text:
S4C

S4C (, Sianel Pedwar Cymru, meaning Channel Four Wales) is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience. S4C's headquarters are based in Carmarthen, at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David's creative and digital centre, Yr Egin. It also has regional offices in Caernarfon and Cardiff. As of 2024, S4C had an average of 118 employees. S4C is the fourth-oldest terrestrial television channel in Wales after BBC One, ITV and BBC Two.

As with Channel 4 (which launched the next day in the rest of the UK), S4C commissions all of its programmes from independent producers. BBC Cymru Wales produces programmes for S4C as part of its public service remit, including the news service Newyddion. From its launch until 2010, S4C also carried English-language programming acquired from Channel 4, which could not be received over-the-air in most of Wales; these programmes aired in non-peak hours and did not always air in pattern with Channel 4's scheduling.

On digital terrestrial television, S4C has broadcast exclusively in Welsh since the platform's launch in 1998, with the existing bilingual schedule continuing on analogue television. After the completion of the digital switchover in Wales on 31 March 2010, Channel 4 became available on Freeview, and S4C ceased its carriage of English-language programmes. S4C offers translated, English-language subtitles for its Welsh programming. To this day, S4C remains the only Welsh-language television broadcaster in the country.

Pre-launch
Before the launch of S4C on Monday 1 November 1982, Welsh speakers had been served by occasional programmes in Welsh, broadcast as regional opt-outs on BBC Cymru Wales and HTV Cymru Wales (the Channel 3 franchise in Wales), usually at off-peak or inconvenient times. This was unsatisfactory for Welsh speakers, who saw the arrangement as a sop, and at the same time an annoyance for non-Welsh speakers, who found the English-language programmes seen in the rest of the UK often rescheduled or not transmitted at all.

On 14 September 1962, the ITV network created a licence area for North and West Wales, which was awarded to Wales (West and North) Limited. This traded as Teledu Cymru and provided significant levels of Welsh-language programming. However, problems with transmission infrastructure and poor market research led to financial difficulties within two years, and after going bankrupt, the station was taken over by its neighbour Television Wales and the West.

During the 1970s, Welsh-language activists had campaigned for a television service in the language, which already had its own radio station, BBC Radio Cymru. Both the Conservative and Labour parties promised a Welsh-language fourth channel, if elected to government in the 1979 general election. Shortly after the Conservatives won a majority in the election, the new Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, decided against a Welsh fourth channel, and suggested that, except for an occasional opt-out, the service should be the same as that offered in the rest of the UK. This led to acts of civil disobedience, including refusals to pay the television licence fee, thereby running the risk of prosecution or even a prison sentence, and sit-ins in BBC and HTV studios. Some took more extreme measures, including attacking television transmitters in Welsh-speaking areas.

On 17 September 1980, the former president of Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor Evans, threatened to go on hunger strike if the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher did not honour its commitment to provide a Welsh-language television service. S4C started broadcasting on 1 November 1982, broadcasting around 22 hours a week of programmes, mostly during prime time with a teatime slot for children with English language programmes from Channel 4, rescheduled to fit around the Welsh programmes.

Relocation
In September 2013, S4C began a study into the possible relocation of its headquarters. S4C's former headquarters, which opened in 1991, were located at Parc Ty Glas Industrial Estate, Llanishen, following a move from Cathedral Road and Sophia Close in Pontcanna, Cardiff. In January 2013, a new multi-use media centre was opened on its Llanishen site. In March 2014, it was announced that Carmarthen was the winner with a bid led by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD). The university owns the land where the Canolfan S4C Yr Egin (S4C Yr Egin Centre) would be built. The building would also be home to other companies in the creative industries. There was a strong bid for relocation to Caernarfon, where the channel had a pre-existing office, but there was disappointment when that the bid was unsuccessful. In 2016, it was revealed that S4C was paying £3 million upfront rent to UWTSD, and that it would pay rent over the next 20 years. Concern was expressed about the arrangement and the lack of transparency around commercial payments between two publicly funded bodies. UWTSD applied for funding for the building work and received £3m from the Welsh Government and a further £3m from the Swansea Bay city deal.

In June 2018, it was revealed that more staff would be leaving the channel than moving to work in Carmarthen. S4C started relocating to the new building from September 2018, and 54 jobs moved to the new HQ. An office in Cardiff was retained for technical purposes until full changeover to the new BBC Wales Headquarters, with 70 staff there. A significant percentage of the technical posts were to transfer to the BBC. In September 2018, S4C committed to ten years of lease on its Caernarfon office at Doc Fictoria (Victoria Dock), which has 12 full-time staff, and was opened in 2008. In January 2021 S4C's Presentation, Library, Promotion and Commercial departments moved to BBC Wales headquarters in Central Square, Cardiff. The first programmes were broadcast from there on 27 January 2021, beginning with the channel's children's service, Cyw, at 6:00 a.m. Liz Scourfield's first live presentation aired later that morning, before the news bulletin at 12:00.

Programming
S4C's remit is to provide a service which features a wide range of programmes in the Welsh language. Like Channel 4, S4C does not produce programmes of its own; instead, it commissions programmes from BBC Cymru Wales and independent producers (although the quantity purchased from ITV Cymru Wales has greatly reduced since the early years of S4C), and it has particularly developed a reputation for commissioning children's animation, such as SuperTed, Rocky Hollow, Fireman Sam (also broadcast by the BBC), The Blobs (also broadcast by Scottish Television), Wil Cwac Cwac (shown on ITV), Gogs, Shakespeare: The Animated Tales, Animated Tales of the World and the 1992–1996 French co-production Natalie.

BBC Cymru Wales fulfils its public service requirement by producing programmes in Welsh, including Newyddion, S4C's news bulletin, and a soap opera, Pobol y Cwm, and providing them to S4C free of charge. It has also provided (or licensed) Welsh-language versions of English-language programmes, such as the original Teletubbies. On the analogue service, S4C showed programmes produced for Channel 4 in the rest of the United Kingdom – either simultaneously or time-shifted – outside of peak hours. These programmes were provided to S4C by Channel 4, free of charge.

To make content more accessible to English speakers, all Welsh-language programming carries English subtitles. Originally these were on Sbectel teletext page 888, with Welsh subtitles on page 889, with both subtitle languages now also available on digital television platforms. For speakers of English who are learning Welsh, certain programmes, particularly children's programmes Planed Plant Bach (now Cyw) and Planed Plant (now Stwnsh), carry subtitles featuring Welsh subtitles with additional English translations in brackets next to more difficult Welsh-language words. TV films produced for S4C have received some good foreign reviews; Hedd Wyn was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 1994 and Solomon & Gaenor was nominated in 2000.

The S4C analogue signal also spilled over on to the east coast of Ireland. In the past it was rebroadcast in a number of areas there on UHF terrestrial signals by so-called 'deflectors'. Up until the 1990s, S4C was also carried by some Irish cable and MMDS providers before being replaced by Channel 4. The S4C channels continue to be available in the Republic of Ireland via the Freesat satellite service.

Up until 2009, S4C ran its own teletext service, Sbectel ("Sbec", Welsh for "a peek" or "a glimpse", and a reference to an S4C schedule insert formerly included in the TVTimes issues for the HTV Wales region). In 2010 when the analogue signal for S4C was switched off all Channel 4 progammes stopped broadcasting on the channel and were replaced by its own programmes and some from the BBC Cymru Wales catalogue.

Viewing figures
6.3 million people throughout the UK watched S4C on television at some time during 2022–2023. The number of people who watched S4C on TV every week throughout the UK decreased from 602,000 in 2021–2022 to 509,000 in 2022–2023. On an average week in 2022–2023, approximately 324,000 people in Wales watched S4C on TV – 8% higher than in 2021–2022 and the highest for five years. 150,000 Welsh speakers in Wales watched S4C on television each week during this period, which was 14% higher than in 2021–2022 and also the highest for five years. 20,600 was the average TV audience in the peak hours during 2022–2023.

