The commercial channels available to viewers depend on location and station ownership. The process of aggregation during the late 80s to mid 90s saw regional stations take on affiliations with metropolitan channels for programming, a practice that has continued into digital television with affiliated stations carrying various multichannels from their metropolitan counterparts.
Metropolitan in this list therefore refers to the capitals of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, where stations are owned and operated by the network rather than affiliates.
In areas not covered by terrestrial transmissions, the digital channels are provided by the free-to-view VAST satellite platform. The television channels on this platform are all encoded in H.264 and subject to a MPEG-LA controlled transmission patent licensing tax which is included in the VAST broadcaster cost and varies on viewership figures. The terrestrial transmissions still use H.262 which doesn't incur any addition transmission costs.
Racing.com is a joint venture with Racing Victoria. Seven Network feed for STQ regional Queensland is sourced from the Prime Media Group. STQ services broadcast on 6x LCNs in Sunshine Coast QLD where signal overlap with BTQ Brisbane occurs.
Nine Entertainment Co. also owns DTD [Ten affiliate] (joint venture with Southern Cross Austereo) in Darwin and NBN Television in Northern NSW and Gold Coast QLD.
Prime Media Group also owns WDT and MDV [Nine affiliates] (joint ventures with WIN Corporation). Provides Seven Network feed to Seven STQ regional Queensland as well as Southern Cross TNT Tasmania, TND Darwin and QQQ remote services. ishop tv is a joint venture with Brand Developers.
Southern Cross Austereo also owns TDT [Nine affiliate], CDT and DTD [Ten affiliates] (joint ventures with WIN Corporation, Imparja Television and Nine Entertainment Co. respectively). Seven Network feed is sourced from the Prime Media Group and the Nine Network feed is sourced from NBN Television.
NBN Television (Northern NSW and Gold Coast QLD Nine affiliate)
NBN Television is owned by Nine Entertainment Co. and is the source of the network feed provided to the Imparja and Southern Cross remote services as well as Nine Darwin.
WIN Corporation also owns MDV and WDT [Nine affiliates] (joint ventures with Prime Media Group) and TDT [Nine affiliate] (joint venture with Southern Cross Austereo).
MDV and WDT are joint ventures between Prime Media Group and WIN Corporation. TDT is a joint venture between Southern Cross Austereo and WIN Corporation. CDT is a joint venture between Imparja Television and Southern Cross Austereo. DTD is a joint venture between Nine Entertainment Co. and Southern Cross Austereo.
Licensing for all remaining community television stations will end on 31 December 2016. Henceforth these services will only be available via their online live stream services.[1]
Datacast channel. Replaced by a feed of ishop tv in Prime7 areas. Broadcast on LCN 74 in Seven metropolitan/Regional QLD areas, discontinued on 19 May 2016.
The following channels were only available in Sydney as the Digital Forty Four suite of channels. The datacast trial began on 17 March 2004 and ended on 30 April 2010.
Existing subscription channel added to D44 service. Remains available on subscription satellite and cable television. Available free-to-air on LCN 33 via SBS since 12 December 2012.
ABC News, Sport and Weather
41
17 Mar 2004
30 Apr 2010
Text only.
D44 Homepage
42
17 Mar 2004
30 Apr 2010
Broadcast on LCN 44 prior to addition of TVS in March 2010.
Existing subscription channel added to D44 service. Still available on subscription satellite and cable television. Broadcast on LCN 47 (shared with House of Representatives channel) until 30 June 2009.
Federal Parliament House of Representatives
47
17 Mar 2004
30 Apr 2010
Live video/audio feed of House of Representatives sessions. Broadcast on LCN 401 until 3 November 2008, LCN 47 shared with Teachers TV from 2008-09 (broadcast when the House was not in session).
Federal Parliament Senate
48
17 Mar 2004
30 Apr 2010
Live video/audio feed of Senate sessions. Broadcast on LCN 402 until 3 November 2008.
