AJR 38(1) 117 Station break: a history of Australian regional commercial television ownership and control Michael Thurlow and Bridget Griffen-Foley Abstract On July 1, 2016, the Nine Network abandoned its long-term regional afiliation agreement with WIN Television in favour of a new ive-year deal to supply programs to Southern Cross Austereo. This realignment of metropolitan and regional commercial television interests was the latest move in a game of regulatory, economic, corporate, political and technological brinkmanship that began more than 60 years ago, and which is likely to end in the demise of regional commercial television as an independent if not distinct entity in Australia. Introduction On July 1, 2016, consumers in regional Queensland, Victoria and southern New South Wales experienced the most profound change to their television services since the aggregation of com- mercial television markets in the late 1980s and early 1990s. On that day, the Nine Network abandoned its long-term afiliation with WIN Television in favour of a new ive-year deal to sup- ply programs to Southern Cross Austereo. The move resulted in WIN Television, which had been the Nine Network afiliate for more than 25 years, becoming the regional afiliate for the lower- rating Ten Network 1 . The decision by Nine to move away from WIN in favour of Southern Cross almost certainly involves an element of schadenfreude, given the love-hate relationship which has long existed between the two networks (Knight, 2007; Steffans, 2007; White, 2015b). In the days before the aggregation of Queensland’s regional commercial television markets, Bruce Gordon’s WIN Television swept under the radar to become the Nine Network afiliate in place of Telecasters North Queensland. This surprise manoeuvre changed the fortunes of both WIN and Telecasters overnight; the former found itself in prime position as the Queensland afiliate for the ratings-leading Nine Network, while the latter was forced to slash local program production and reduce staff numbers. The recent similar move by Southern Cross – the incumbent Ten Network afiliate – could be seen as a karmic response to the events of a quarter-century ago. This realignment of metropolitan and regional commercial television interests, coupled with proposed changes to media ownership rules (White, 2016), might be regarded as the latest moves in a game of regulatory, economic, corporate, political and technological brinkmanship that be-