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|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding | Seven |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Affiliations | Seven(O&O) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | 2 December 1956 (1956-12-02) |
Former channel number | Analog: 7 (VHF) (1956–2013) |
| National Television Network (1956–1963) | |
Call sign meaning | Amalgamated Television Services New South Wales[1]: 191 |
| Technical information | |
Licensing authority | Australian Communications & Media Authority |
| ERP | 200kW (analog) 50 kW (digital) |
| HAAT | 249 metres (817 ft) (analog) 251 metres (823 ft) (digital)[2] |
| Transmitter coordinates | 33°48′20″S151°10′51″E / 33.80556°S 151.18083°E /-33.80556; 151.18083 |
| Links | |
| Website | 7plus |
ATN is theSydneyflagshiptelevision station of theSeven Network inAustralia. The licence, issued to a company namedAmalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary ofJohn Fairfax & Sons, was one of the first four licences (two in Sydney, two inMelbourne) to be issued for commercial television stations in Australia. The station formed an affiliation withGTV-9 Melbourne in 1957, in order to share content. In 1963,Frank Packer ended up owning both GTV-9 andTCN-9, so as a result the stations switched their previous affiliations. ATN-7 andHSV-7 joined to create theAustralian Television Network, which later became theSeven Network. ATN-7 is the home of the national-levelSeven News bulletins.
Amalgamated Television Services was created in 1954 with plans to implement a television station equipped with what was considered to be the latest technology available as well as providing Australia's most extensive facilities made specifically for a television station.[1]: 13
ATN-7 began broadcasting on 2 December 1956 and became the third television station inSydney to begin regular transmissions. Its principal offices and studios were located at Mobbs Lane,Epping. The initial black and white cameras and other equipment was supplied by theMarconi Company of England. At the time of opening, only Studio B, which housed the opening night, was operational, as well as a shortage of equipment. Its launch night was almost hampered by a thunderstorm, which ultimately did not affect the transmitter.[1]: 13 On its second day of operations (3 December 1956), it aired the first current affairs programme on Australian television,At Seven Tonight, presented by Howard Craven.[1]: 16 Later that evening saw the airing of Australia's first late show,Sydney Tonight, hosted by Keith Walsh.[1]: 21 The nightly closedown featured an animation of a kangaroo putting her joey to bed, forming it out of the inscription "ATN CHANNEL 7". The animation remained in use for a long time.[1]: 191 For many years, this was preceded byTommy Leonetti's "My City of Sydney". Leonetti hostedThe Tommy Leonetti Show, produced at the station, in 1969; he was the co-writer of the station's closedown theme.[1]: 74
The initial transmission tower in 1956 was located near theABC tower atGore Hill, Sydney. This was eventually demolished after ATN was invited to share a new site at Artarmon which was built by a new, third commercial broadcasterTEN-10.
In 1963, ATN began producing the local edition of the AmericanRomper Room format, which would remain on air until 1988.[1]: 38
Conversion toPAL colour occurred on 1 March 1975. By that time, ATN was now housed in a six-studio complex which produced some of the most-watched Australian productions of the time. ATN engineers developed theRaceCam technology which was later employed around the world.[1]: 101 Following the production ofRafferty's Rules, ATN's studios were now being increasingly used by other production companies. Successful shows of the late 80s and 90s taped at the ATN studios includeHome and Away (which by 1996 had claimed a global audience of 65 million viewers; 11.5 million of which in the UK alone) and the infotainment formatBeyond 2000.[1]: 149
DigitalDVB-T commenced on 1 January 2001, broadcasting on VHF channel 6 while maintaining analogue transmission on VHF channel 7 until 2013.
ATN-7's Sydney transmissions are broadcast from masts operated by Transmitters Australia (TXA) atArtarmon and/orWilloughby. Retransmission translators toUHF channels service Sydney viewers fromKings Cross andNorth Head atManly and north of Sydney atBouddi,Gosford andForresters Beach.
Beginning in the early 2000s, on-air programs were sent by digital link from the Seven Network's national program play-out centre at Docklands inMelbourne where the Master Control Room was located for all metropolitan and regional feeds to be controlled. Programming line-up, advertisement output, feed switching, time zone monitoring and national transmission output was previously delivered here. All Seven Network owned and operated studios used to have their live signals relayed here: for instance, ATN's output was fed to HSV and then transmitted via satellite or fibre optics to the towers around metropolitan Sydney. In 2019, however, this function was transferred to a new play-out centre in Sydney as part of a joint venture with the Nine Network.
