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T.V. LICENCES ALLOCATED
METROPOLITAN INTERESTS MISS
CANBERRA TO
HAVE ONE
COMMERCIAL
STATION
Canberra has been allocated two television stations—an
independent commercial station and a national station.
Canberra's commercial station will be Canberra Television
limited.
The Australian Broadcasting Control Board has allocated
13 commercial stations in the A.C.T. and country areas of
N.S.W., Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania.
Major metropolitan newspapers and T.V, stations failed
in their applications, though some will have a minor interest
through subsidiary companies.
The successful applicants in
13 areas were announced yes-
terday by the Postmaster
General, Mr. Davidson, who
released the report and
recommendations of the Aus-
trian Broadcasting Control
Board, which held a public
inquiry on 41 applications
for licences.
The report was tabled in
the House of Representatives.
Mr. Davidson said that
technical details, such as the
inability of frequency
channels, remained to be set-
tled.
Most of the successful ap-
plicants expect to begin trans-
mission of commercial T.V.
within a year.
Successful
The successful applicants
are:
CANBERRA
Canberra Television Ltd.
N.S.W.
Newcastle - Hunter River:
Newcastle Broadcasting and
Television Corporation Ltd.
Illawarra: Television Wol-
longong Transmission Ltd.
Richmond - Tweed Heads:
Richmond Tweed T.V. Ltd.
Central Tablelands: Coun-
try Television Services Ltd.
VICTORIA
Ballarat: Ballarat and West-
ern Victoria Television Ltd.
Bendigo: Bendigo and Cen-
tral Victorian Telecasters Ltd.
Latrobe Valley; Eastern
Victoria Television Pty. Ltd.
Goulburn Valley: Goul-
burn-Murray Television Pty Ltd.
QUEENSLAND
Darling Downs: Darling Downs T.V. Ltd.
Rockhampton: Rockhampton Television Ltd. Townsville: Telecaters North Queensland Ltd.
TASMANIA
North-Eastern area: North-
ern Television Ltd.
National
Mr. Davidson said that a
National station also would
be established in each of the 13 areas.
Work on the establishment
of the Nati0nal stations
would begin immediately.
He could not say precisely
the time when the National
stations could be brought
into operation or the order
of their establishment.
Practical considerations
would largely determine the
beginning of operation but
very effort would be made
to have the stations operating
with as little delay as possible.
Shareholders Director and principal
shareholders of Canberra
Television Ltd. are:
A. T. Shakespeare (chairman, Chairman of Directors
of the Federal Capital Press
of Australia Pty. Ltd., pub-
lishers of the Canberra Times
G. K. Barlin, manager of
Canberra Broadcasters Pty.
Ltd., licensee of commercial
broadcasting station 2CA
Canberra.
R. A. McKillop, retired
stock and station agent.
Canberra Television Ltd.,
a public company, has an
authorised capital of £500,000
in £1 shares.
The company already has
issued 300,000 shares to more
than 900 shareholders.
The principal shareholders,
who were the promoters of
the application, are the Fed-
eral Capital Press of Australia
Pty. Ltd. and Canberra Broad-
casters Pty. Ltd., each holding
45,000 shares—a 15 per cent
interest.
Public Issue
The remainder of the shares
were the subject of a public
issue, priority being given to
local residents or companies
whose principal place of
business was in the A.C.T.
Federal Capital Press of
Australia Pty, Ltd. has a paid
up capital of 70,000 ordinary
shares of £1 each, 43,028 of
which are held by the Shake-
speare family.
Canberra Broadcasters Pty.
Ltd. has a paid-up capital of
30,000 shares of £1 each,
29,803 of which are held by
or on behalf of Broadcasting
Station 2GB Pty. Ltd., licen-
see of Station 2GB, Sydney.
The major shareholders in
2GB Pty. Ltd. are Broad-
casting Associates Pty. Ltd.,
with a 44.7 per cent interest,
and John Fairfax and Sons
Pty. Ltd., with a 14.1 per
cent interest.
Condition
A condition of the grant-
ing of the Canberra licence
was that Canberra Broad-
casters Pty. Ltd. should not
hold more than 5 per cent of
shares in Canberra Television
Ltd., and that any excess of
such shares should be offered
to the public in the Canberra
area.
As Canberra Broadcasters
Pty. Ltd. hold 45,000 shares,
it must offer 30,000 to the
public, to reduce its holding
to 5 per cent—15,000 shares.
. Continued Page 8

TELEVISION
LICENCES

. Continued from Page 1
The Canberra company
proposes to provide 32 hours
of programme material week-
ly in the initial stages.

In the second and third
years it proposes to extend
the service to not less than
42 hours a week.

Programmes

The applicants stated that
a co-operative arrangement
had been entered into with a
number of other applicants
to form a company to be
known as Australian Provin-
cial T.V. Facilities Pty. Ltd.
to facilitate the procurement
of overseas programmes.

The company proposed to
use a transmitter situated on
Black Mountain and the
studios would be co-sited with
the transmitter.

Discussing the rival pro-
posals for A.C.T. transmitter
sites — Black Mountain,
Bull's Head and Red Hill —
the Broadcasting Control
Board report said that the
advantages of Bull's Head
were outweighed by its dis-
advantages as compared with
a site close to the city of
Canberra.

Of two such sites the Board
preferred Black Mountain
because of the greater cover-
age that could be achieved,
compared with that to be ex-
pected from Red Hill.

However the Board did not
propose to make a final choice
until discussions proceeding
with the National Develop-
ment Commission were con-
cluded.

One Each

Mr. Davidson said that
only one commercial station
would be licensed in each of
the areas at present.

He made clear that this de-
cision did not mean that only
one licence would be granted
for any one area or that the
successful applicant would
have an exclusive licence for
the area.

"As the service develops
and the need for and ability
to support a second indepen-

dent station in any of the
areas is demonstrated, the
Government will entertain
further applications and con-
sider the grant of more li-
cences," he said.

Mr. Davidson said the li-
cences to be granted would
be subject to a number of
conditions.

They included:

. At least 50 per cent of
the shares to be made avail-
able to the public.

. The licensees must not
enter into any exclusive ar-
rangement with any metro-
politan station for the pro-
vision of programmes or for
the sale of station time or
advertising.

Altered

Mr. Davidson said that
some of the successful appli-
cants would be required to
alter their shareholdings to
make at least 50 per cent of
shares available to the public

The availability of fre-
quency channels had been re-
viewed by the Australian
Broadcasting Control Board
and an examination was be-
ing made by the radio fre-
quency allocations review
committee.

Another matter to be set-
tled was the sites for some
of the stations.

$