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Gallery: Nine begins at new Nth. Sydney home

Management make the move into new HQ with studios to light up in coming months.

Nine has begun the move to the network’s new home at 1 Denison Street, North Sydney, which is now in its final building stages.

Nine has 9 floors including 3 new studios, new control centres, and modern broadcast newsroom which will have 9News reporters from TV, radio and digital all working alongside each other.

Level 1 will have the TV / radio newsroom, A Current Affair, 60 Minutes, Today Show and Nine News studio.

Level 2 has make up and wardrobe, greenrooms and an internal café called The Terrace plus an area which will see outside broadcasts. Level 3 will be broadcast operations and Wide World of Sports.

Some 70 history images and artefacts will be going up on the walls on different levels, to represent both the Nine and Fairfax histories.

This first phase of the move will see some 1400 employees relocate through to October, with another 300-400 or so people at Australia Square to move in Phase 2.

CEO Hugh Marks, along with programming execs Michael Healy, Hamish Turner and Adrian Swift have moved in as of today. Last week pilot groups from Technology, Marketing, Corporate Affairs and Publicity were the first to move in.

Throughout July and August moves will happen most weeks as employees from publishing division (including SMH, AFR, product and tech) move from its Pyrmont office.

Nine will formally quit its historic Willoughby site in October when broadcast staff (and the 2GB newsroom at Pyrmont) begin their moves.

Sales will move in 2021 from Australia Square and will take up 4 levels in the mid-rise of the building. Other confirmed tenants in the building are Microsoft and SAP.

Nine’s Willoughby site was sold in 2015 for $147.5 million before being sold again to developer Mirvac in February for $249 million. Domain reports the latest plan is for nine towers of 460 apartments in 6000 square metres of public open space, with a new park, playground and retail plaza. The developer is also applying to demolish the gigantic 233-metre-high steel TV tower.

The concept masterplan was pared back after a major protest campaign by neighbours, and eventually approved.

Stuart Penklis, head of residential at developer Mirvac, said, “It’s incredible to think of all the people who’ve been to this site over the years. There’s just so much history and it’s such a great location, I’d love to see some kind of tie-back to that history in some way.”

23 Responses

  1. When I re-read the first paragraph, it said that from October “…broadcast staff (and the 2GB newsroom at Pyrmont) begin their moves….” from Willoughby.

    Does that include 2UE?

    Thank you,
    Anthony of curious Belfield

  2. Thanks to those who replied about the future size of studio facilities and OB facilities run by networks.

    In regards to the distribution of 7’s and 9’s programs from Frenchs Forest, it is very similar to the joint undertaking in the south-west Sydney suburb of Ingleburn of the ABC and WIN distribution centre since 2009. As one commenter “Steven” said that for the viewer, the show goes on regardless of who distributes the material, source https://tvtonight.com.au/2009/07/abc-win-combine-for-giant-playout-centre.html .

    In regards to TV station facilities such as studios and OB facilities whether FTA or subscription services such as Foxtel I have two questions:
    * If you travel along the T1 line in the direction from Strathfield to Redfern, near the Redfern Technology Park there is a large facility with the “7” logo on the top right of the building. It used to have another…

    1. 8 Central Ave Eveleigh has four large studios … two are leased to NEP (formerly Global) and two to Seven along with office space … I rather suspect that they will eventually all become part of NEP with Seven hiring them as needed … Foxtel started in Pyrmont with two tiny studios from which they managed to produce a range of programs … when they moved to North Ryde a larger studio was included …

      1. Thank you for the reply. It seems all the commercial stations outsource their studios. I don’t count the open plan Channel 10 as a “traditional” studio. I can presume for larger productions Channel 10 use outside sources.

        One question about NEP/Global outsourcing O/B. Foxtel plan to offer 4k sporting coverage. Do you have a clue how many OB vans are equipped for 4k broadcasts?

        If there aren’t enough 4k-equipped OB vans, will the broadcaster have to resort to doubling up the 1080i signal?

        What if there’s a concert/live performance being broadcast to cinemas are there enough 4k vans available?

        At the moment I don’t see the FTA terrestrial broadcasters handling 4k because they only have 7MHz to handle 1080i and 576i signals.

