AMV is an Australiantelevision station licensed to, and serving the regions surroundingWagga Wagga andAlbury-Wodonga in south westernNew South Wales and north easternVictoria. The station was, for many years, merged withRVN-2 asthe Riverina and North East Victoria Television Service.

AMV

RegionalVictoria Australia
Channels	Digital:see table below
Branding	Seven
Programming
Language(s)	English
Affiliations	Seven(O&O)
Ownership
Owner	Seven West Media (Prime Television (Victoria) Pty Ltd)
Sister stations	PTV, see below
History
Founded	4 October 1962; 62 years ago (1962-10-04)
First air date	7 September 1964; 60 years ago (1964-09-07)
Former channel number(s)	see table below
Former affiliations	Independent (1964–1992)
Call sign meaning	Albury Murray Victoria
Technical information
Licensing authority	Australian Communications & Media Authority
ERP	see table below
HAAT	see table below
Transmitter coordinates	see table below
Links
Website	7regional.com.au

AMV-4 commenced broadcasting on 7 September 1964. It broadcast programming from the three commercial stations in Sydney (ATN-7,TCN-9 andTEN-10) alongside local programming including coverage of the Albury Gold Cup, the Ovens and Murray Football League Grand Final and the 1988 Miss Australia pageant. The station has continuously^{[citation needed]}produced a half-hour regional news program on weeknights, currently known asPrime7 News, with local news and sports reports produced inAlbury but aired in bulletins put together at Prime7'sCanberra headquarters.

The company to operate the station,Albury-Upper Murray TV Limited, was awarded its broadcasting licence on 4 October 1962. Principal shareholders in the company includedAmalgamated Wireless Australasia,Hoyts,The Border Morning Mail newspaper and other local businesses — complying with the requirement that at least 50 per cent of the company's shareholding must be locally based.^[1]

When the commercial television license for theRiverina area was being determined, a number of local groups submitted proposals.Young-based radio station2LF, along with local councils and businesses in the Young-Cootamundra area,Wagga Wagga newspaperThe Daily Advertiser and radio station2WG, together with local Wagga Wagga businessmen, as well as a group of smaller newspapers and some licensed clubs.^[2]

2LF's proposal later joined forces withthe Advertiser–2WG bid — 2LF would get 10 per cent of the shares, 2WG got 20 per cent andThe Advertiser got 15 per cent, with the remaining shares to be offered to local people. After issues at theAustralian Broadcasting Control Board enquiry for the license, the 2LF–2WG–Advertiser group (trading as Riverina Television) won the license.^[3]

The initial board was made up representatives from 2WG, 2LF,The Daily Advertiser, and two local councils. A few days after the license was announced, the chairman and station manager had a disagreement, resulting in the resignation of both. They were replaced by Wal Hucker, who ran a film animation and sound company inSydney and was also the former chairman's brother-in-law.^{[citation needed]} The former chairman's wife also joined the board, as the Control Board made it clear that 2WG had to remain involved in the station. Bill Marsden, of 2LF, became the station manager.^[3]

A disagreement with the Wagga Wagga city council over the location of a potential studio site, which would have provided direct line of sight transmission to theMount Ulandra transmitter, saw a new site rezoned from residential areas.^[3]

As with most stations launching at that time, the mast would be shared with the local transmitter of theABC, but not the transmitting facilities, as chief engineer Stuart McDonald wanted to operate the facilities remotely. RVN would be the first station to operate their transmitters in this way.^[4] The studios were completed in early 1964, after construction started on 31 July 1963.^[5]

RVN opened transmission on 19 June 1964, at 7pm, to much anticipation by the people of the Riverina and South-West Slopes. Prior to the opening of RVN-2, many in the Riverina needed marketing advice of purchasing their television sets and installing their aerials in advance to a any last minute demands, while others who did not own television sets were invited to view them from shopfronts.^[6] The opening night's programming of RVN included an announcement from the area's then local Federal Member, footage of the station's construction, a five minute news bulletin with newsreader Paul Griffiths, the feature film,The Dambusters at 9:05pm andThe Jack Benny Program.^[7] AMV-4 Albury opened transmission for the first time at 4:55pm on 7 September 1964, withCohns Cobbers’ Teleclub. Before the official opening at 7:16pm titledWere You There — with AMV, the other programmes wereCaptain Gallant at 6pm,Calvin and the Colonel at 6:30pm,On Target with Ross Sellars at 6:55pm andABC News fromABV-2 at 7pm. After the opening, the programs wereBonanza at 8:30pm, the 1954 movieLucky Me at 9:30pm andMike Hammer at 11:15pm. The station closed down for the night at 11:35pm.^[8]

As with most stations at the time, news was done by announcing over slides, or read to the camera, combined with the previous night's news film fromATN-7Sydney. Local programming, including commercials, was broadcast live. RVN was the only station to have made a profit, albeit a small one, in its first year of operation.

