WIN Television is the sole commercial television broadcaster in the Griffith and M.I.A. area, also providing MTN, a Seven Network affiliate, and a Network 10 affiliate MDN, a supplementary station.
History
The Australian Broadcasting Authority relaxed the rules regarding station ownership in solus markets in the mid-1990s.[3] The changes allowed for one company to operate two stations without competition, provided the Authority did not have reason to believe another company would be interested.[4] MTN applied for a Section 38A licence in 1995, and after being refused once, challenged the Authority, and was successful on appeal – ultimately being granted the second license on 18 July 1996.[4] The second channel launched on 5 October 1997, on UHF channel 31 using the callsign AMN.[citation needed] It was a direct feed of Prime Television Orange, with the exception of its local news, which AMN replaced with an alternative program.[5][3][6] Since then, AMN has changed from being a direct feed of Prime7 to being a feed of Seven Network Sydney.[when?][citation needed]
WIN Corporation brought MTN and AMN from then-owner Associated Media Investments on 6 July 1998.[7]
On 1 July 2016, to reflect WIN's new affiliation agreement with Network Ten, AMN and MDN swapped affiliates – with AMN becoming a Ten affiliate while MDN became a Nine affiliate.[9][10][11]
On 1 July 2021, to reflect WIN's new affiliation agreement with Nine Network, AMN and MDN swapped affiliates – with AMN becoming a Nine affiliate while MDN became a 10 affiliate.
WIN News Griffith (formerly MTN9 News) was a local news bulletin broadcast on MTN.[3] The news bulletin premiered the same year as MTN launched, seeing it run for over forty years.[12] WIN News Griffith was axed in August 2006, with WIN Television amalgamating the news bulletins from Griffith and Wagga Wagga into one Riverina bulletin presented from WIN's Wollongong studios[13] The last bulletin aired on 18 August 2006.[14] Following the bulletin's cancellation, WIN maintained a journalist, sport reporter and camera operator in Griffith to produce news stories, however, in 2013 this staff was reduced to a single video journalist, and then in 2015 was removed entirely to be replaced by a roving journalist from the Wagga Wagga station.[15][16] Following the cancellation of the bulletin, Griffith City Council petitioned regional broadcasters in neighbouring areas to present a local news bulletin.[12] This has since been abandoned.
^"Company Profile". Prime TV. Archived from the original on 13 February 2002. Prime also broadcasts in Griffith NSW, under licence to another operator.
^ abZappacosta, Dino. "Statement to Media Watch RE: WIN–TV"(PDF) (Press release). Media Watch. Retrieved 7 June 2016. A local news bulletin has been an integral part of Griffith television for more than 40 years, commencing when the station, as MTN–9, first broadcast and continuing through the sale of the station to WIN–TV.
