NTD is an Australian television station, licensed to and serving Darwin, Palmerston and surrounding areas. The station is owned and operated by the Nine Entertainment Co., and is an owned-and-operated station of the Nine Network, under the company name Territory Television Pty. Ltd.
The station is known for being the only commercial television network in the Northern Territory to broadcast a full Darwin news bulletin on weeknights. The network has also produced local programs airing across the entire Nine Network, such as Driving Test (2018) and Catching the Chase: Barra Nationals (2018).
One of NTD’s logos look like the “8” almost matches the style of the “9” in the Nine Network logo.
History
Origins
NTD-8 was officially launched at 8:00pm on 11 November 1971, with the opening lineup beginning at 5:30pm with Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, followed by Bandstand at 6:00 p.m. and at 7:00 p.m., An Evening with Burt Bacharach.
The station was officially inaugurated at 8:00pm by Northern Territory Administrator, Fred Chaney, followed by speeches from Sir Myles Wright, Fred Yates, John Hickman, and assistant executive John May.
The opening lineup continued with All the King's Men at 8:30 p.m. and Danger Man at 10:30 p.m. The station closed for the night at 11:30 p.m.
The station was completely destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in December 1974 and was off air for 10 months while it was rebuilt entirely. The station reopened at 6 Blake Street in the Darwin suburb of The Gardens, with full colour, on 27 October 1975 with John Lewis as Manager, with on air operators Gavin Ashton, Steve Mariner and Ross Jamieson. Daryl Potts was Chief Engineer until he died in 1979. Robert Potts was Studio Cameraman Film Department / Trainee location 16mm Cameraman / On Air Operator.
1980s
NTD did not run any news and current affairs programming until 18 October 1982, after the station hired Rex Clark as a news director to launch a nightly bulletin at 7:00pm entitled News at Seven, alongside a current affairs program entitled Spectrum.
1981 Daytime chat show 'Grapevine' hosted by Judith Noble (née Billington; Balcazar since 1990) Live on-air presentation directed and produced by Peter Miller; cameraman Headly Trigg.
In the late 1980s, NTD was purchased by Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), the owners of the Nine Network at that time. Following the purchase, NTD adopted a similar on-air presentation to the Nine Network, though replacing the "9" with an "8". NTD's news service was revamped and rebranded along with the station, to become Eight National News.
1990s
NTD was the sole commercial television station in Darwin until 1998, when Telecasters Australia launched Seven Darwin. However, for several years, NTD remained the sole locally based station in the city, as Seven Darwin was little more than a relay for Seven Central.
Territory Television Pty. Ltd. attempted to gain Seven Network affiliation rights prior to Seven Darwin's launch, in a strategic move to dominate and force the incoming competitor to align with Network Ten. This would have seen NTD broadcast both Nine Network and Seven Network programming, however after being rejected affiliation, the station gained Network Ten affiliation to supplement their parent company's Nine Network programming.
2000s
On New Year's Day 2003, Eight Darwin became Nine Darwin, in line with the rest of Kerry Packer's Nine Network owned-and-operated stations. At the same time, the station dropped most Ten programming from the line-up, and in 2005, the Network Ten affiliation rights were officially relinquished, and were then taken by TND in 2005.
In 2005, in the midst of the tug-of-war for the AFL television rights, PBL announced that National Rugby League games will take precedence on the station over AFL games, a sign that Nine may have been about to give up the race for the rights to a proposed Seven-Ten consortium, which they did, but not without putting in a $780 million dollar bid for the rights.
In 2008, Nine Darwin (NTD) began broadcasting Nine HD. In April 2008, Darwin Digital Television (DTD), a joint venture between the Nine Network and Macquarie Southern Cross Media, began broadcasting on the digital terrestrial platform as a full-time Ten Network affiliate.