Aus TV History | Seven Network 1980s

The 1980’s began with young journalist-turned entrepreneur Christopher Skase having recently gained control of a small retail organisation called Qintex. The company bought television stations in every major capital city, built a strong national network and almost acquired a Hollywood film studio, before going bust before the decade was out. Qintex began the 1980's by buying back 6% of The Victorian Broadcasting Network (now Southern Cross Ten Victoria) in 1980 which it had sold off the previous year. Queensland was next on the agenda, with Qintex gaining a stake in regional broadcasters Telecasters North Queensland and Mackay and Mt Isa Television in 1982, followed by TVQ-0 Brisbane for $34m in 1984. That same year the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal forced Qintex to reduce its stake in Telecasters from 19% to 5%.		A Part Of You Your On Seven HSV-7 Melbourne A Part Of You HSV-7 Melbourne

1982
1982

It was still business as usual for Seven stations at this stage, which were still owned by various companies around the nation but linked into a network by shared programming. The network broadcast the Moscow Olympics live via satellite in 1980, and premiered the long running shows Wheel Of Fortune, A Country Practice and Sons and Daughters in 1981/82.

Seven, Nine and ABC began experimenting with stereo sound during 1982. As it was the newest thing at the time, much like digital is today, Seven used this special version of its logo to proclaim it was now 'stereo'.

TVW-7 Perth

ADS-7 Adelaide

Good network presentation along with a catchy slogan scrawled across the bottom of the logo was a necessity for any station broadcasting in the 80's, and the United States was a feeding ground for hungry Aussie networks looking for the next phrase that would catch on here. Nine had already found success with ABC America's 'Still The One', and Seven's affilliation with NBC led to almost carbon-copy presentation in Australia. 'Just Watch Us Now' was shared by NBC and ATN-7 Sydney during 1982/83, 'Be There!' from NBC was used on HSV-7 Melbourne in 1984, and NBC's 'Let's All Be There' was used on ATN-7 from 1984-1986.

HSV-7 and ADS-7 both moved on from this to adopt the 'Hello Melbourne'/'Say Hello' series during the mid 80's. Although not direct from NBC at the time, this theme did originate from the US.

1982
1982
Watch Us Now
ATN-7 Sydney

1984
Let's All Be There
ATN-7 Sydney

Sydney CBD ATN-7 Sydney Let's Celebrate 88		The Herald & Weekly Times, owners of HSV-7 Melbourne and ADS-7 Adelaide, was sold to Rupert Murdoch's company News Limited in December 1986 for $1.8 billion. The following February, News Limited sold HSV to Fairfax (already owners of ATN-7 Sydney and BTQ-7 Brisbane) for $320m. Fairfax saw the potential for cost-cutting and quickly axed almost all Melbourne based programming in favour of networked Sydney material on HSV-7. This was a disaster, with viewers rejecting the new station and tuning out in droves. Meanwhile, Qintex had sold TVQ-0 Brisbane to Darling Downs Television in 1986, and was now on the look out for another television network. The opportunity to buy the Seven Network from Fairfax arose in 1987 when new Labour government cross-media ownership laws came into effect which forced Fairfax to choose between its print and broadcast operations. It chose print, and therefore had to sell Seven. Qintex came in, and the stations were handed over in July for $780m.

Christopher Skase and Qintex then went about revitalising the network. Early the following year, Seven launched its new evening soap Home and Away, and revamped the evening news, renaming it from Seven National News to Seven Nightly News. Skase expanded the network by buying TVW-7 Perth from Alan Bond's Bell Group for $130m in 1988, relaunched the station with a new logo in 1989, and then went about securing the rights to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics from Ten.
		New network logo

Long Short		Skase came close to purchasing the MGM-United Artists movie studio for US$1.5 billion in 1989, however the deal fell through which led to a downward spiral for Qintex. It could not keep up payments to its bankers, and by the end of 1989 Qintex had gone into receivership. Continue to the 90's »

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