come, some would even argue that it is still present today considering how well Seven performs in the market compared to Nine, which for nearly two decades until the mid-2000s, generally won comfortably nationally.

After STW-9 entered the market, a 'cartel' was formed between the two stations for the duty of buying from both Australian and overseas production sources. The two stations set up a separate company, TV Facilities (the two stations being 50%/50% partners). This allowed the stations to purchase programs cheaper than if they were two separate entities, which would bid on shows and subsequently raise prices. This partnership was disliked by Eastern States stations who could not increase their charges to the extent which they would have liked. Allocation of programs was decided by a coin toss, which would allow the winner to pick first and then alternate the picking of programs. However TVW would always be in a more dominant position as it had the rights to continuing shows from the previous six years as well as half of the new programs.

In 1971 TVW Enterprises purchased SAS-10 in Adelaide, now SAS-7. Eight years later, TVW finally took on an affiliation, aligning with the Seven stations in the East. In 1982 TVW and SAS were purchased by Bell Group.[6][7] This soon posed a problem for SAS, since Network Ten officials were unwilling to discuss network plans with Bell given that it owned a Seven affiliate. To solve this problem, SAS swapped affiliations and frequencies with Adelaide's original Ten affiliate, ADS, in 1987.[8]

In 1988, Perth finally got full network service when NEW signed on and aligned with Ten. In 1988, TVW was sold to Qintex.[9][10] Qintex collapsed a year later, leaving TVW in the hands of receivers.[11] In 1991 the network was floated on the stock exchange and, by 1995, Kerry Stokes was in charge of both TVW and the rest of the network.[12]Since then, the station has continued to enjoy a dominant share of television ratings in the Perth market.

TVW commenced digital television transmission in January 2001, broadcasting on VHF Channel 6 while maintaining analogue transmission on VHF Channel 7.

The analogue signal for TVW was shut off at 09:00 on 16 April 2013.[13]

Stokes bought a 15 percent stake in West Australian newspapers in 2006.[14] In 2011, West Australian Newspapers bought the Seven Network to form Seven West Media,[15] thus fully reuniting TVW with its founding owner. In February 2015, TVW moved from their original broadcasting facility in Gay Street, Dianella to a new HD broadcast centre in Osborne Park located within West Australian Newspapers.

Seven Perth for the most part follows the programming of the Seven Network.

Locally produced programs, which can also be seen in regional Western Australia on GWN7 include:

• Go Racing: News/discussion about the racing scene in both Perth and the Eastern States
• Have a Go TV: Features segments on travel, finance and investment, sport and recreation, health and wellbeing. Hosted by Tod Johnston.
• Home In WA: Lifestyle, building and renovation
• Fishing Western Australia: Explores fishing in WA.
• Our WA: A long-running series of specials which highlight a specific aspect of WA life
• Flashpoint: Demanding change, and discussing issues that matter to West Australians. Hosted by Tim McMillan and featuring Peter Rowsthorn.[16]

Locally produced programs, which can also be seen around Australia through the Seven Network and affiliates include:

• The Force: Behind the Line: Observational documentary about the Western Australia Police

Seven Perth has long been the home of Fat Cat, the name standing for Francis Aloysius Thomas Cat. Fat Cat is "put to bed" every night at 7.30pm signalling the end of programs suitable for children. Fat Cat, along with GWN's Doopa Dog, are the last WA television mascots to survive. Longtime rival STW-9 used a large elephant, Flapper, as its mascot and NEW-10 used Kenny Kidna from the Kangaroo Creek Gang as its mascot.

Fat Cat is now mainly used for things to do with Telethon; Fat Cat dolls are sold through Friendlies Chemists & Bendigo Bank for $19.95 to raise money for Telethon.

Seven also has an anthropomorphic TV character "TV Man" (an analogue TV with arms and legs with a red 7 on the screen) as a popular mascot used in on air promos nationally.

TVW also produces an annual Telethon for the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, the Telethon Kids Institute and around forty other beneficiaries spread throughout the Western Australian community. Since 1968 it has raised over $268 million (as of 2017 total).[22] Although the fundraising takes place 365 days a year through the community, it culminates in a 26-hour live broadcast from Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in the heart of Perth city over a weekend, usually in October. Seven network personalities fly to Perth for the weekend to help raise money, as do a lot of Aussie artists. Many international stars have also been part of Telethon over the years, including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion and Harry Connick Jr. The show is simulcasted around the state of Western Australia on Network affiliate GWN7. This telethon is regarded as the highest fundraising Telethon (per capita) in the world ($13.94 per head of population in WA). In 2017 Channel 7 celebrated its milestone 50th Perth Telethon, raising $36.4m ($10m more than the previous year's record amount)[22] and distributed this to over forty beneficiaries throughout Western Australia. It is broadcast on TVW7 across Perth metro area and across Western Australia by GWN7.[22]

The station organises an annual Christmas parade through the streets of the Perth central business district, traditionally on the first Saturday of December. It is claimed to be the largest Christmas parade in the southern hemisphere. More than 600 floats and 60,000 participants have taken part in the procession in the history of the parade, which commenced in 1972. Each year several thousand people line the route to watch the parade. It was cancelled once in 2015 due to inclement weather.[23]

Locations of transmitters broadcasting TVW-7

Digital transport frequency: VHF-6 @ 177.5 MHz (Bandwidth: 7 MHz 64-QAM)

Note: HD quality switches between 7 and 7mate due to sporting events. Only one channel broadcasts HD at any one time.

• Seven Network
• STW
• NEW (TV station)
• Television broadcasting in Australia

• Perth Commercial Television After 1965 by Tom O'Regan & Ulla Hiltula
• The Introduction of Television into Western Australia by Eric Fisher

• Official Website
• Telethon Website
• Home in WA Website
• History of West Australian Television