The BARB rolling four-week viewing figures for January 2022 were 0.05% across the UK. If scaled up for Wales alone, this would be just a 1.0% audience share.

Viewing sessions of S4C content on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer increased from 11.0 million in 2020–2021 to 11.3 million in 2021–2022. There were also 209 million impressions of S4C content on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram within that period.

The programme that enjoyed the channel's highest viewing figures in 2022-2023 was Sgorio's coverage of Wales' UEFA Nations League match against Belgium in September 2022, which drew 456,000 viewers.

Digital channels
When digital terrestrial television launched in 1998, S4C added a second, full-time Welsh-language channel called S4C Digidol ('digital') on 1 November 1998. Following the switch-off of analogue terrestrial signals on 31 March 2010, Wales became the first fully digital region in the UK, with both S4C and Channel 4 becoming available to all homes. As a result, S4C now broadcasts solely in the Welsh language and, as well as on Freeview in Wales, is available throughout Britain, Ireland and the rest of western Europe on Freesat and Sky. A review commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2004 suggested that "S4C should operate a single core service after digital switchover".

In addition, S4C also operated a sister channel, S4C2 (S4C Dau) until 2010. It formerly broadcast coverage of the National Assembly for Wales when in session. The programme content was provided by the BBC who, from January 2010, now make it available online and via BBC Parliament. Like the main channel, S4C2 was available within Wales on Freeview and throughout the UK and Ireland on Freesat and Sky. S4C2 had two audio feeds, allowing viewers to select between an untranslated version and an English-only version where all Welsh spoken is translated into English. Delayed coverage of Assembly proceedings is now broadcast overnight on S4C's main channel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. In addition to the analogue TV signal transmitted throughout Wales, S4C, along with United News & Media, owned the company S4C Digital Networks (SDN). SDN was awarded the UK-wide contract to provide half a digital multiplex worth of programming. The other half continues to belong to the broadcaster Channel 5.

On 27 April 2005, S4C sold its share of SDN to ITV plc for approximately £34 million, though it still has the half-multiplex as of right in Wales. ITV already owned some of SDN due to the consolidation of the ITV industry: Granada bought UNM's stake in SDN, and this was then incorporated into the united ITV plc. In January 2007, S4C announced plans to launch a Welsh-language children's service. The new service, in the form of a programming block, launched on 23 June 2008. Under the name Cyw (chick), it brings together a wide range of programmes for nursery-age children, and S4C plans eventually to extend the service to include the Stwnsh strand for older children and a third service for teenagers and young people. The service currently airs on weekdays from 7 am to 1.30 pm on S4C.

S4C launched a high-definition simulcast of S4C called 'Clirlun' on 19 July 2010 to coincide with terrestrial digital switchover in Wales. Clirlun was broadcast on Freeview channel 53 only, and not via other platforms. However, following funding cuts and a review of core services it was announced on 11 July 2012 that Clirlun would close before the end of the year. Clirlun closed at midnight on the evening of 1 December 2012, with Channel 4 HD taking over its transmission capacity with effect from the next day, 2 December 2012.

It was announced on 20 May 2016 that S4C would relaunch a high definition service S4C HD on Freesat and Sky in Wales and across the UK from 7 June onwards. Following the 2016 relaunch of S4C HD, the channel returned to Freeview in HD from 7pm on Wednesday 19 January 2022. It will broadcast for peak viewing hours only, from 7pm on weekday evenings and from 2pm on weekends, sharing capacity with the HD version of the BBC's children's service CBBC.

In December 2014, S4C became available on the BBC iPlayer website, both live and on demand, initially as part of an 18-month trial.

1982–1987
S4C launched on 1 November 1982 (the day before Channel 4 started in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), its on-air appearance has always been a representation of Welsh society and people, but this representation has changed several times. Initial idents featured clips from the natural landscapes of Wales with a basic logo animation and a synthesizer fanfare, with the logo forming as WALES4CYMRU.

1987–1993
On 25 May 1987, the ident changed to a computer-generated ident featuring an animation of the streamlined S4C logo and the colours of the logo was blue, green, and red. The font used for this logo was a modified Bodoni MT. On 7 September 1990, the new ident was introduced, depicting a piece of Welsh slate with colours blue, green, and red washing over the letters S4C until 31 May 1993.

1993–2007
On 1 June 1993, S4C introduced a new series of idents, which depicted inanimate objects as having characteristics of dragons (such as flight or breathing fire), as a reference to the red dragon on the flag of Wales. On 10 February 1995, the channel introduced a new logo (in the Futura typeface) replaces the original serif logo, featuring a tilde representing a dragon with a flame next to the "C" as if were breathing fire. The idents were designed, created, and directed by Charlotte Castle, Brian Eley, and Martin Lambie-Nairn.

2007–2014
On 18 January 2007, S4C announced that their digital channels would be refreshed with a new corporate logo and brand. The new branding was implemented online on 17 January, with S4C's television channels adopting it the next day. The new branding, developed by the London-based firm Proud Creative, was intended to portray S4C as a more "contemporary" multi-platform broadcaster, and downplayed "traditional" Welsh imagery such as dragons. Its idents were filmed around various parts of the country, and themed around magnetism—representing the "uncontrollable attraction" of Welsh people and their "emotional affinity to the homeland, whether near or far". The magnetism-themed idents were later accompanied by a new set developed in collaboration with the agency Minivegas, consisting of live-action scenes with dynamic, animated elements that can react to the voice of the continuity announcer.

2014–present
A new S4C logo and brand developed by Sugar Creative was introduced on 10 April 2014; the new design was developed around the concept of providing "context" to S4C's target audience and programming. The design revolves heavily around a trapezium shape used within the channel's new logo, which is prominently used within aspects of the channel's overall marketing and branding.

Criticisms
S4C has faced criticism for poor viewing figures since its launch. Leaked internal reports in March 2010 showed that 'over the 20-day period from 15 February to last Saturday, 6 March, as many as 196 of the 890 programmes put out by S4C were rated as having zero viewers'. The story was widely reported across the UK and was referenced in Parliament by the then Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. In response, an S4C spokesperson stated that 90% of those programmes were aimed at pre-school children, and that BARB (the organisation that compiles television ratings in the UK) only takes into account viewers aged four years and over. The remaining 10% consisted of repeats and daytime news bulletins which did not attract the minimum 1,000 viewers necessary to register on a UK-wide analysis.

On 28 July 2010, S4C's chief executive, Iona Jones, left her post without explanation. Assembly members and Members of Parliament requested an independent investigation into the circumstances leading up to her departure. The S4C Authority refused to comment further and commissioned a review into how the broadcaster was governed in August 2010. On 3 February 2011, it was announced that issues between Iona Jones and S4C had been settled. Eight days later, the Shortridge Report on corporate governance was made public.

Chief Executives

 * 1981–1989: Owen Edwards
 * 1989–1994: Geraint Stanley Jones
 * 1994–2005: Huw Jones (broadcaster)
 * 2005–2010: Iona Jones
 * 2010–2012: Arwel Ellis Owen (interim)
 * 2012–2017: Ian Jones
 * 2017–2022: Owen Evans
 * 2022—2023: Siân Doyle
 * 2024–present: Sioned Wiliam (interim)

Funding and regulation
From its inception, S4C was in part publicly financed: funding came both from its advertising revenue and a fixed annual grant from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), receiving £102m in 2010 and then £90m in 2011 after the Conservative Party won the general elections in 2010 which consequently made considerable cuts to its funding. Additionally, some Welsh-language programming (including Newyddion and Pobol y Cwm) was produced by BBC Wales as part of the BBC's public service remit, and provided to S4C free of charge. There is an agreement in place until 2022 for 10 hours a week of programming to be provided to S4C, which is valued at £19.4m annually.

