is the
Sydney Flagship Television Station of the
Nine Network in
Australia and is located at
Willoughby . The license, issued to a company named
Television Corporation Ltd headed by
Frank Packer , was one of the first four licenses (two in Sydney, two in Melbourne) to be issued for commercial television stations in Australia.
TCN began broadcasting on
16 September 1956 , and became the first station in Australia to begin regular transmissions. The network decided that the Willoughby studio site will close and facilities will be relocated to purpose built studios in
Macquarie Park – next door to
Foxtel 's headquarters following the opening of the
Chatswood To Epping Rail Link .
In 1957, the station formed an affiliation with
Melbourne station
HSV-7 , allowing them to share programming. In
1963 , station affiliations changed; TCN-9 formed part of the
National Television Network with
GTV-9 in Melbourne,
QTQ-9 in
Brisbane and
NWS-9 in
Adelaide . These stations formed the basis of what is now the Nine Network, although only the Sydney and Melbourne stations have been owned by Packer's company.
On Frank Packer's death in
1974 , station ownership was passed to his son
Kerry Packer .
welcoming television broadcasting in Australia via TCN-9.]]
In December
1987 , Kerry Packer sold the Sydney and Melbourne stations to
Alan Bond 's
Bond Media for $1055 million, including $200 million in shares of Bond Media. Bond already owned the
Perth and
Brisbane Nine affiliate stations (among others). In
1990 , Bond Media's inability to pay out preference shares to Packer forced Nine into receivership. In July
1990 , Packer bought back the expanded Nine network (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth stations) for only $200 million, one-fifth of what he sold it for.
On
1 October 1997 , TCN-9 performed the first on-air trial of
Digital Broadcasting in the southern hemisphere.
''National Nine News Sydney'' is presented from this studio by
Mark Ferguson , with
Ken Sutcliffe presenting sport Mondays to Fridays and
Stephanie Brantz presenting sport on Fridays, and
Majella Wiemers presenting the weather, filling in for normal presenter
Jaynie Seal , who is on maternity leave.
Mark Ferguson succeeded
Jim Waley in 2005 as the bulletin's main presenter. Waley had been the longest serving presenter at the time, following the retirement of the great
Brian Henderson .
Mike Munro presents on weekends, alongside sport presenters
Stephanie Brantz on Saturdays and
Ken Sutcliffe on Sundays.
Mike Munro and
Michael Usher are regular fill-in presenters.
