ABV (TV station)
ABV is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television station in Melbourne, Victoria. The station began broadcasting on 19 November 1956 and is transmitted throughout the state via a network of relay transmitters. ABV was the second television station founded in Victoria after the first, HSV-7, which opened two weeks earlier, on 4 November. The studios are located in Southbank with the transmitter at Mount Dandenong.
Programming
Local programming
ABV follows a schedule nearly identical to that of other statewide ABC Television stations, allowing for time differences and some local programming – including news, current affairs, sport and state election coverage.ABC News Victoria is presented by Tamara Oudyn from Monday to Thursday and Mary Gearin from Friday to Sunday. The weeknight bulletins also incorporate weather forecasts presented by Paul Higgins as well as a national finance segment presented by Alan Kohler.
Paul Higgins and James Hancock are the fill in presenters for the bulletin.
ABV also carried live coverage of Victorian Football League matches on Saturday afternoons during the season until 2015 and the finals of the TAC Cup.
- Former sports presenter Angela Pippos resigned in October 2007 after being demoted as weeknight sports presenter to weekend presenter in 2004 to make way for Peter Wilkins. It was documented in the press that Pippos had some run-ins with senior management over this issue and the timing of her departure, which came after she was approached by Victorian premier John Brumby to run as a candidate in the Williamstown by-election, caused by the resignation of former premier Steve Bracks. Pippos was suspended for one week while she made her decision not to stand, but resigned just weeks later.
- In 2008, ABC News Victoria won one week in the 2008 television ratings season, and tied in another week with Seven News Melbourne.
Networked programming from ABV2
- ABC News Victoria
- ABC News at Five
- ABC News at Eleven
- Afternoon Briefing
- News Breakfast
- The World
- The World This Week
- Insiders
- Offsiders
- News on 3
- Sleuth 101
- East of Everything
- Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
- The Doctor Blake Mysteries
- The Weekly with Charlie Pickering
- Spicks and Specks
- Dirty Laundry Live
- Prank Patrol
- Studio 3
- Gardening Australia
- Rush TV
- Beached Az
- Rage
- Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight
- Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell
Past programming
- 7.30 Victoria
- Newsline with Jim Middleton
- VFL
- The Slap
- The Librarians
- The Marngrook Footy Show
- Bed of Roses
- Stateline Replaced by 7.30 Victoria
- Summer Heights High
- '
- George Negus Tonight
- Kath & Kim Production moved to HSV7
- Something in the Air
- '
- The Micallef Pogram
- Sea Change
- Recovery
- The Adventures of Lano and Woodley
- Frontline
- Round the Twist
- The D-Generation
- Just Barbara
History
Early efforts by the station included Variety View, Melbourne Magazine, Sweet and Low and Melody Time.
The first dramatic production by the station was a live, 30-minute play called Roundabout which aired on 4 January 1957.
ABV Channel 2 moved to new studios at Ripponlea in 1958, in Gordon Street, Elsternwick, with two major studios: Studio 31 & 32. The land had been acquired from the adjacent Rippon Lea Estate. Over the years, many additional properties were leased. The ABC began consolidating all their Melbourne operations in 1999, with purchase of a property behind their Southbank premises which had housed their radio operations since 1994. The television news moved to Southbank in 2000, and the government approved a loan in 2013 to move the studio production.. The facility was finished in 2017 and the final show to be filmed at Ripponlea was Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell in November 2017, with all production consolidated into a single Studio 31 at Southbank after that.
Relay stations
The following stations relay ABV throughout Victoria:| Call | Region served | City | Channels ' | First air date | 3rd letter's meaning | ERP ' | HAAT '1 | Transmitter coordinates | Transmitter location |
| ABAV | Upper Murray | Albury/Wodonga | 1 7 11 | December 15, 1964 | Albury | 160 kW 75 kW | 496 m 525 m | Mount Baranduda | |
| ABEV | Bendigo | Bendigo | 1 7 29 | April 29, 1963 | BEndigo | 130 kW 420 kW | 512 m 517 m | Mount Alexander | |
| ABGV | Goulburn Valley | Shepparton | 40 2 7 37 | November 28, 1963 | Goulburn Valley | 1200 kW 230 kW | 372 m 378 m | Mount Major | |
| ABLV | Latrobe Valley | Traralgon | 40 3 7 29 | September 30, 1963 | Latrobe Valley | 1600 kW 400 kW | 520 m 520 m | Mount Tassie | |
| ABMV | Mildura and Sunraysia | Mildura | 6 4 6 11 | November 22, 1965 | Mildura | 200 kW 50 kW | 152 m 152 m | Yatpool | |
| ABRV | Ballarat | Ballarat | 42 5 7 35 | May 20, 1963 | BallaRat | 2000 kW 300 kW | 710 m 713 m | Lookout Hill | |
| ABSV | Murray Valley | Swan Hill | 2 7 47 | July 30, 1965 | Swan Hill | 200 kW 320 kW | 144 m 201 m | Goschen | |
| ABWV | Western Victoria | Hamilton | 5A 7 6 | July 1981 | W'''estern Victoria | 130 kW 32 kW | 356 m 365 m | Mount Dundas |
Notes:
- 1. HAAT estimated from http://www.itu.int/SRTM3/ using EHAAT.
- 2. ABGV was on VHF channel 3 from its 1963 sign-on until 1991, moving to its current channel in order to accommodate FM radio.
- 3. ABLV was on VHF channel 4 from its 1963 sign-on until 1991, moving to its current channel in order to accommodate FM radio.
- 4. ABMV was on VHF channel 4 from its 1965 sign-on until sometime in the 1990s, moving to its current channel in order to accommodate FM radio.
- 5. ABRV was on VHF channel 3 from its 1963 sign-on until sometime around 1991, moving to VHF channel 11 in order to accommodate FM radio. It moved to its current channel in 2000 in order to accommodate digital television in Melbourne.
- 6. ABMV was on VHF channel 6 until the 30 June 2010 due to the Analogue switchoff in the Mildura/Sunraysia region
- 7. Analogue transmissions ceased as of 5 May 2011 as part of the conversion to digital television.