From 2013, responsibility for funding S4C began to transfer to the BBC, with the DCMS reducing its funding by 94% by 2015. The BBC was to provide around £76m of funding to S4C by this date, resulting in a cut of around 25% to S4C's annual budget. In 2016, it was agreed that the BBC would provide £74.5m a year funding to S4C from the licence fee until 2022. The UK government announced in 2018 that it would continue providing £6.72m until 2020, with the aim of S4C being funded wholly from the licence fee from 2022. This would see S4C's funding being decided as part of the licence fee settlement, for 10-year periods.

Prior to 2011, S4C received ~£102m (which would be an estimate of ~£122.8m in January 2022 after inflation), with the new allocated funds of 2022 (which is £82m), the loss in 2022 alone compared with 2010 is estimated to be ~£40.8m and an overall loss of ~£450m between 2011 and 2022.

In addition to public funding, S4C generates around 2% of its income through commercial sources, such as advertising.

S4C is controlled by the S4C Authority (Awdurdod S4C), an independent body unconnected to Ofcom. Ofcom are the regulator for S4C's content, as they are with other UK television channels such as ITV and Channel 4.

Program Distribution
S4C's self-owned programmes are distributed internationally through S4C International (S4C Rhyngwladol CYF).

S4C formerly owned a selection of animated programmes, but on 2 October 2017, Hoho Entertainment acquired the broadcaster's animation back catalogue.

Catch-up service
S4C maintains its own catch-up service called Clic. Clic is a free online video on demand service which offers live-streaming, signed programming, a 35-day catch-up service, and archive programming. Clic is available across the UK but also contains a limited selection of worldwide programming. Clic's catch-up service is split into seven categories: Drama, Entertainment, Factual and Arts, Music, Sport, and two Children's categories, Cyw (ages 3–6) and Stwnsh (ages 7–13). A Clic app was released for Apple's iOS devices on 18 August 2011.

In late 2014, S4C's programmes and live-streaming also became available to view on the BBC's catch-up service, BBC iPlayer. Both services offer English and Welsh subtitles to some shows.

There were 8.2 million viewing sessions to S4C content on Clic and BBC iPlayer in 2017–2018. This was an increase of 600,000 from the 7.6 million viewing sessions on those platforms in 2016–2017. In the 2020–2021 period, the viewing session number increased to 11 million. Viewing figures on Clic and iPlayer was at an all-time high in 2022–23. 596,000 hours of S4C content was viewed on Clic during that year. A further 2,680,000 hours of content was viewed on the iPlayer.

title: S4C


text:
Fernão Pires de Andrade

Fernão Pires de Andrade (also spelled as Fernão Peres de Andrade; in contemporary sources, Fernam (Fernã) Perez Dandrade ) (d. 1552) was a Portuguese merchant, pharmacist, and diplomat who worked under the explorer and colonial administrator Afonso de Albuquerque. His encounter with Ming China in 1517—after initial contacts by Jorge Álvares and Rafael Perestrello in 1513 and 1516, respectively—marked the resumption of direct European commercial and diplomatic contact with China. (Even though there were Europeans in Medieval China, notably Marco Polo, that period of contact had been interrupted by the fall of the Yuan dynasty.)

Although de Andrade's mission was initially a success that allowed a Portuguese embassy to proceed all the way to Beijing, relations were soon spoiled by culminating events that led to an extremely negative impression of the Portuguese in China. This included acts of his brother Simão that enraged the Chinese, false reports of the Portuguese being cannibals of kidnapped Chinese children and true reports of their conquest of Malacca, a loyal Ming tributary state. Normalized trade and relations between Portugal and the Ming dynasty would not resume until the late 1540s and the 1557 establishment of Portuguese rule over Macau.

Andrade was referred to as a "Folangji" (佛郎機) in Ming dynastic archives. Folangji comes from Franques or Franks, which was a generic name the Muslims called Europeans since the Crusades, and which spawned the Indian-Southeast Asian term ferengi. The Chinese adopted the convention when they first thought the Portuguese were related to those Muslim guides and interpreters during Fernão's first encounter and before Europeans directly convened with Chinese.

India, Sumatra, and Malacca

Fernão Pires de Andrade commanded a vessel in the naval venture of the Portuguese explorer and conqueror Afonso de Albuquerque from Cochin in India to conquer the Malacca Sultanate in 1511. The Portuguese historian João de Barros (1496–1570) wrote that when a violent storm arose as Albuquerque's fleet entered the vast waters between Sri Lanka and Aceh, a ship commanded by Simão Martinho was sunk, but his entire crew was rescued by Fernão and taken aboard his ship. To make up for this loss, the Portuguese captured and commandeered five ships from Gujarat that were sailing between Malacca and Sumatra. The small fleet of Albuquerque engaged an enemy "junk" ship of the Javanese "Moors" near Polvoreira (likely Pulau Berhala, 160 miles from Malacca, between Belawan, Medan and Lumut, Perak). According to Barros, they fought against this ship for two days. The enemy crew employed tactics of lighting fire to its own ship as a means to burn Albuquerque's ships as they employed ramming techniques and close-range volleys of artillery. Although the ship surrendered; the Portuguese gained such an admiration for the junk and its crew that they nicknamed it O Bravo (The Brave Junk). The Portuguese crew pleaded with Fernão Pires to convince Albuquerque that the crew should be spared and viewed vassals of Portugal who were simply unaware of who they were actually fighting. Albuquerque eventually agreed to this.

While writing of Afonso de Albuquerque's ventures in Sumatra, João de Barros noted that the Chinese were the first to control trade between Sumatra and India, and noted the presence of Chinese people living in Sumatra. Barros also noted that while Fernão Pires was loading Southeast Asian spices onto his ship in Pacem (a kingdom in Sumatra) in order to sell or present them as gifts in China, two different kings were killed and their position usurped. Apparently the usurpation of kings caused little tumult or crisis in this state, as Barros noted any leader there was believed by the locals not to have divine right to rule if he was able to be killed by a royal kinsman. Historian Mark Dion notes that Fernão related the same story in his writing, only adding that a Muslim in their society was the only acceptable replacement as ruler.

Initial contact with China
After the conquest of Malacca in 1511, not only did the Portuguese monopolize the European spice trade, but they also met and traded avidly with Chinese merchants. When Portuguese under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira had earlier arrived in Malacca in 1509 to open trade relations, he was supported by the local Chinese merchants there (along with Javanese and Tamil merchants). D'Albuquerque sent Jorge Álvares to explore northward; his expedition sailed along the coast of Guangdong in 1513 and hoisted a flag on "Tuen Mun island". This mission was followed up later that year by Rafael Perestrello, who later traded with Chinese merchants of Canton in 1516. He provided an enticing report to other Portuguese on the lucrative trade in China. This prompted Andrade to speed up the course of his mission while stalled in Malacca and debate with his crew on whether to go to China or Bengal.

Choosing the ambassadors

King Manuel I authorized a trade mission in 1517 when Andrade set sail with seven cannon-armed merchant vessels with a Muslim interpreter on June 17, 1517. Andrade had been chosen for this mission in Lisbon back in 1515, so that—as a pharmacist—he could investigate the types of pharmaceutical drugs used in East Asia for the benefit of the Portuguese and Europe. Florentine merchant Giovanni da Empoli, who had written a report about trade with China while stationed in India, was also chosen for the mission as the chief commercial agent between the Portuguese and Chinese. However, Giovanni would die in China during the early mission on October 15, 1517 when the ship he was on accidentally caught on fire. Tomé Pires, a royal apothecary who had also traveled to India and written a landmark work in 1515 on Asian trade, was chosen as the chief ambassador for the mission.

