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Seven Network

Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of the five main free-to-air television networks in Australia. The network's headquarters are located in Sydney.

As of 2014, it was the second-largest network in the country in terms of population reach. Seven Network shows various nonfiction shows—such as news broadcasts (Seven News) and sports programming—as well as fiction shows. In 2011, the network won all 40 out of 40 weeks of the ratings season for total viewers, being the first to achieve this since the introduction of the OzTAM ratings system in 2001.

As of 2024, Seven Network is the highest-rated television network nationally, in Australia, ahead of the Nine Network, ABC TV, Network 10 and SBS.

Seven's administration headquarters are in Eveleigh, Sydney, which was completed in 2003. National news and current affairs programming are based between flagship station ATN-7 in Sydney and HSV-7 in Melbourne. In 2009, Seven moved its Sydney-based production operations from Epping to a purpose-built high-definition television production facility at the Australian Technology Park in Eveleigh.

The present Seven Network began as a group of independent stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. HSV-7 Melbourne, licensed to The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd (owners of two local papers at the time, The Herald and The Sun), was launched on 4 November 1956, as Melbourne's first television station in the country to use the VHF7 frequency. ATN-7 Sydney, licensed to Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of Fairfax, was launched on 2 December 1956, as Sydney's third television station. The two stations did not immediately share resources, and instead formed content-sharing partnerships with their VHF9 counterparts by 1957: ATN-7 partnered with Melbourne's GTV-9, while HSV-7 paired up with Sydney's TCN-9. TVW-7 Perth, licensed to TVW Limited, a subsidiary of West Australian Newspapers, publisher of The West Australian, began broadcasting almost two years later, on 16 October 1959, as Perth's first television station. BTQ-7 Brisbane followed on 1 November 1959, as Brisbane's second television station. ADS-7 Adelaide was launched on 24 October 1959 as the final capital city VHF7 station. The station later swapped frequencies with SAS-10 on 27 December 1987 as ADS-10 and SAS-7.

HSV-7 began its relationship with the Victorian Football League (now the Australian Football League) in April 1957, when the station broadcast the first live Australian rules football match. Throughout this time, the stations operated independently of each other, with schedules made up of various simple, and relatively inexpensive, programs, such as Pick a Box and spinoffs of popular radio shows. In the early 1960s, coaxial cable links, formed initially between Sydney and Melbourne, allowed the sharing of programmes and simultaneous broadcasts of live shows.

In 1960, Frank Packer, the owner of Sydney's TCN-9, bought a controlling share of Melbourne's GTV-9, in the process creating the country's first television network (unofficially called "the National Nine Network") and dissolving the ATN-7/GTV-9 and the HSV-7/TCN-9 partnerships. Left without their original partners, ATN-7 and HSV-7 joined to form the Australian Television Network in 1963. The new grouping was soon joined by other capital-city channel 7 stations, ADS-7 Adelaide and BTQ-7 Brisbane. The new network began to produce and screen higher-budget programs to attract viewers, most notably Homicide, a series which would continue for another 12 years to become the nation's longest running drama series. However, it was not until 1970, after the network adopted the Network 7 name, that a national network logo was adopted, albeit still with independently owned and operated stations with local advertising campaigns.

Colour television was introduced across the network in 1975, when a new colour logo was adopted. Rupert Murdoch made an unsuccessful bid for the Herald and Weekly Times, owners of HSV-7, in 1979, later going on to gain control of rival ATV-10. Fairfax, however, successfully bought a 14.9% share of the company later in the same year.

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Australian broadcast television network
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