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For Sale: Channel 9

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GTV9 and TCN9 sites will be put on the property market this week.

“Those properties will officially be put on the market this week and the Richmond property in Melbourne and the Willoughby property in Sydney will be offered through expressions of interest,” said John Marasco of Colliers International.

The sale is part of Nine’s plans to finance a $150m digital upgrade.

GTV is reportedly to be on the market as early as Monday.

Ian Law from Nine told news.com.au, “It became apparent we needed to base the Nine Network from premises that better suit the needs of the operation in a world that is now all about digital transmission and convergence of systems and services.”

But any new owner will have redevelopment challenges from both the City of Yarra and Willoughby councils.

As TV Tonight told you last week, heritage overlays at the Richmond Studios restrict exterior work to sections of the GTV 9 Studios which hark back to 1908 as a piano factory. The City of Yarra is pro-actively assessing its planning controls before any redevelopment applications are lodged. it is considering affordable housing and an arts precinct as part of any new future use. Willoughby Council similarly has stated its desire for low-scale residential housing, and any removal of the TCN tower has already been complicated by TX Australia claims it cannot be moved.

Source: Herald-Sun

One Response

  1. A sad, sorry day. I never got to work at GTV – all that history, all those ghosts, gone forever. Our TV is so bad in this country because those that control it don’t really give a shit. Not the Network owners or the Government. The glory days of TV are well and truly over and soon all that will be left is tape and celluloid – and the bastards don’t even want to have to store that either.

    I remember saying to a colleague years ago as we walked through the studios of QTQ , ‘one day all of this – a centralized production ‘city’ – will be gone like the dinosaurs’. I wish I had have been wrong. There was a sense of ‘family’ to the place and this was reflected in the shows produced. Incidentally, he now owns one of the largest post houses in the country so methinks he agreed with me and got in early.

    Speaking of QTQ does this make QTQ 9 in Brisbane the oldest surviving Capital city station? I don’t think HSV 7 counts any more as they split the news division to docklands.

    I can’t wait till the MCG, or Lang Park, or other such ‘icons’ get sold off for the value of the land. Oh, hang on – they’re sportsgrounds, they’re important.

    Vale TCN and GTV, thanks for showing me what real Television was all about.

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