First contact
Although the mission was stalled once they lost a ship in the Strait of Malacca, they nonetheless landed at the Pearl River estuary on August 15 with eight ships and negotiated with Chinese officials for possible silk and porcelain trade at Canton. The Chinese naval commander of Nantou (under the jurisdiction of Zhongshan, located at the mouth of the Pearl River) stalled Andrade's small fleet of ships for an entire month while Andrade waited for permission to sail upriver to Canton. After Andrade threatened to sail upriver without permission, the naval commander finally decided to let him pass, granting him pilots to assist his travel.

Once the ships sailed into port at Canton, they alarmed the Chinese residents and officials there by discharging cannon fire, what they believed was a friendly salute since the Chinese merchants had done so when the Portuguese earlier arrived in Malacca. Chinese officials became even more cautious in dealing with the Portuguese, since the deposed King of Malacca had been a loyal tributary to the imperial Ming court. The Portuguese explained that in deposing the Malaccan king, they were helping the Chinese merchants there who were being oppressed under his rule. In the eyes of the Canton officials, this added further negative speculations about the Portuguese visitors, because private Chinese overseas trade was banned under the current hai jin laws that stated only the Chinese government could conduct foreign trade.

Although the local Canton officials watched the Portuguese and their ships closely, once the provincial authorities arrived at Canton they greeted the Portuguese with a warm reception, providing them comfortable lodgings and had their trade goods brought ashore. The Chinese became suspicious once again of Andrade, this time for being a spy, when he sent a ship along the Fujian coast to look for further trade prospects, but he left a good impression when he gave the order that any locals who might be harmed by a Portuguese should seek him for redress. Besides exploring Fujian, Andrade sent one of his captains named Jorge de Mascarenhas to explore the Ryukyu Islands after he heard of their beauty while stationed in Malacca.

Andrade's brother and spoiled relations
Simão de Andrade, brother to Fernão Pires, sailed from Malacca to China with a small crew on three junks in August 1519. Simão immediately made a bad impression upon the Chinese when he built a fort at the center of Tuen Mun, an island designated for all foreigners to trade. Soon after, Simão ceremoniously executed a Portuguese and barred other foreigners (mostly Siamese and other South East Asians) from trading on the island, which drew even more attention to him. When a Chinese official visited the island and began reasserting Ming authority over it, Simão became aggressive and hit him, knocking the official's hat off.

The greatest offense to the Chinese was the supposed kidnapping of children by the Portuguese so they could eat them. In reality, Simão had earned the Portuguese a bad reputation for buying young Chinese slaves, presumably some of whom were kidnapped after Simão offered local Chinese huge sums of money for child slaves. In fact, some boys and girls from wealthy Chinese families were later found by Portuguese authorities at Diu in western India. However, there were no official reports of Simão's abuses, even though he stayed until September 1520; yet rumors of his behavior (which became associated with all Portuguese) no doubt reached as far as the court of Beijing, which would soon condemn the Portuguese for this and other reasons.

Although he had left Canton, Simão de Andrade landed at Xiamen and Ningbo, establishing settlements there. Simão continued to defy local Chinese laws at Ningbo, and when his men were cheated on a trade deal with a Chinese man in 1545, Simão sent a band of armed men into the town, pillaged it, and took local women and young girls as their captives. The outraged locals banded together and slaughtered the Portuguese under Simão. A similar episode occurred later when Coelho de Sousa seized the house of a wealthy foreign resident in Jinzhou of Fujian, which led authorities to cut off supplies to the Portuguese; the Portuguese then attacked and ransacked a nearby village for supplies, which prompted Chinese authorities to destroy thirteen of their ships while thirty Portuguese survivors of this settlement fled to the Portuguese settlement at Macau in 1549.

End of the mission
The embassy party left behind in Canton in 1518 proceeded north in January 1520 with the rest of the Portuguese under Tomé Pires and Fernão Pires de Andrade. The embassy reached Nanjing, where the Zhengde Emperor was touring in May 1520, granting the Portuguese embassy a quick audience. However, further diplomatic negotiations were to be resumed once the emperor returned to Beijing; hence, the Portuguese embassy was sent there to wait for the emperor's return.

Although no Chinese sources detail the event, Portuguese sources tell of how the Portuguese were summoned on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month to ceremoniously prostrate themselves before a wall of the Forbidden City to seek another audience with the emperor. From Beijing, the Portuguese embassy heard reports that the emperor reached Tongzhou in January 1521 and had the rebel Prince of Ning executed there. The Portuguese embassy had also become aware that ambassadors from the exiled King of Malacca were sent to Beijing seeking assistance from the Chinese emperor in expelling the conquering Portuguese so that their king could be reinstalled there. The Portuguese also knew of two officials in the Censorate—Qiu Daolong and He Ao— who sent memorials to the throne that condemned the Portuguese conquest of Malacca and that their embassy should be rejected. There were also reports sent to Beijing by Canton officials stating that the Portuguese were bothersome foreigners who sought to build their own trading post.

With the death of the Zhengde Emperor on April 19, 1521, mourning ceremonies were initiated that cancelled all other ceremonies, including the reception of foreign embassies. The newly appointed Grand Secretary, Yang Tinghe, soon turned against the powerful eunuch influence at court, which had grown even more powerful under the Zhengde Emperor. Although Ming officials were of the opinion that only foreign tributary states listed during the beginning of the dynasty should be accepted at court, it was the eunuchs who wanted to expand commercial ties with new foreign countries. These desires were given free rein under the Zhengde Emperor, who was intrigued with and desired to learn about foreign and exotic peoples. However, with his death, eunuch influence at court was challenged by Yang Tinghe, who announced the rejection of the Portuguese embassy under Pires and Andrade the day after the emperor's death; the embassy was forced to leave and arrived back in Canton in September.

Open hostility to reopening of relations

Earlier, in April and May 1521, five Portuguese ships docked at Tuen Mun to begin trading, but were ordered to leave once officials came to the region to announce the emperor's death. The Portuguese refused this demand, so the Chinese sent a naval squadron to drive them out, sinking one ship, killing many, and taking the rest as prisoners (First Battle of Tamao). Two more Portuguese vessels arrived in June, were attacked by Chinese ships, but were able to fend off the Chinese attack. Three more Portuguese ships barely fended off another attack in September, the same month that Fernão Pires de Andrade and Tomé Pires arrived back at Canton. Ming authorities would not permit Fernão and Pires to see the prisoners captured in the sea battles and made inventories of their goods and the goods captured from the Portuguese ships.

In August 1522, Martim Afonso de Melo Coutinho arrived at Tuen Mun with three ships, unaware of the conflict and expecting to meet with Chinese officials on establishing consent for a Portuguese trade base in China. Two of his ships were captured in a surprise Chinese attack, while the survivors escaped back to Portugal on the third ship (see Second Battle of Tamao). These encounters and others with the Portuguese brought the first breech-loading culverins into China, mentioned even by the philosopher and scholar-official Wang Yangming in 1519 when he suppressed Zhu Chenhao's rebellion in Jiangxi.

