HSV (TV station)

HSV is a television station in Melbourne, Australia. It is part of the Seven Network, one of the three main commercial television networks in Australia, its first and oldest station. It launched in time for the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne. HSV-7 is the home of AFL coverage.
The HSV building (also known as 'Broadcast Centre Melbourne') was the network's operations hub, where the Master Control Room was located, controlling all metropolitan and regional feeds. Programming lineup, advertisement output, feed switching, time zone monitoring and national transmission output was previously delivered there. All Seven Network owned and operated studios had their live signals relayed there: for instance, ATN's output was fed to HSV and then transmitted via satellite or fibre optics to towers around metropolitan Sydney. In 2019 this function was transferred to a new centre in Sydney as part of a joint venture with Nine Network. As with other Melbourne terrestrial stations, its original transmission tower was atop Mount Dandenong.
History.
HSV-7 began test transmissions in July 1956, becoming the first 7 station in Australia and the first TV station in Melbourne. It began broadcasting on 4 November, soon after the Commonwealth Government started issuing television licences. In the opening ceremony, Eric Pearce declared :
HSV-7 and rival station GTV-9 were formed in time to broadcast the Melbourne Olympics, while Sydney stations TCN-9 and ATN-7 in Sydney relayed the Melbourne coverage. HSV-7 was originally owned by The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd, owners of "The Herald" and "The Sun" (now merged as the "Herald Sun"). These two newspapers gave rise to the call sign "HSV" (the 'V' stands for Victoria, as is the normal protocol for television call signs to have the third letter indicate the state where the station is licensed, although for publicity purposes "HSV" was said to stand for "Herald Sun Vision" just as sister station ATN became the "Australian Television Network" rather than New South Wales).
In March 1960, the station converted an old cinema in Fitzroy into the southern hemisphere's first fully remote studio, equipped with RCA TRT video tape recorders, camera cranes and AV mixing equipment. It featured a larger stage and backstage rooms, and audience capacity for up to 600. It was called the Channel 7 Teletheatre and connected to the station's main Dorcas Street studios in South Melbourne by multiple microwave links. The teletheatre opened with a major live show featuring the US entertainer Bob Crosby and his band and the British comedian Jimmy Edwards, among others. Many popular children's shows and variety programs (e.g. Sunnyside Up and "The Happy Show") originated there in front of live audiences.
This station commissioned many of Australian TV's earliest and longest-running courtroom and police procedural dramatic series such as Crawford's "Consider Your Verdict" and "Homicide."
One of the longest-serving station and general managers during the transformative years into international satellite links and color transmissions was Ron Casey. By the late 1960s, Channel 7 was demonstrating PAL color TV to crowds visiting the annual Royal Melbourne Show.
The station began to identify as "Channel Seven" in the late 1960s, and in the early 1970s used the national Seven Network logos. It followed the network's on-air presentation and programming. In 1979, Fairfax bought a substantial share of HSV-7 after many failed bids for the entire station. In December 1986, the station was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited. In February 1987 HSV-7 was sold back to Fairfax, along with Brisbane station BTQ-7. As a result of the payback, HSV's unique faces – "World of Sport", Mal Walden and its Hello Melbourne campaign, Australia's contribution to Frank Gari's Hello News campaigns were all ended. By 1987 its rights to Australian rules football telecasts were taken by ABC's state station ABV-2. Walden later moved to Ten (ATV-10) as a result of this.
In late 1987, the government introduced cross-media ownership laws which forced Fairfax to choose between its print and broadcast operations. It chose print, and HSV-7 was sold to Christopher Skase's Qintex, which already owned Seven stations in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Skase pledged to revitalize the channel and its programs, and to return it to its prior success among Melbourne viewers. In 1990, Qintex was sent into damage control after Skase escaped extradition proceedings, and the Seven Network became a discrete company. Entrepreneur Kerry Stokes bought the network in 1995. On 10 December 2013, HSV-7 terminated its analogue signal as part of the switchover to digital transmission.
Headquarters.
HSV production studios and headquarters were originally located at the Dorcas Street Studios in South Melbourne. HSV remained there until March 2002 when news, current affairs and sport shows were moved to new headquarters at Docklands and the Dorcas Street Studios were closed. Docklands Studios Melbourne and Global Television (Australia) is home to HSV's studio facilities for the Seven Network's Melbourne-based entertainment, drama and reality programmes shows such as "Dancing with the Stars (Australian TV series)" and the quiz show "The Chase Australia."