        Thank you,
        Anthony of curious Belfield

        1. … Ten does have a “traditional” studio at Pyrmont, it’s pretty small but they’re being very clever producing shows there that you would expect to come from a larger facility … “how many OB vans” is not really an issue any more with NEP using their “Andrews hubs” in Sydney and Melbourne to produce most of the 4K sport (and other national and international productions) so only the cameras and mics travel to the site, everything else stays at the hub … US giant NBC is doing the same with its Olympics coverage being centralised at its Stamford, Connecticut HQ … it’s a whole new world!!! Of course, with CBS owning Ten it’s only a matter of time before their on-air presentation starts originating in New York (or the UK where the decisions are already being made) …

  3. The last of a studio audience type show at Willoughby was The NRL Footy Show, which was axed 2 years ago.

    It is sad to see audience-type of shows disappear from the Sydney studios over the years (like Midday, Funniest Home Videos; and Merrick and Rosso Unplanned)

    1. The days of studio audiences has been declining steadily for years, long before CV-19. In Melbourne, GTV9, in Bendigo St Richmond, had the huge studio 9 where programs like IMT went to air. HSV7 in Dorcas St Sth Melb had 3 studios none of which could take an audience (especially the small, narrow studio 3 – the news studio) so they got the Fitzroy Teletheatre which, being an old cinema, had audience seating. It later became the first Melb venue for The Rocky Horror Show. ATV0 was more fortunate in having a new building at the edges of Melb at then almost rural suburb of Nunawading. Studios A and B were huge and one of them was where YTT was presented from.

      TV studio audience tickets used to be highly sought after, but I read some years ago that 9’s Hot Seat was paying people to join the audience. Sad.

      1. And maybe Covid will kill off audiences. After so long without one will The Project for example go back to an audience when it is able?

      2. I had a look at the HSV Teletheatre, formerly Hoyts Regent in Fitzroy at the website CinemaTreasures. Photos of the theatre show its ornate foyer and auditorium. Perhaps the theatre’s proscenium was too narrow to expand for the wider aspect ratio CinemaScope.

        Nevertheless, in the US, the “Ed Sullivan Theatre” used for variety shows such as “Letterman” and “Steve Colbert” was a former cinema. Former cinemas apart from repurposing into a supermarket, have been used for cinema-related purposes. For example the former “Minerva” then “Metro” at Kings Cross Sydney was repurposed for George Miller’s post production studio.

        Thank you,
        Anthony of exciting Belfield

        1. I made a mistake about the “Ed Sullivan Theatre” in NY being a former cinema.

          Rather it started life as a theatre for theatrical performances in 1927. The theatre was repurposed in 1936 into a radio studio by CBS. Then from 1948 CBS repurposed the theatre into a TV studio starting with “The Ed Sullivan Show” (1948-1971).

          From the 1980s till 1993, the theatre was repurposed for the production of sitcoms by Reeves Entertainment. The theatre was acquired in 1993 and repurposed in 1993 for variety TV shows “David Letterman” and “Steven Colbert”. Renovations were performed in 2005 for high-definition broadcasts and in 2015 to the theatre’s original 1927 design but with fewer seats.

          Thank you,
          Anthony of researching…

  4. I would suspect that the OB equipment would still be available from NEP who seem to have the OB situation and events all sewn up.

    1. I don’t know why it’s continuing to be called 9 Nine or “nine dots 9”.

      The logo 9, Nine and “nine dots 9” are a reference to its legacy analogue VHF channel allocation.

      The DVB channel is on VHF channel 8 at 191.9MHz, not channel 9 at 198.5MHz. The DVB logical channel number happens to be 9. But that bears no relation to its historical VHF channel.

      Don’t want to sound like a killjoy, maybe 9, Nine and “nine dots 9” should be rebranded to something that has nothing to do with its VHF legacy or logical channel number. The ABC, SBS, Prime and WIN are known by the brand, not its VHF legacy channel number nor DVD channel number.

      Thanks,
      Anthony of exciting Belfield

  5. Will the new studios be as large as the former Willoughby studios in order to have shows with an audience. For example will the new studios be large enough to accommodate the production of the magnitude of “The Mike Walsh Show”, “Australia’s Funniest Home Videos” and game shows?

    What about room for outside broadcast (OB) vans for sporting matches?

    Alternatively have large studios and OBs been outsourced to other entities?

    Thank you,
    Anthony of exciting Belfield

    1. … the days of The Mike Walsh Show or before that various Tonight Shows have long gone so the need for such studios has gone too. Look at The Voice … now produced from a temporarily-converted warehouse … OBs are done by external contractors and now Nine doesn’t even go to air itself as its on-air presentation facilities are a joint venture with Seven out of another building in Frenchs Forest … oddly enough, the closest thing left that looks and smells like a “television station” is Ten, which is ironic as they were the first to move out of their custom-built studio complex in North Ryde many moons ago …

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