By the early 1970s, many regional stations faced financial difficulties, and as a result RVN and AMV planned to merge^[9] to form the Riverina and North East Victoria Television Service Pty Ltd, in 1971.^[10] The stations were known on-air asRVN-AMV. Both stations were programmed separately, until 1976 when transmission for both stations was centralised in Wagga Wagga.

In 1983, the stations faced a unique situation when New South Wales and Victoria endeddaylight saving periods at different times. For three weeks, RVN's output was shown on AMV on a one-hour delay. It was also unusual in that it served audiences in two states, and had to program accordingly.New South Wales viewers in the Riverina received Sydney news and sports, primarilyrugby league, while viewers in North EastVictoria were shownMelbourne news and sports (mainlyAustralian Football League [AFL; previously VFL]).

By the mid-1980s, 80 people were employed at Wagga, and a further 40 in Albury.

RVN-AMV was purchased byPaul Ramsay's Ramcorp Ltd. in 1987,^[11] and merged with theMidState Television network, formingPrime Television. RVN and AMV split up in 1989, when SouthernNew South Wales was aggregated - RVN joined withCBN, as theSeven Network affiliate in the area in competition withTen Capital andWIN Television.^{[citation needed]} AMV, meanwhile expanded into the rest of Victoria as the state'sSeven Network affiliate, in competition withVic TV andSouthern Cross.

RVN's callsign ceased to exist in 1991, when the Wagga Wagga andOrange licenses were merged to become only CBN.^{[citation needed]} At the same time, AMV moved fromVHF channel 4 to VHF channel 11, in order to allowFM stations to be established without interference from existing television stations (using VHF channels 3, 4, 5 and 5A).

In preparation for aggregation of the Victorian market - (excludingMildura) - in early 1992, a studio facility and playout centre was constructed in the Ballarat suburb of Mitchell Park. At that time this facility was the playout centre for the Western Victoria, Central Victoria, andGippsland regions. Playout for the Albury andShepparton regions was maintained at Prime's Albury studios. TheBallarat centre was and continues to be operated under the AMV licence.

The station celebrated its 50th anniversary in September 2014, at its now former Union Road studios.^[12]

The station moved to studios in Dean Street,Albury in April 2015.^[13]

AMV produces and broadcasts a 30-minute Seven News bulletin for theAlbury-Wodonga border and North East Victoria regional market each weeknight at 6:00pm co-presented by Madelaine Collignon and Nick Hose in Canberra introducing news and sports reports from Seven's Albury-based reporters. Kirstie Fitzpatrick is the bulletin's weather presenter. It is followed by a shortened 30-minute version of Seven's main 6pm bulletin from Melbourne at 6:30pm. The new news arrangement took place on 24 February 2014, over a month after Seven News extended its flagship bulletins in Australia's east coast metropolitan markets to a full hour as a result of axing current affairs programme Today Tonight (which the Border sub-market does not carry).^[14] Albury is in NSW, just over the border from the Victorian city of Wodonga. AMV takes its programs from Seven Melbourne under the Victoria broadcast market, with Albury much closer to Melbourne than it is to Sydney.

Throughout the station's history, local news under various names were produced and broadcast from studios at 570 Union Road in Lavington in Albury's north. In the 2000s, then owner Prime Media began closing most of its regional studios, citing upgrade costs. Albury however was not cut and in late 2010 was upgraded to digital equipment.^[15] However, just two months after the upgrade, Prime Media announced it would be ending local programming from its Union Road, Albury studios, and instead transfer production to the company's headquarters in Canberra; its final local presentation was produced in March 2011.^[16][12][17] The studios were converted to a church several years later in 2016,^[18] however the last local news presenter, Helen Ballard, moved to the newly-established newsroom in Albury as a reporter.^[17]

In the Ballarat, Bendigo and Gippsland regional markets, two-minute updates are presented by Pip Waller, with weather forecasts fromDaniel Gibson.

PTV is an Australiantelevision station licensed to, and serving the regions surroundingMildura, Victoria. The station commenced transmissions in 1997, afterPrime Television won the second television licence forMildura, a non-aggregated market, in competition withWIN Television, for a cost of $3.2 million, in October 1996.^[19][20] The licence is held byPrime Television (Victoria) Pty Ltd, the licensee of AMV.

Analogue transmission ceased on 30 June 2010 as part of the national conversion to digital television.^[21]

In the Mildura regional market, short one-to-two-minute news and weather updates are presented by rotating presenters. These updates were launched in early 2024 after Seven was found to be in breach of local content requirements in November 2023; their acquisition of Prime in December 2021 triggered new local content requirements in the Mildura regional market. The absence of local content went unnoticed for 16 months beyond the 6-month grace period following the acquisition.^[22]