The analogue signal for ATN-7 was turned off at 9:00 a.m. on 3 December 2013 by using a special five-minute retrospective clip of the local station and the song "My City of Sydney" byTommy Leonetti, used for the first time in 30 years, combined with the old "Mother kangaroo putting her baby joey to bed" animation, which was played during the channel closedown sequence until the network began 24-hour service in 1993. TheGood Night curtain at the end of the animation was tweaked toGoodbye and the TV mascot appeared for the final time to turn the analogue picture into a small white dot which slowly went away before going completely black, before the analogue signal itself was completely switched off.[3]
In June 2023, 7NEWS moved their operations fromMartin Place to their new purpose built studios inEveleigh. In July 2023, Sunrise hosted its very first broadcast at its new studios. The first edition went to air live at 5:30 a.m. on 24 July 2023, with hostsNatalie Barr andMatt Shirvington, newsreaderEdwina Bartholomew and sports presenterMark Beretta, followed byThe Morning Show'sLarry Emdur andKylie Gillies.[4] Joining 7NEWS, 7NEWS Spotlight, The Latest and 7NEWS.com.au, for the first time in more than 40 years, the entire Seven Sydney operation and all broadcast and operational staff (across all departments) are now under one roof. The new space cover two floors of Seven's head office and are five times larger than the previous Martin Place location, with permanent sets for all programs. It brought to an end 19 years of Sunrise and Seven News, and 16 years ofThe Morning Show broadcasting at Martin Place.[5]
The Epping facilities were expanded to provide five operational studios and the centre became the largest producer of Australian produced TV content, includingWheel of Fortune,Sons and Daughters,A Country Practice,Hey Dad..!,All Saints,Terry Willesee Tonight andHome & Away.
The Epping studios closed in early 2010 when new studio facilities serviced byGlobal Television, opened at theAustralian Technology Park inEveleigh.[6][7]
News and live telecast programs are presently broadcast from theEveleigh studios.[8]
ATN's engineering staff received twoEmmy Awards—making ATN the first Australian company to receive such an award—for the technology, invention and further development ofRaceCam, live mobile point-of-view TV cameras which were initially developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s for the station's coverage of theBathurst 1000. Visiting commentators from the United States organised for ATN staff to supply the camera and transmission systems forCBS's coverage ofNASCAR races.
A variant of RaceCam was also developed for yachts in the1987 America's Cup off the coast ofFremantle. Later in the mid-1980s, theAmerican Broadcasting Company asked ATN staff to develop aerofoil-designed cameras suitable forFormula One cars, and these were subsequently used at theIndianapolis 500.
Prior to theirEveleigh Studios at theAustralian Technology Park, the Seven Network'sMartin Place studios, once referred to on-air asNews Central and based on the first five floors of The Colonial Building in Sydney were the main news presentation studios for,Seven News Sydney,Sunrise,Weekend Sunrise, andThe Morning Show. Comprising 3,000 square metres, viewers and tourists can see programs being broadcast from the street level studio.
In March 2021, it was announced that theSeven Network would move out of Martin Place toEveleigh by the end of 2022 after almost two decades.[9] The decision is understood to be a cost-saving move away from CBD property leasing. This then got delayed to June 2023.
On 25 June 2023,Seven News Sydney signed off its final bulletin at Martin Place studios, wrapping 19 years and 6,873 days of broadcast. Since 26 June 2023, its new broadcast home is at a purpose-built studio at Eveleigh headquarters. The new space is five times larger than Martin Place, allows for permanent sets for all programs, with two complete control rooms and more than 40 m2 of LED screens, while all newsroom operations will now be located on a second entire floor.[10][8]
Seven News Sydney is directed by Sean Power and presented byMark Ferguson and Angela Cox from Sunday to Thursday andMichael Usher andAngie Asimus on Friday and Saturday from Seven's headquarters, located atEveleigh. Sport is presented byMel McLaughlin from Sunday to Thursday andMatt White on Friday and Saturday. Weather is presented byAngie Asimus from Sunday to Tuesday and Amber Laidler from Wednesday and Saturday. Grace Fitzgibbon presents the bulletin's 'Bright Side' segment each weeknight.
News updates for Sydney are presented throughout the afternoon and the early evenings, with news updates during the night being shown nationally, they can be seen onSeven,7two and7mate, as well as7flix.