The prisoners of these sea battles were eventually executed in 1523 for crimes of "robbery in the high seas" and cannibalism, while Tomé Pires was kept prisoner so that he could write letters to the King of Portugal, the Viceroy of Portuguese India, and the Governor of Malacca conveying the new Ming emperor's message that the Portuguese should leave Malacca and restore it to the rightful rule of its deposed king. By some accounts, Fernão Pires de Andrade simply died while imprisoned; others say Andrade was one of those beheaded when a crime of false credentials was placed upon him after a court examined if his embassy was legitimate or spurious due to negative accounts of the Portuguese (i.e. acts committed by those such as Fernão Pires' brother Simào). Tomé Pires died while living as a prisoner in China; there is speculation on whether Tomé Pires died in 1524 or 1540. Two survivors of this embassy were still alive around 1536, when they sent letters to Malacca and Goa detailing plans for how the Portuguese could capture Canton by force. Other survivors of these missions retired to nearby Lampaco (Lampa) in Guangdong, where a trade post would exist for several decades; in 1537, there were written records of the Portuguese having three warehouses at Lampa, Shangchuan Island, and Macau, and were initially allowed there with the excuse of drying their goods in a storm.

Despite initial hostilities, good relations between the Portuguese and Chinese would resume in 1549 with annual Portuguese trade missions to Shangchuan Island, following an event where the Portuguese helped Ming authorities eliminate coastal pirates. In 1554, Leonel de Sousa—a later Governor of Macau— established positive relations through an agreement with Cantonese authorities and in 1557 the Ming court finally gave consent for a permanent and official Portuguese trade base at Macau. Although Fernão Pires de Andrade and his Portuguese comrades were the first to open up China to the West, another significant diplomatic mission reaching all the way to Beijing would not be carried out until an Italian, the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) ventured there in 1598.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Fernão Pires de Andrade


text:
User:Dynamic Planet

Greetings from Dynamic Planet!

I became aware of Wikipedia in mid-January 2003, and think that it is such a great idea!

My goal is to keep entries short, but informative. This should make them easier to read.

Main interests:
 * Science
 * Philosophy
 * Art
 * Music
 * Literature
 * The Web
 * Life

My Blog is an unorganized accumulation of information, thoughts, and snippets and can be accessed at http://dynamicplanet.blogspot.com/

title: User:Dynamic Planet


text:
ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies Inc., commonly called ATI, was a Canadian semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985, the company listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by AMD in 2006. As a major fabrication-less or fabless semiconductor company, ATI conducted research and development in-house and outsourced the manufacturing and assembly of its products. With the decline and eventual bankruptcy of 3dfx in 2000, ATI and its chief rival Nvidia emerged as the two dominant players in the graphics processors industry, eventually forcing other manufacturers into niche roles.

The acquisition of ATI in 2006 was important to AMD's strategic development of its Fusion generation of computer processors, which integrated general processing abilities with graphics processing functions within a chip. Since 2010, AMD's graphics processor products have ceased using the ATI brand name.

History
Lee Ka Lau, Francis Lau, Benny Lau, and Kwok Yuen Ho founded ATI in 1985 as Array Technology Inc. Working primarily in the OEM field, ATI produced integrated graphics cards for PC manufacturers such as IBM and Commodore. By 1987, ATI had grown into an independent graphics-card retailer, introducing EGA Wonder and VGA Wonder card product lines that year. In the early nineties, they released products able to process graphics without the CPU: in May 1991, the Mach8, in 1992 the Mach32, which offered improved memory bandwidth and GUI acceleration. ATI Technologies Inc. went public in 1993, with shares listed on NASDAQ and on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In 1994, the Mach64 accelerator debuted, powering the Graphics Xpression and Graphics Pro Turbo, offering hardware support for YUV-to-RGB colour space conversion in addition to hardware zoom; early techniques of hardware-based video acceleration.

ATI introduced its first combination of 2D and 3D accelerator under the name 3D Rage. This chip was based on the Mach 64, but it featured elemental 3D acceleration. The ATI Rage line powered almost the entire range of ATI graphics products. In particular, the Rage Pro was one of the first viable 2D-plus-3D alternatives to 3dfx's 3D-only Voodoo chipset. 3D acceleration in the Rage line advanced from the basic functionality within the initial 3D Rage to a more advanced DirectX 6.0 accelerator in 1999 Rage 128.

The All-in-Wonder product line, introduced in 1996, was the first combination of integrated graphics chip with TV tuner card and the first chip that enabled display of computer graphics on a TV set. The cards featured 3D acceleration powered by ATI's 3D Rage II, 64-bit 2D performance, TV-quality video acceleration, analogue video capture, TV tuner functionality, flicker-free TV-out and stereo TV audio reception.

ATI entered the mobile computing sector by introducing 3D-graphics acceleration to laptops in 1996. The Mobility product line had to meet requirements different from those of desktop PCs, such as minimized power usage, reduced heat output, TMDS output capabilities for laptop screens, and maximized integration. In 1997, ATI acquired Tseng Labs's graphics assets, which included 40 engineers.

The Radeon line of graphics products was unveiled in 2000. The initial Radeon graphics processing unit offered an all-new design with DirectX 7.0 3D acceleration, video acceleration, and 2D acceleration. Technology developed for a specific Radeon generation could be built in varying levels of features and performance in order to provide products suited for the entire market range, from high-end to budget to mobile versions.

In 2000, ATI acquired ArtX, which engineered the Flipper graphics chip used in the GameCube video game console. They also created a modified version of the chip (codenamed Hollywood) for the successor of the GameCube, the Wii. Microsoft contracted ATI to design the graphics core (codenamed Xenos) for the Xbox 360. Later in 2005, ATI acquired Terayon's cable modem silicon intellectual property, strengthening their lead in the consumer digital television market. K. Y. Ho remained as Chairman of the Board until he retired in November 2005. Dave Orton replaced him as the President and CEO of the organization.

On July 24, 2006, a joint announcement revealed that AMD would acquire ATI in a deal valued at $5.6 billion. The acquisition consideration closed on October 25, 2006, and included over $2 billion financed from a loan and 56 million shares of AMD stock. ATI's operations became part of the AMD Graphics Product Group (GPG), and ATI's CEO Dave Orton became the Executive Vice President of Visual and Media Businesses at AMD until his resignation in 2007. The top-level management was reorganized with the Senior Vice President and General Manager, and the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Electronics Group, both of whom would report to the CEO of AMD. On 30 August 2010, John Trikola announced that AMD would retire the ATI brand for its graphics chipsets in favour of the AMD name.

Products

In addition to developing high-end GPUs (originally called a VPU, visual processing unit, by ATI) for PCs and Apple Macs, ATI also designed embedded versions for laptops (Mobility Radeon), PDAs and mobile phones (Imageon), integrated motherboards (Radeon IGP), and others.

"Ruby", a fictional female character described as a "mercenary for hire", was created by ATI to promote some of its products. Computer-animated videos produced by RhinoFX about Ruby on a mission (being a sniper, saboteur, hacker and so on) appeared at large technology shows such as CeBIT and CES.

