TEN is Network 10's flagship station in Sydney. It was originally owned and operated by United Telecasters Sydney Limited, and began transmission on 5 April 1965 with the highlight of the opening night being the variety special TV Spells Magic.
History
Ten commenced broadcasting on 5 April 1965 after United Telecasters was granted a Sydney commercial broadcasting licence. Shareholders in United Telecasters included Amalgamated Wireless, Colonial Sugar Refining and Email with 14% each, Bank of New South Wales with 7.5% and the NRMA with 2.5%. TEN often lagged in the ratings behind the more established commercial channels TCN and ATN who had dominated viewing habits in Sydney for eight years. The turning point came in 1972 with the premiere of the raunchy soap opera series Number 96 which immediately lifted TEN's overall profile and helped raise the ailing network to No. 1 position by 1973. TEN launched Australia's first metropolitan nightly one-hour news bulletin in 1975, while NBN-3 in Newcastle was first to air a one-hour news service in Australia in 1972. In 1978, Katrina Lee became only the third female TV newsreader on Australian TV – the first being Melody Illiffe on QTQ-9. The current anchor for the 10 News First 5pm Sydney news bulletin on weeknights is Sandra Sully. TEN commenced digital television transmission in January 2001, broadcasting on VHF Channel 11 while maintaining analogue transmission on VHF Channel 10. The analogue signal for TEN was shut off at 9.00am AEDST, Tuesday, 3 December 2013.
Studio facilities
TEN's broadcast facilities have been in the inner city suburb of Pyrmont since 1997. These studios feature a large open plan newsroom and news-set where all Ten's national and local Sydney news bulletins are produced. This facility is also the network's head office and broadcasts the network signal to other cities. When TEN-10 opened in 1965, it operated from newly built studio facilities at North Ryde, these were sold in the 1990s when the network underwent financial turmoil. The North Ryde complex, which was used by Global Television in recent years, was demolished in September 2007. Following the move from North Ryde in 1990, TEN relocated to a small warehouse in Ultimo, and then to new studios in nearby Pyrmont in May 1997. Most series are produced on location or at external studios by external companies, but a few programs are made in-house by TEN.
North Ryde
Ultimo
Pyrmont
Current programs produced at Ten's Pyrmont Studios
TEN-10 produces a 90-minute local news program on weeknights from its studios at Pyrmont. 10 News First Sydney is presented by Sandra Sully with sport presenter Matt Burke, weather presenter Tim Bailey and traffic reporter Vic Lorusso. The 5pm bulletin was presented for almost eleven years by Ron Wilson and Jessica Rowe, between 1996 and 2005, when Rowe moved to present the Nine Network's Today. She was replaced by the network's US correspondent Deborah Knight from 2006. Wilson anchored the nightly Sydney news until January 2009 when he became a presenter of the nationalEarly News and was replaced by Bill Woods. Knight was replaced by Sully in October 2011 following the axing of the network's long-running late night news program, as a result with Knight's decision to move to the Nine Network. Sully became sole anchor after Woods' departure on 30 November 2012, following the network's decision not to renew his contract. Fill-in presenters include Natarsha Belling, Emma Lawrence, Scott Mackinnon and Amanda Duval or Amanda Hart.