At the end of 2003, a year before all of the Seven Network's News and Current Affairs moved to Martin Place, the ill-fated dual presenter format ofRoss Symonds andAnn Sanders came to an end after the pair failed to make an ratings impact in the Sydney market, losing viewers to competition winnerNine News Sydney (then National Nine News), which had led in the ratings for decades. After Ian Ross took over from both Symonds and Sanders in 2003,Seven News Sydney became the 6 p.m. ratings leader from February 2005 until 2010.
Ross presented his final bulletin for Seven News Sydney on Friday 27 November 2009 with Bath taking over as main weeknight presenter on Monday 30 November 2009. FormerNine News presenterMark Ferguson took over from Bath as weekend news presenter from Saturday 28 November 2009. The bulletin retained its ratings lead until it was overtaken again by the rival Nine News bulletin in the ratings in 2011 – Seven's 6 p.m. bulletin won 14 out of 35 ratings weeks.[11]
In January 2014,Mark Ferguson was appointed weeknight presenter, replacingChris Bath due to poor ratings. Bath became weekend presenter and continued to hostSunday Night until her resignation in July 2015,[12] after which Melissa Doyle took over.[13] More changes to Sydney's news presenting team in subsequent months saw former Melbourne weather presenter David Brown replace Sarah Cumming as Sydney's weather presenter andMel McLaughlin replaceJim Wilson as the sports presenter.[citation needed]
In August 2016, it was announced thatMichael Usher would replaceMelissa Doyle as Friday and Saturday presenter. Doyle will move into a new expanded role as senior correspondent and host ofSunday Night.[14]
For its efforts in bringing news of the2014 Sydney hostage crisis to the whole of Australia (ATN's Martin Place news rooms and facilities were evacuated and news operations shifted to a makeshift studio miles from the site, with additional coverage from other stations nationwide), Seven News Sydney became the2015 Logie Awards winner for Most Outstanding News Coverage.
In June 2020, Jim Wilson left Seven after 28 years with the network, to become a new host of 2GB's Drive program. His last sports bulletin was 27 June 2020. It was later announced thatMatt Shirvington would replace him.[15]
On 5 November 2020,David Brown left the Sydney newsroom to return to Melbourne withAngie Asimus promoted to weeknights weather presenter.[16]
In December 2020, it was announced Angela Cox would be joiningMichael Usher as co-host of the weekend news bulletin from January 2021.[17]
In June 2023,Matt Shirvington stepped down from his role of weekend sports presenter, to take up his new role as co-host ofSunrise.[18]Matt Carmichael was announced as his replacement.
In September 2024, it was announced that Angela Cox would be joiningMark Ferguson as co-anchor of the weeknight bulletin.[19]
In October 2024, it was announced that Angie Asimus would be joiningMichael Usher as co-anchor of the weekend bulletin.[20] Asimus would also continue her role as Sydney weather presenter alongside Mark Ferguson and Angela Cox, Sundays to Tuesdays.
In September 2025, it was announced thatMatt Carmichael would be leaving 7NEWS after being axed. He will present his last bulletin at the end of October, after the Bathurst 1000. Tom Sacre was announced as his replacement temporarily.
In January 2026, it was announcedMatt White would return to Seven eleven years after he departed. He would present for both News and Sport, and to front analysis on NRL coverage across bulletins nationwide each night.[21]
Fill-in presenters includeMichael Usher,Angie Asimus, Hugh Whitfeld andChris Reason (News),Matt White,David Woiwod, Tom Sacre and Jelisa Apps (Sport), and Angelique Opie, Amber Laider and Grace Fitzgibbon (Weather).
| Role | Bulletins | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | |
| News | Mark Ferguson(2014–present) Angela Cox(2024–present) | Michael Usher(2016–present) Angie Asimus(2024–present) | |||||
| Sport | Mel McLaughlin(2016–present) | Matt White(2026–present) | |||||
| Weather | Angie Asimus(2020–present) | Amber Laidler(2024–present) | |||||
Afternoon news updates
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Reporters
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Fill-In Presenters
News
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Sunrise/Weekend Sunrise correspondent
Early efforts by the station included variety seriesSydney Tonight (1956–1959),Captain Fortune Show (1956–1960) for children, soap operaAutumn Affair (1958–1959) and talent programTV Talent Scout (1957–1958).