Computer graphics chipsets

 * Graphics Solution / "Small Wonder" – Series of 8-bit ISA cards with MDA, Hercules, CGA and Plantronics Color+ compatibility using the United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) UM6845E CRT controller. Later versions added EGA support.
 * EGA / VGA Wonder – IBM "EGA/VGA-compatible" display adapters (1987)
 * Mach Series – Introduced ATI's first 2D GUI "Windows Accelerator". As the series evolved, GUI acceleration improved dramatically and early video acceleration appeared.
 * Rage Series – ATI's first 2D and 3D accelerator chips. The series evolved from rudimentary 3D with 2D GUI acceleration and MPEG-1 capability, to a highly competitive Direct3D 6 accelerator with then "best-in-class" DVD (MPEG2) acceleration. The various chips were very popular with OEMs of the time. The Rage II was used in the first ATI All-In-Wonder multi-function video card, and more advanced All-In-Wonders based on Rage series GPUs followed. (1995–2004)
 * Rage Mobility – Designed for use in low-power environments, such as notebooks. These chips were functionally similar to their desktop counterparts but had additions such as advanced power management, LCD interfaces, and dual monitor functionality.
 * Radeon Series – ATI launched the Radeon line in 2000, as their consumer 3D accelerator add-in cards, its flagship product line and the direct competitor to Nvidia's GeForce. The original Radeon DDR was ATI's first DirectX 7 3D accelerator, introducing their first hardware T&L engine. ATI often produced 'Pro' versions with higher clock speeds, and sometimes an extreme 'XT' version, and even more recently 'XT Platinum Edition (PE)' and 'XTX' versions. The Radeon series was the basis for many ATI All-In-Wonder boards.
 * Mobility Radeon – A series of power-optimized versions of Radeon graphics chips for use in laptops. They introduced innovations such as modularized RAM chips, DVD (MPEG2) acceleration, notebook GPU card sockets, and "PowerPlay" power management technology. AMD recently announced DirectX 11-compatible versions of its mobile processors.
 * ATI CrossFire – This technology was ATI's response to NVIDIA's SLI platform. It allowed, by using a secondary video card and a dual PCI-E motherboard based on an ATI Crossfire compatible chipset, the ability to combine the power of the two, three or four video cards to increase performance through a variety of different rendering options. There is an option for additional PCI-E video card plugging into the third PCI-E slot for gaming physics, or another option to do physics on the second video card.
 * FireGL/FirePro – Launched in 2001, following ATI's acquisition of FireGL Graphics from Diamond Multimedia. Workstation CAD/CAM video card, based on the Radeon series.
 * FireMV – For workstations, featuring "multi-view", for multiple displays with 2D acceleration only, usually based on low-end products of the Radeon series (now integrated into FirePro series).

Although AMD strongly considered making the functional part of the ATI drivers "open source", before the merger with AMD, ATI had no plans to release their graphics drivers as free software: "Proprietary, patented optimizations are part of the value we provide to our customers and we have no plans to release these drivers to open source. In addition, multimedia elements such as content protection must not, by their very nature, be allowed to go open source."

- ATI statement, August 2006

Personal computer platforms and chipsets

 * IGP 3x0, Mobility Radeon 7000 IGP – ATI's first chipsets. Included a DirectX 7-level 3D graphics processor.
 * 9100 IGP – 2nd generation system chipset. IXP250 southbridge. It was notable for being ATI's first complete motherboard chipset, including an ATI-built southbridge. It included an updated DirectX 8.1 class graphics processor
 * Xpress 200/200P – PCI Express-based Athlon 64 and Pentium 4 chipset. Supports SATA as well as integrated graphics with DirectX 9.0 support, the first integrated graphics chipset to do so
 * Xpress 3200 – similar to Xpress 200, but designed for optimal CrossFire performance.

In addition to the above chipset, ATI struck a deal in 2005, with CPU and motherboard manufacturers, particularly Asus and Intel, to create onboard 3D Graphics solutions for Intel's range of motherboards released with their range of Intel Pentium M-based desktop processors, the Intel Core and Intel Core 2 processors, the D101GGC and D101GGC2 chipset (codenamed "Grand County" ) based on the Radeon Xpress 200 chipset. However, high-end boards with integrated graphics processor (IGP) still used Intel GMA integrated graphics processors. The deal with Intel ended with the purchase of ATI by AMD in 2006, with Intel announcing SiS IGP chipset (D201GLY chipset, codenamed "Little Valley") for entry-level desktop platform, replacing the "Grand County" series chipsets.

Multimedia and digital TV products

 * All-in-Wonder series – A series of multimedia graphics cards which incorporating TV tuner and Radeon family graphics cards onto one add-in card, which, after being seemingly discontinued was relaunched as All-in-Wonder HD on June 26, 2008.
 * TV tuners
 * TV Wonder and HDTV Wonder – a chipset family providing TV reception of various analogue TV and digital TV signals (PAL, NTSC, ATSC, DVB-T and so on) with first generation AVIVO technology, also supporting CableCARD, and Clear QAM technologies.
 * Theater – a family of QAM and VSB demodulators for the Digital Cable ready and ATSC environments.
 * Remote Wonder, wireless remote control series for ATI multimedia products. Operates using radio frequency, away from mainstream implementations using infrared.

Console graphics products

 * Flipper – The GameCube (codenamed "dolphin" during production) contains a 3D accelerator developed by ArtX, Inc, a company acquired by ATI during the development of the GPU. Flipper was similar in capability to a Direct3D 7 accelerator chip. It consisted of four rendering pipelines, with hardware T&L, and some limited pixel shader support. Innovatively the chip has 3 MB of embedded 1T-SRAM for use as ultra-fast low-latency (6.2 ns) texture and framebuffer/Z-buffer storage allowing 10.4 GB/second bandwidth (extremely fast for the time). Flipper was designed by members of the Nintendo 64 Reality Coprocessor team who moved from SGI. The Flipper team went on to have a major hand in the development of the Radeon 9700.
 * Xenos – Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console contains a custom graphics chip produced by ATI, known as "R400", "C1", internally as "Crayola", or more often as Xenos. Some of these features include the embedded DRAM (eDRAM). The Xenos also features the “True Unified Shader Architecture” which dynamically loads and balances pixel and vertex processing amongst a bank of identically capable processing units. This differs greatly from PC graphics chips of previous generations that have separate banks of processors designed for their individual task (vertex/fragment). Another feature presented in Xenos is the hardware surface tessellation to divide a surface into smaller triangles, similar to TruForm in terms of functionality, which is an advanced feature as it is not presented even in the DirectX 10 specification. The recent generation Radeon R600 GPU core inherited most of the features presented in Xenos, except eDRAM.
 * Hollywood – Successor to Flipper. Part of Nintendo's gaming console, Wii.

Handheld chipsets

 * Imageon – System-on-a-chip (SoC) design introduced in 2002, to bring integrated 2D and 3D graphics to handhelds devices, mobile phones and Tablet PCs. The Imageon 2298 included DVD quality recording and playback, TV output, and supported up to a 12-megapixel camera, with another line of Imageon products, the 2300 series supporting OpenGL ES 1.1+ extensions. The Imageon line was rebranded under AMD as Adreno, and sold to Qualcomm in 2009.
 * Imageon TV – Announced in February 2006, allowing handhelds devices to receive digital broadcast TV (DVB-H) signals and enables watching TV programs on these devices, the chipset includes tuner, demodulator, decoder, and a full software stack, operates alongside the Imageon chip.

Besides full products, ATI also supplied 3D and 2D graphics components to other vendors, specifically the Qualcomm MSM7000 series SoC chips of handheld and upcoming Freescale i. MX processors ATI claimed in May 2006, that it had sold over 100 million 'cell phone media co-processors', significantly more than ATI's rival NVIDIA, and announced in February 2007, that the firm had shipped a total of 200 million of Imageon products since 2003.

After the AMD acquisition, the Imageon and Xilleon were sold off to Qualcomm and Broadcom, respectively.

High-performance computing

 * ATI Firestream, using the stream processing concept, together with Close to Metal (CTM) hardware interface. After the AMD acquisition, it was succeeded by AMD FireStream in 2006, rebranded as AMD Stream Processor until 2012.

Competing companies

 * Nvidia
 * Matrox
 * 3dfx Interactive

title: ATI Technologies


text:
Television broadcasting in Australia

Television broadcasting in Australia began officially on 16 September 1956, with the opening of TCN-9, quickly followed by national and commercial stations in Sydney and Melbourne, all these being in 625-line black and white. The commencement date was designed so as to provide coverage of the Olympic Games in Melbourne. It has now grown to be a nationwide system that includes a broad range of public, commercial, community, subscription, narrowcast, and amateur stations.

