| Callsign: | NRN |
| Country: | AU |
| Branding: | 10 |
| Digital: | see table below |
| Network: | WIN Television |
| Affiliations: | 10 |
| Location: | Northern New South Wales & Gold Coast |
| Callsign Meaning: | Northern Rivers New South Wales |
| Former Channel Numbers: | Analogue: 10 (1965) 11 (1965–2012) Other former channel numbers: see table below |
| Owner: | WIN Corporation |
| Licensee: | Northern Rivers Television Pty Ltd |
| Former Affiliations: | Independent (1965–1975, 1987–1991) Great Eastland Television (1975–1987) |
| Erp: | see table below |
| Haat: | see table below |
| Licensing Authority: | Australian Communications & Media Authority |
| Coordinates: | see table below |
| Website: | www.wintv.com.au |
NRN is a television station originating in Coffs Harbour, Australia. The station is owned by WIN Corporation as part of the WIN Network. As a Network 10 program affiliate, it relays 10 content into the northern New South Wales broadcast market. The station was formally a partnership between NRN-11 Coffs Harbour (launched 23 January 1965) and RTN-8 Lismore (launched 12 May 1962).
NRN11 Coffs Harbour had merged with ECN8 Taree to form Northern Rivers Television, but later demerged in 1969. Around 1971, RTN8 Lismore and NRN11 merged, also forming Northern Rivers Television (NRTV), but was known on-air originally as 11-8 Television. The merged stations served the Mid North Coast and Northern Rivers areas of Northern New South Wales. During the mid-1970s, the station was concurrently known as Great Eastland Television, when the partnership shared programming and advertising with NEN-9 Tamworth and DDQ-10 Toowoomba/SDQ-4 Warwick, but they soon reverted to the NRTV brand.
In 1983, NRTV was relayed into the Gold Coast after a lobbying campaign from residents, although they could also watch the commercial television stations from Brisbane. NRTV's Gold Coast studios and offices were constructed in Ashmore on Southport Nerang Road. The Gold Coast facilities didn't contain a newsroom, although relayed local news from the Coffs Harbour studios. News crews from Lismore travelled to the Gold Coast for stories of importance.
NRTV produced a considerable amount of local activity (approximately five each week). Local content included local news, three hours of live women's variety "Round About", 5 half-hours of live children's variety "Get Set", "Birthdays", and "Razzamataz, with on-air presenter Rhonda Logan" weekly, holiday specials "Summerthon", and a half-hour daily exercise program "Jazzacize". Live sports specials included the annual Grafton Cup Racing Carnival and the Grafton to Inverell Cycling Classic.
Live programs mainly originated from the Coffs Harbour Studios with programs being recorded at both the networks other studios located at Lismore and Gold Coast.
Some of the memorable names from that era were:
In December 1987, NRN and sister station RTN were sold by Northern Star for $75 million to Darling Downs TV, a vehicle controlled by David Haynes, which at the time owned the Ten station in Brisbane.[1]
1990 saw plans for NRTV to be merged with southern Queensland's Vision TV to form a larger regional network to respond to the growing aggregation of television into regional areas of the nation, but they were called off. On 31 December 1991, Northern New South Wales became the third area to be aggregated, and NRTV, via links to Network 10 (it was part of Northern Star Holdings), owned by Westfield Group chairman Frank Lowy), became its affiliate in the region. At one stage, NRTV was the subject of a bid from WIN Television. Nothing came of it, but had WIN gone through with the bid, it would have made NRTV the Nine Network affiliate (using the logos of its parent station in southern NSW and the campaigns of the Nine Network, attempting a replication of the affiliation steal during the 1990 aggregation of Regional Queensland television) and would have left NBN as Network 10's affiliate instead in the area.
NRTV was sold to Telecasters Australia in 1993, who also owned the Queensland affiliate of Network 10. In 1994, the station was renamed Ten Northern NSW, and its station identification was changed to that of Network 10. The station stopped producing regional news for Coffs Harbour, Lismore and Gold Coast. They had previously produced a licence-wide bulletin, but that was axed due to poor ratings.
Ten Northern NSW (NRN) and Telecasters itself were purchased by Southern Cross Broadcasting in 2001.[2] [3] The following year, NRN was rebranded to Southern Cross Ten.[4] On 14 August 2005, the station and the whole Southern Cross Ten network, received a new star logo.[5]
Southern Cross commenced broadcasting Ten secondary channel One HD via NRN on 2 July 2009 on LCN 50.
Southern Cross commenced running new Network Ten secondary channel Eleven via NRN on 11 January 2011 on LCN 55, replacing a simulcast of the main channel.
On 1 July 2016, Southern Cross Ten's unique branding began to phase out on NRN in favour of Ten's mainstream branding as Ten. This comes after Southern Cross switched all of its SC10 stations (except NRN) as Southern Cross Nine as part of its new program supply agreement with the Nine Network. Southern Cross announced on 13 September 2016 that 10 HD would be launched on LCN 52 on 21 September 2016.[6] [7] In addition, 10 Bold was reduced to a standard definition broadcast to accommodate 10 HD.
