The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia.
From 2017 to 2021, the network's slogan was "We Are the One". Since 2021, the network has changed its slogan back to the iconic Golden Era slogan "Still the One".
As of 2022, the Nine Network is the second-rated television network in Australia, behind the Seven Network, and ahead of the ABC TV, Network 10 and SBS.
History
Origins
The Nine Network's first broadcasting station was launched in Sydney, New South Wales, as TCN-9 on 16 September 1956 by The Daily Telegraph owner Frank Packer.
John Godson introduced the station and former advertising executive Bruce Gyngell presented the first programme, This Is Television (so becoming the first person to appear on Australian television). Later that year, GTV-9 in Melbourne commenced transmissions to broadcast the 1956 Summer Olympics, later forming the National Television Network alongside QTQ-9 in Brisbane in 1959 and NWS-9 in Adelaide, the basis of the current Nine Network, in 1959. Before its formation, TCN-9 was then affiliated with HSV-7 (because alongside the Seven Network, they were both Australia's first television stations, having opened in 1956), and GTV-9's sister affiliate was ATN-7.
The network, by 1967, had begun calling itself the National Nine Network, and became simply the Nine Network Australia in 1987. Kerry Packer inherited the company after his father's death in 1974. Before the official conversion to colour on 1 March 1975, it was the first Australian television station to regularly screen programmes in colour with the first program to use it premiering in 1971, the very year NTD-8 in Darwin commenced.
The New South Wales Rugby Football League grand final of 1967 became the first football grand final of any code to be televised live nationally. The Nine Network paid $5,000 () to attain the broadcasting rights.
Nine Network station STW-9 Perth, which opened in 1965, became owned-and-operated station when Alan Bond purchased the network for one billion dollars in 1987, a deal that became effective after government approvals in 1988. However, in 1989, Bond Media sold the station to Sunraysia Television for A$95 million, due to the federal cross-media ownership laws which restricted the level of national reach for media owners. Nine, which then also included Channel 9 in Brisbane, fell back into the hands of Kerry Packer after Alan Bond's bankruptcy in 1992.
In 2011, GTV 9 Melbourne moved from 22 Bendigo Street, Richmond, to 717 Bourke Street, Docklands. 22 Bendigo Street started out as the Wertheim Piano Factory, then became the Heinz Soup Factory, then GTV9. The building in Bendigo Street still stands, now as luxury apartments.
The "Golden Era" (1977–2006)
Nine began using the slogan "Let Us Be The One" (based on The Carpenters' song Let Me Be the One and modelled on the ABC campaign used at the time in the United States) in 1977 and became the number-one free-to-air network in Australia; its National Nine News became the most-watched news service. In 1978, Nine switched its slogan to "Still the One" (modelled on the campaign used by ABC in the United States and using the Orleans song Still the One), which lasted until a decline in ratings in January 2006. During the 1980s, Nine's ratings peaked. From 1999 to 2001, the network began losing ground to the Seven network in news and entertainment, but received a boost after the coverage of the 11 September attacks in 2001. By 1991, the network was re-branded to its current branding. The death of CEO Kerry Packer in 2005 triggered more problems for the network. Digital terrestrial television was introduced on 1 January 2001.
Nine loses to Seven (2006–2008)