Colour television in the PAL 625-line format was introduced in 1967 and went to a full-time basis on 1 March 1975 while subscription television, on the Galaxy platform, began in January 1995. Digital terrestrial television was introduced on 1 January 2001 in Australia's five largest capital cities.

As early as 1929, two Melbourne commercial radio stations, 3UZ and 3DB were conducting experimental mechanical television broadcasts – these were conducted in the early hours of the morning, after the stations had officially closed down. In 1934, Dr Val McDowall at amateur station 4CM Brisbane conducted experiments in electronic television.

Public television
Australia has three national public broadcasters, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Special Broadcasting Service, and, as more recently, National Indigenous Television.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
ABC Television is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, established in 1956. ABC TV, ABC Family, ABC Entertains and ABC News are available nationally, in addition to ABC Australia (Southeast Asian TV channel), focused at the Asia Pacific region.

ABC TV carries a variety of local and national news, current affairs, and sports coverage, as well as Australian arts and comedy programming. It is well known for broadcasting British programming, primarily from the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4.

ABC Family, established as a second digital-only channel called ABC2 on 7 March 2005. Originally aimed at providing 'more choice, more often', the channel mainly provided repeats of popular ABC productions, such as Australian Story and Stateline, and was prohibited by law from carrying programmes from a number of genres; however, after the removal of these restrictions the channel's content was broadened considerably. It was announced by the ABC that, from 4 December 2017, ABC2 was to be replaced by ABC Comedy, ending the channel's 12-year run.

ABC Entertains, a third digital-only kids channel began on 4 December 2009.

ABC News, a digital news channel began on 22 July 2010.

ABC Kids, a digital shared channel began on 2 May 2011.

Special Broadcasting Service
SBS Television is a division of the Special Broadcasting Service, founded to provide for the estimated 20% of Australians that speak a language other than English in the home, aiming to complement the ABC.

In recent years SBS TV has begun to target a broader cross-section of the Australian community, in part because of the emergence of specialty subscription television channels aimed at such minorities. In addition to its free-to-air channels, SBS also has an interest in the World Movies Channel which has since been revived on free-to-air TV as SBS World Movies and it relaunched on the 1st of July 2019.

SBS shows many non-English language films with English subtitles, and each morning shows news bulletins in foreign languages from around the world in its WorldWatch timeslot. In addition to this, a great deal of programming from the PBS, Arte, BBC and CBC, and even Comedy Central are shown.

Acquired entertainment programs include the US animated series South Park, Queer as Folk and Inspector Rex. In addition to news and current affairs programming such as SBS World News and Dateline, the network also commissions locally produced documentaries, movies and comedy programs. Less-popular mainstream sports such as soccer, cycling and athletics are also shown.

SBS currently broadcasts six channels: SBS, known as 'SBS One' between 2009 and 2015, SBS Viceland, known as SBS Two between 2009 and 2016, SBS World Movies, SBS Food, known as Food Network Australia between 2015 and 2018, NITV, also known as National indigenous Television (see and more info about this channel in that section), and SBS WorldWatch launched on the 23rd of May of 2022.

National Indigenous Television
National Indigenous Television, funded by the Commonwealth of Australia, is produced in Sydney and broadcast via Imparja Television's existing satellite capacity.

The idea for a national, indigenous television service was initially conceived by the National Indigenous Radio Service (the peak Indigenous radio group), which initially lobbied the government to start a new, nationwide indigenous television network. Although no major political party championed this cause, commercial broadcaster Imparja Television stated in 2004 that it would run such a network, at least within its own licence area. In 2005 the federal Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts considered funding such a station, and conducted a review process.

On 13 July 2007 NITV launched, replacing Indigenous Community Television on the Optus Aurora remote satellite service.

On 12 December 2012 NITV was launched on free to air on which was the 4th digital channel of SBS, making this channel available to all Australians wherever SBS digital television is broadcast.

Commercial television

In order to allow for commercial licensing, the country was divided into a number of licence areas. When these were drawn up in the 1950s, each major city or regional area – about 50 in all – was considered its own market region. In each of the five major capitals, three commercial licences were granted (the exception being Perth which did not receive its third commercial station until 1988 ), while smaller cities or regions were granted a single licence.

The process of aggregation began in 1989. Regional markets were merged and (usually) three licences were granted in the new, aggregated, area, with the exception of Tasmania and Remote & Central Australia, which got two licences. As some markets were formed by the merger of up to six different individual markets, this meant that some stations had to merge or form partnerships in order to remain competitive. Around the same time, many remote market regions were replaced with two satellite market regions – one for regional Western Australia, and one for remote central and eastern Australia – although each of these regions was only granted two licences.

Some remained un-aggregated, and are today known as diary markets. These were granted a second licence, sometimes to the same company that owned the existing licence. Two-broadcaster areas were later granted a third licence, to a joint venture company formed as a partnership of the two existing broadcasters. Examples of these include Tasmanian Digital Television, Mildura Digital Television, Darwin Digital Television and West Digital Television service. Areas with one broadcaster were also granted a third licence to the same company that owned the other two licences.

Metropolitan
There are three main metropolitan networks, the Seven Network, Nine Network and Network 10. Although primarily targeted at metropolitan areas, these names are also used in some regional areas (others choose to run the same programming as these stations, but use independent names).

Seven Network
 * Headquarters: Eveleigh, Sydney
 * National play-out centre: Frenchs Forest, Sydney
 * Main Studio
 * Breakfast/Morning Show/News (National Bulletins): Eveleigh, Sydney

Nine Network
 * Headquarters: North Sydney
 * National play-out centre: Frenchs Forest, Sydney
 * Main Studio
 * Breakfast/Morning Show/News (National Bulletins): North Sydney

Network 10
 * Headquarters & National play-out centre: Pyrmont, Sydney
 * Main Studio
 * Morning Show/News (National Bulletins): Pyrmont, Sydney

Although the names of the metropolitan stations remain the same across cities, their ownership varies (see below).

Regional and remote
The population of Australians living outside of metropolitan areas are served by a number of regional television networks that are affiliated with a metropolitan counterpart. Before the 1980s, regional stations were mostly independent with some forming loose partnerships and others merging into local networks. However, the Hawke Labor government introduced a system known as aggregation – regional television equalisation – which would provide viewers with the same viewing choices as those in the metropolitan cities. Consequently, the regional stations and networks continued to merge and expand, and became affiliated with one of the three metropolitan networks. Further equalisation later occurred in the 2000s – with the advent of digital television – to areas that escaped initial aggregation.

Today, WIN Television, Imparja Television and Southern Cross Austereo notably remain independent, whereas broadcasters like Prime Television, the Golden West Network, Sunshine Television and NBN Television have been absorbed by the metropolitan networks over the years.

As with some of the metropolitan stations, local content is present only in the form of local news bulletin or local advertising. The amount of local news provided varies from two-minute updates to full-hour, seven nights a week news bulletins.

Current ownership
Commercial stations in metropolitan markets (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth), in addition to some regional markets, are owned and operated by their respective network instead of an affiliate operator. However, commercial stations in most regional and remote areas are instead operated by broadcasters with unique licences and commercial agreements with the metropolitan market networks.

Some regional markets have one operator holding a monopoly over all three networks, with one "digital only" supplementary station of the three operating under a supplementary licence.

Other regional markets have only two operators, each affiliated with their own networks. Consequently, these two operators have formed a supplementary "digital only" joint venture to broadcast the remaining third network.

Community broadcasting
In 1993 the Australian Broadcasting Authority allocated licences for a sixth television channel for non-profit community and educational use on a trial basis. The groundwork for community television was laid in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, which defined a new service category, community television, for the first time.

