ABV (TV station)

The station began broadcasting on 19 November 1956 and is transmitted throughout the state via a network of relay transmitters. ABV was the second television station founded in Victoria after the first, HSV-7, which opened two weeks earlier on 4 November, as well as being the fourth television station to launch in Australia overall (the first being TCN-9, the Nine Network's Sydney station, the second being HSV-7, the Seven Network's Melbourne station, and the third being ABN-2, the ABC's station in Sydney). The studios are located in Southbank (although formerly in Elsternwick) with the transmitter at Mount Dandenong.^{[citation needed]}

The analogue television signal for Melbourne was shut off on 10 December 2013, the last city in a phased shutdown as part of the conversion to digital television in Australia.^[1][2]

ABV follows a schedule nearly identical to that of other statewide ABC Television stations, allowing for time differences and some local programming – including news, current affairs, sport and state election coverage.

ABC News Victoria is presented by Tamara Oudyn from Sunday to Thursday and Iskhandar Razak on Friday and Saturday. The weeknight bulletins also incorporate weather forecasts presented by Dr Adam Morgan as well as a national finance segment presented by Alan Kohler.

Alexandra Alvaro and Danny Tran (news) and Nate Byrne and Danny Tran (weather) are fill in presenters for the bulletin.

ABV also carried live coverage of Victorian Football League matches on Saturday afternoons during the season until 2015 and the finals of the TAC Cup.

• Former sports presenter Angela Pippos resigned in October 2007 after being demoted as weeknight sports presenter to weekend presenter in 2004 to make way for Peter Wilkins. It was documented in the press that Pippos had some run-ins with senior management over this issue and the timing of her departure, which came after she was approached by Victorian premier John Brumby to run as a candidate in the Williamstown state by-election, caused by the resignation of former premier Steve Bracks. Pippos was suspended for one week while she made her decision not to stand, but resigned just weeks later.
• In 2008, ABC News Victoria won one week in the 2008 television ratings season, and tied in another week with Seven News Melbourne.

Past programming produced at ABV-2 included Corinne Kerby's Let's Make a Date, the popular children's fantasy Adventure Island, the multi-award-winning miniseries Power Without Glory, entertainment show The Big Gig and the iconic youth music program Countdown.

Early efforts by the station included Variety View (1958–1959), Melbourne Magazine (1957), Sweet and Low (1959) and Melody Time (1957–1959).

The first dramatic production by the station was a live, 30-minute play called Roundabout which aired on 4 January 1957.

ABV Channel 2 moved to new studios at Ripponlea in 1958, in Gordon Street, Elsternwick, with two major studios: Studio 31 & 32. The land had been acquired from the adjacent Rippon Lea Estate. Over the years, many additional properties were leased.^[3] The ABC began consolidating all their Melbourne operations in 1999, with purchase of a property behind their Southbank premises which had housed their radio operations since 1994. The television news moved to Southbank in 2000, and the government approved a loan in 2013 to move the studio production.^[4] The facility was finished in 2017 and the final show to be filmed at Ripponlea was Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell in November 2017,^[5] with all production consolidated into a single Studio 31 at Southbank after that.^[6]

The following stations relay ABV throughout Victoria:

• Television broadcasting in Australia