HSV's headquarters, known on-air as Broadcast Centre Melbourne or BCM, are located near the Marvel Stadium in Docklands. On 11 March 2002, the first "Seven News Melbourne" bulletin, presented by Peter Mitchell, was first broadcast from the new HSV building. The centre consists of three studios: a theatre studio, a production studio and a news studio that opens onto the newsroom. The building is used as the transmission control centre for Seven's owned-and-operated stations in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and regional areas of Queensland. Approximately 200 full-time employees work in the building with an additional 100 part-timers. In 2005, the HSV building experienced a power failure that resulted in a blackout across the Seven Network, as well as all regional affiliates.
The HSV studios produces "Seven News Melbourne" and are becoming the network's main play-out centre for sports broadcasting. While broadcasting on air, national news programs often refer to HSV as 'News Centre', while 'Sports Central' (or 'Footy Central' for AFL broadcasts) is commonly used for sports programs.
Programming.
Locally produced programs by or with HSV-7 Melbourne:
Location.
Seven Melbourne is also the official broadcaster for these major events in Melbourne.
Seven News.
"7NEWS Melbourne" is directed by Shaun Menegola and presented by Peter Mitchell on weeknights and Mike Amor and Rebecca Maddern on weekends from Broadcast Centre Melbourne. Sport is presented by Tim Watson on weeknights and Abbey Gelmi on weekends. Weather is presented by Jane Bunn on weeknights and Sonia Marinelli on weekends.
Peter Mitchell previously held the role of weekend presenter for then-titled "Seven Nightly News" between 1987 and 2000 when he replaced the short-lived presenting duo of David Johnston and Anne Fulwood. Jennifer Keyte was appointed as main weeknight presenter in 1990, becoming Australia's first solo female primetime commercial news presenter. In a network reshuffle in 1996, Keyte terminated her employment after the Seven Network attempted to pair her with David Johnston, who went on to present solo for three years. She returned in 2003, assuming the role as weekend presenter, succeeding Jennifer Adams.
In May 2018, Network Ten announced that Keyte would leave Seven Network to present "Ten Eyewitness News Melbourne" replacing Stephen Quartermain. In August 2018, it was announced that Mike Amor would move back to Australia after 17 years as United States Bureau Chief to replace Keyte as weekend presenter.
Following decades of trailing "Nine News Melbourne", "10 News First Melbourne" (previously "Ten Eyewitness News", "Ten News at Five", "Ten Evening News" and "Ten News: First at Five") and "ABC News Victoria" in the ratings, "Seven News Melbourne" won the ratings battle from February 2005. As of 2007, "Seven News" held the number one position. This was followed by a series of advertisements and promos which touted "Seven News Melbourne" as Melbourne's New #1 and Nine altering their promotions to simply say "Melbourne's Best News" – a throwback to the 1980s when "National Nine News Melbourne" was beaten in the ratings by ATV-10's "Ten Eyewitness News". But, it was replaced in 2009 when "Nine News" returned to win the Melbourne news ratings battle.
In January 2022, it was announced that Rebecca Maddern would return to the Seven Network to present "7NEWS Melbourne" on weekends with Mike Amor.
Until 2022, during the AFL season, Peter Mitchell and the weeknight team presented from Sunday to Thursday and Mike Amor, Rebecca Maddern and the weekend team would present on Friday and Saturday nights.
Afternoon news updates for Melbourne are presented by Amor or Maddern, while Mitchell presents weeknight updates. Amor presents weekend news updates. Blake Johnson and Jayde Vincent is a fill-in news presenter with Tom Browne, Andrew McCormack and Laura Spurway as the fill-in sport presenters and Estelle Griepink as fill-in weather presenters.
In August 2015, "Seven News Melbourne" began producing a local "Seven Afternoon News" bulletin replacing the national bulletin. Amor and Maddern present the bulletin on alternate days. In 2020, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, that bulletin temporary included news items from South Australia following the cancellation of the statewide afternoon bulletin from SAS-7 in Adelaide before the network reinstated it due to viewer opposition and the threat faced by the local "Nine News" team on Seven's news dominance.