Australian and New Zealand television frequencies

Australian television broadcasting commenced in 1956 in Melbourne and Sydney to coincide with the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Three stations commenced operations on a ten-channel spectrum arrangement: the ABC operating in the VHF low band (VHF Ch 2), and the commercial stations operating in the VHF high band (VHF Ch 7 & 9). At the outset, commercial stations were independently owned, but due to economic forces network affiliations were soon established.

This pattern of television spectrum allocation was replicated in most of the state capital cities over the subsequent decade, with the exception of Hobart (one commercial service on VHF 6) and eventually Darwin (both the ABC and the commercial service were allocated in the VHF high band).

Geographical conditions differed in Melbourne and Sydney. The Melbourne transmission towers were located on the nearby Mount Dandenong, and their elevation and broadcasting power on an otherwise relatively flat terrain meant that the broadcasting signal could be received for some considerable distance, although there were some areas that experienced reception difficulties due to hills or buildings.

In the Sydney "basin" (formed by the Blue Mountains) the broadcast towers were collocated on the original studio sites, and given the undulating geography of Sydney there were many areas that experienced reception difficulties. The Blue Mountain terrain in the West of Sydney meant that capital city broadcasting did not penetrate into the hinterland of NSW, unlike that of Melbourne. It is possible that the penetration of weak signals into the Victorian hinterlands hastened the demand for the establishment of regional television stations, which commenced in 1961.

The Australian Government restricted regional television broadcasting to one commercial service and a repeater station of the national broadcaster from the capital city ABC station. Regional television stations tended to be allocated to VHF 6, 8 or in some cases 10.

The United Kingdom and New Zealand until recently shared an FM broadcasting allocation of 88.0 MHz to 105.0 MHz. Since the early 2000s both nations have full use of the standard FM band due to reallocation activities related to their separate implementation strategies for digital television.

This smaller FM Band allocation (less than 20 MHz: 88 MHz to 108 MHz as is used in most countries) can be traced to the 405-line television system's VHF allocation block. The UK adopted the 405-line system but NZ did not. The slightly smaller allocation only posed problems for the UK for its densely populated metropolitan regions, but NZ had few problems with the smaller allocation.

NZ's allocation for FM remained smaller as if NZ had adopted the 405-line system. New Zealand considered adopting the 405-line system in the late 1950s to early 1960s but adopted PAL instead. This impacted the frequency allocation block for FM broadcasting making it smaller. New Zealand's FM frequency allocation issue was not fixed until the late 1990s, when the FM band was expanded to the standard full 20 MHz block. As of the mid-2010s NZ totally abandoned its VHF band for UHF channels above 25.

• With the introduction of digital terrestrial television in Australia in 2001, channels 10 and 11 were moved up by 1 MHz.
  • This allocation change allowed a full 7 MHz for a new channel (9A).
  • VHF channel 12 was added following the new channel 11 to compensate for the change.
• channels 0-2 and 5A ceased to be used for television when analogue television broadcasting was discontinued.
• Television broadcasts on channels 3, 4, and 5 were previously discontinued in most regional areas in 1991 and 1992. Since the frequencies for these channels overlapped the range used for FM radio, any television broadcasts on these channels prevented the allocation of new FM radio licences, predominantly in regional areas.
• VHF Low Band DX using ITU TV Band (I) and part of Band (III) from NZ may disappear with the transition to DVB-T.

NOTE: Text in italics means these frequencies are not currently used but set aside as a Guardband or for future use.

External Data is from ACMA Register of Radiocommunications Licences -

• The external territories include the Cocos Islands, Christmas Island & the Bayu-Undan Gas Project in the Timor Sea.

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The ABC has the highest number of transmission sites: often, but not always, SBS and ABC signals are transmitted from the same masts.

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Some commercial broadcasters have a call sign that operates over multiple areas, whereas others may only serve a single area. This is due to historical ownership of regional stations. Nevertheless, most regional stations are now affiliated with the major metropolitan networks.

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