Southern Cross announced on 25 July 2016, that it would commence broadcasting a New Zealand-based datacast shopping channel, Yesshop via NRN on 1 August 2016 on LCN 54.[8] However, Yesshop's owner (Yes Retail) made the decision to cease trading on 29 September 2016 citing lack of funds to pay wages and the company's current losses of approximately 20 million dollars.[9] Employees were terminated the same day, and the channels were removed on Freeview later that day.[10]
In late January 2017, it was announced that Southern Cross had entered into negotiations with WIN Corporation, owners of regional Ten-affiliate WIN Television, over the sale of NRN in exchange for WIN's Wollongong radio station i98FM.[11] [12] This deal would have expanded WIN's television coverage across all regional markets in the eastern states and granted Southern Cross radio coverage in Wollongong. Southern Cross later withdrew from negotiations on 20 February 2017 with no explanation given.[13] [14] However, WIN and Southern Cross later finalised an agreement where they would sell NRN to WIN for a total of $55 million,[15] [16] [17] with the sale taking effect on 31 May 2017.[18] [19] NRN was maintained as Ten Northern NSW until playout and transmission were transferred to WIN's MediaHub facility in Ingleburn on 1 September 2017, when the station adopted the WIN branding.[20] [21] The LCNs were also reshuffled for NRN to align with WIN's other stations, but as Nine-owned NBN Television holds the 8-numbered digital channels in northern NSW, NRN's digital channels remain on the 5-numbered digital channels.
On 23 June 2021, WIN announced that it renewed its programme and supply agreement with Paramount Global, the owner of Network Ten since 2020, for NRN.[22] However, as WIN's main station's channels in other markets were rebranded from 1 July under a new PSA with the Nine Network,[23] the Northern NSW station also dropped WIN's own branding outside its local news content, and carried the Network 10 branding seen in metropolitan markets.
Unlike other Ten affiliates, as of 2023, NRN does not broadcast Paramount-owned channel 10 Shake, and its successor Nickelodeon Australia.
From 2004 until 2017, Southern Cross produced short local news updates which are broadcast throughout the day. These bulletins were branded as Southern Cross Ten News, Southern Cross News, Ten Local News Updates from 1 July 2016. The updates were produced from Southern Cross' Canberra studios and made use of news content from local radio stations owned by Southern Cross Austereo in each market. Local sport and weather reports also aired on an sporadic basis. Short updates also aired throughout the day and evening alongside updates from Ten Eyewitness News. The bulletins were researched, produced and presented by a single journalist.
Though the purchase of NRN by WIN was finalised on 31 May 2017, playout and transmission remained under Southern Cross' control until 1 September, when WIN formally assumed control over the station. During this interim period, Southern Cross continued to produce local news updates for NRN until 31 August. From 1 September 2017, WIN News took over the production of short local updates for NRN, which may run from 30 seconds to two minutes each. The updates are presented from WIN's Wollongong headquarters, with rotating presenters.
Upon acquiring NRN, WIN has not launched nor produced a local news bulletin for the region, citing changes to media landscape, decline in traditional television viewership, and due to their affiliation with Network 10.
NRN also aired WIN's All Australian News, a compilation news bulletin featuring news reports from WIN's newsrooms across regional Australia, despite the fact that no local stories from Northern NSW and Gold Coast were aired on this bulletin. The programme ended its airing on 30 June 2021, after WIN made adjustments to its news output following the return of Nine Network's programmes to WIN-owned stations outside Northern NSW the following day.
As a Network 10 affiliate, NRN also transmits Studio 10, The Project and 10 News First.
| Region served | City | Channels (Analog/ Digital) | First air date | ERP (Analog/ Digital) | HAAT (Analog/ Digital)1 | Transmitter Coordinates | Transmitter Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grafton/Kempsey | Coffs Harbour | 11 (VHF)3 4 38 (UHF) | 23 January 1965 | 250 kW 250 kW | 706 m 730 m | -30.3172°N 152.8597°W | Mount Moombil |
| Manning River | Taree | 65 (UHF)3 11 (VHF) | 31 December 1991 | 600 kW 80 kW | 633 m 633 m | -31.7019°N 152.6786°W | Middle Brother |
| Newcastle | 57 (UHF)3 39 (UHF) | 31 December 1991 | 1200 kW 250 kW | 439 m 439 m | -32.8919°N 151.5383°W | Mount Sugarloaf | |
| Northern Rivers and Gold Coast | Lismore | 8 (VHF)3 32 (UHF) | 12 May 1962 | 200 kW 170 kW | 612 m 648 m | -28.5425°N 153.2903°W (analog) -28.5456°N 153.2875°W (digital) | Mount Nardi |
| Upper Namoi | Tamworth | 34 (UHF)3 32 (UHF) | 31 December 1991 | 600 kW 150 kW | 844 m 874 m | -30.2847°N 150.1672°W | Mount Dowe |