Prime Media commenced as a “free-to-air� television broadcaster before recently diversifying its operations in radio broadcasting, and digital new media.
Prime Media Group Limited is an Australian public listed company. It operates in the media industry within Australia and New Zealand.
The Prime Television Network was formed in Australia as a result of Australian Government legislation (beginning in 1989) designed to give all Australians equal access to "free-to-air" television.
Since 1989, Prime has added Golden West Network (Western Australia) and Mildura to its television broadcast regions. The Prime signal is also broadcast in Griffith NSW, under licence to another operator.
The licensed viewing area covers the regional locations of Northern and Southern New South Wales, Victoria, the Gold Coast area of eastern Queensland and all of regional Western Australia. In the eastern states of Australia the broadcast signal is branded as PRIME. In Western Australia the broadcast signal is known as Golden West Network (GWN).
Prime's investment in regional communities, combined with quality programming and a focus on cost efficiency and technology, have enabled the company to emerge as one of Australia's most successful regional broadcasters.
Appealing to the community-minded nature of regional Australia and to further the perception of our commitment to localism and quality programming, Prime has developed a brand strategy that centres around Prime connecting the viewer to the community and the world: 'Bringing it home'. This theme is used extensively on-air and in every aspect of marketing promotion.
The company's revenues are sourced from advertising and the production of commercial advertisements. Sales teams in the metropolitan offices service major national advertisers. In regional areas local sales teams work closely with their local clients, often arranging commercial production and promotional campaigns to support their advertising.
The majority of the programming on Prime is supplied through an affiliation agreement with the Seven Network, which runs through to 2016. The Seven network has developed an extremely strong schedule of programs that was augmented in 2007 with the return of the AFL and V8 Supercars. Some of the major programs currently featuring on Prime are “Dancing with the Stars�, “Border Security� and “Medical Emergency� from Australia as well as international shows such as “Desperate Housewives�, “Lost�, “Ugly Betty� and “Grey’s Anatomy�.
Seven’s dominance in News and Current Affairs and morning television augments Prime’s strength in its local news. Prime produces a total of six separate major local news bulletins each weekday. These are supplemented with News Updates and shorter bulletins throughout the day and night. All are branded Prime/GWN News and deal with stories from the immediate locality.
In September 2005, Prime made its first move into Radio with the acquisition of six radio stations in North Queensland.
These stations are located in Cairns (4CA FM), Townsville (SEA FM and MIX 106.3 FM), Mackay (4MK FM), Gladstone (4CC AM) and Rockhampton (4RO AM). These stations represented a mixture of heritage format and music format stations.
In January 2007, Prime expanded its radio division with the acquisition of Easymix format stations in Cairns (4EL AM) and Mackay (4AA AM), enhancing Prime’s presence in the region.
In August 2007, Prime completed its most significant radio acquisition purchasing two FM stations, Zinc 96.1FM and HOT 91FM in the fast growing Sunshine Coast region of South East Queensland.
These recent acquisitions bring Prime’s network to a total of 10 stations stretching the entire length of the Queensland coast.
With traditional media coming under increasing competition from new digital media sectors such as online advertising, the Prime Board has begun looking to diversify Prime’s operations. In 2006/07 Prime made a number of strategic investments in non-traditional media sectors:
Becker Group
In June 2007, Prime acquired a controlling interest in Becker Group Limited. This acquisition has given Prime greater exposure to broadcast production opportunities in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.
Digital Out-of-Home
In September 2006 Prime acquired a significant stake in Prime Digital Media “PDM, a digital out-of-home advertising company. PDM has established significant long term contracts with major retail groups in the areas of consumer electronics, lifestyle, pharmaceutical and telecommunications. PDM, through these contracts develops specialised digital channels which are transmitted through networks of digital screens located in retail chain outlets such as Retrovision and Boost Juice. Each of these network channels enables advertisers to target focused consumers they are making their purchase decision.
Digital Media
In April 2007 Prime took a significant stake in the ASX listed destra Corporation Limited which is Australia’s largest independent digital media content company.
Online
During 2007, Prime has established “Prime Digitalworks� lead by former Yahoo! Executive Tony Surtees, to develop a series of opportunities in the growing online media sector.
Prime has launched a new website “i-Prime� which is aimed at providing further points of interaction between Prime and its regional viewers providing hyperlocalised content and services. Digitalworks is also developing other websites and service offerings in the online sector, one of which was launched during the recent federal election “federalelection.com.au�.