Prospective community television providers were invited to apply for transmitter licences, which were granted to groups in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Lismore. In February, 1995, the West Australian Community Broadcasting Association was appointed to manage access to the sixth channel in Perth and Mandurah on behalf of groups based in the two cities.

Licences were also granted in 1996 to Hobart Access Community Television Inc in Hobart and Bendigo Community Television Inc in Bendigo however these were not renewed. Similarly, a licence for BushVision in Mount Gambier was granted in 2005, but it later lapsed. Permanent licences for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth were allocated in 2004, while trial licences remain in effect in Adelaide and Lismore.

The Australian Community Television Alliance, established in March 2008 is the national representative organisation for community television. The CEO of TVS Sydney, Laurie Patton, is the Secretary and represents ACTA on the Federal Government's Digital Switchover Taskforce Industry Advisory Group. In addition to these, a number of community groups produce programming in regional areas, including Queanbeyan Canberra Television (QCTV) in Canberra, Hunter Community Television in Newcastle, Illawarra Community Television (ICTV) in Wollongong and WARP Television in Bathurst.

Groups in a number of areas including Ballarat and Victor Harbor have unsuccessfully applied for licences. Aurora Community Television, Australian Multicultural Television, Ballarat Community Cable Television, Channel Vision (Canberra) and Satellite Community TV, although not licensed as community stations, provide similar services.

Community Television stations went digital in 2010. However, in September 2014 Australian federal communications minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that licensing for community television stations would end in December 2015. In September 2015, Turnbull, now Prime Minister, announced an extension of the deadline to 31 December 2016. The deadline was further extended incrementally by communications minister Mitch Fifield until June 2021, however by 2015 Sydney's Television Sydney had ceased broadcasting, as had Brisbane's 31 Digital, switching to a short-live online streaming service. As of January 2021, the only remaining community television stations in Australia still broadcasting are Melbourne's C31 and Adelaide's Channel 44.

Subscription television
Two of the three major providers of subscription television in Australia carry a common service; however they have a number of differences. Foxtel currently 'controls' the common service that Optus resell. This service is known as the Foxtel Platform.

Austar broadcast into all of regional Australia (except Western Australia), Tasmania and Darwin while Foxtel broadcast in all capital cities, the Gold Coast, the Central Coast and all of Western Australia until mid-2012 when Foxtel/Austar merged hence Foxtel gaining the Austar coverage areas. Optus Television operates only in the small parts of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide where it has laid cable.

SelecTV was the fourth provider of subscription television controlled by WIN Corporation. SelecTV was available throughout Australia via satellite and focused on providing content in comparatively low priced packages to a number of specialised market segments; including Spanish, Greek, and Italian. As of January 2011, the service is no longer available.

There are two small region-based subscription television providers; TransTV Digital which is available in Canberra; and Neighbourhood Cable based in Ballarat, and also available in Geelong & Mildura.

There are also a number of satellite services that target specific language speaking groups, the largest being UBI World TV, a non-English language service. Globecast TV and Pan Global TV are non-English language, Christian and sport channel platforms that are controlled by Globecast. Various operators run their own subscription services on these platforms. In addition, there are other satellite subscription services available through other providers.

National IPTV operators include TPG IPTV.

Datacasting
Datacasting in Australia began as a test transmission in Sydney using one of the reserved digital spectrum positions. Australian broadcast infrastructure company Broadcast Australia undertook the three-year trial using the DVB-T system. The trial consisted of a number of services on one standard 7 MHz multiplex, collectively known as Digital Forty Four. The service was extended past the three-year period, but ended in March 2010

The services included; a combined program guide for the free-to-air broadcasters, named Channel 4; a news, sport, and weather datacast channel provided by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; a government and public information channel, known as Channel NSW, which included real time traffic information and surf webcams; the Australian Christian Channel; the Expo Channel; and various federal parliamentary audio broadcasts.

Today, datacasting consists of information based channels that are broadcast as subchannels of the existing commercial broadcasters. As of mid 2013, these broadcast mainly infomercials. Examples include TVSN and 4ME.

Narrowcasting
There are currently five open-narrowcast services in Australia:

 * Aboriginal TV & TVNT – Darwin – link
 * Goolarri Television (GTV) – Broome – link
 * Indigenous Community Television (ICTV) – Alice Springs
 * Ngarda Community Television and Radio – Roebourne, Western Australia
 * Snowy Mountains Television (SMTV) – Jindabyne, New South Wales

One of the narrowcast services, Indigenous Community Television (ICTV), is available to satellite users across Australia via the VAST service.

Aboriginal Television, GTV and Ngarda TV are local Indigenous-owned services that broadcast only to their home market. SMTV is also restricted to its home market of Jindabyne.

Amateur broadcasting
The Australian amateur radio bands include frequencies standard televisions can receive, which have led to amateur radio operators making use of this by broadcasting video.

The frequency overlap occurs roughly where television channel 16 lies. Typically, channel 16 is used for amateur television transmissions; however, other frequencies are sometimes utilized, especially those used by satellite television services. Most transmissions can be viewed and heard on an analogue television, but some transmissions require additional or other equipment.

New South Wales
Television Gladesville (VK2TVG) in Sydney conducts three test transmissions per week on Channel 16, including a three-hour live to air program on Wednesday nights.

The Central Coast Amateur Radio Club also has an amateur television repeater (VK2RTG) on Channel 16.

VK2RTS broadcasts from Lawson near Katoomba on Channel 16. Club activity is on Mondays between 8 and 10p.m. A Voice liaison and control frequency of 147.325 MHz (+600 kHz duplex) is used.

VK2RFM broadcasts from Oakdale near Camden on 1250 MHz FM which can be viewed with an analog satellite receiver. Club activity is Tuesdays between 8 and 10p.m. The liaison and control frequency is 147.400 MHz simplex.

Both repeaters cover the entire Sydney basin. They are operated by the Sydney Amateur Television Group and may be activated and used at any time from the control channels.

UHF TV Channel 35 was used until July 2001 when the Australian Communications and Media Authority reassigned the channel for digital television.

Victoria (2 Digital ATV Channels)
VK3RTV is Melbourne's main amateur television station, and is available via Channel 16 at the lower end of the UHF TV Band (below channel 28). The amateur television repeater is located on Mount Dandenong.

There are a small number of amateur television enthusiasts (amateur radio operators with Television transmitting equipment) who transmit to Melbourne and surrounds via VK3RTV.

These include VK3AAZ, VK3AOB, VK3AGJ, VK3BFG, VK3BCU, VK3CH, VK3CRG, VK3FMD, VK3GMZ, VK3IV, VK3JDA, VK3JDG, VK3KBL, VK3KHB, VK3KOS, VK3LA, VK3MN, VK3PB, VK3TMS, VK3TVZ, VK3XOK, VK3XKD and VK3XZA.

VK3RTV is now a 2-channel digital television facility on 446 MHz. The new system features two standard definition digital channels.

Bendigo in Central Victoria also has an Amateur Television Transmitter (VK3RBO) on the 13 cm band. This can be received using surplus microwave dishes and downconverters. The station is known to show episodes of the Amateur Television Program 'Amateurlogic'.

Queensland
Amateur television in Queensland had its beginnings in the late 1970s, after a group of local Ham radio enthusiasts showed interests in setting up their own television repeater, although this would not occur until the 1980s. For several years, broadcasters had to rely on a low-powered repeater located in Brisbane's northern suburbs, but eventually permissions were granted to have a more advanced and more central repeater constructed within the inner-city suburb of Spring Hill.

In 1990, Brisbane's Amateur Television club provided a two-way television system for Lamington National Park during the park's 75th anniversary celebrations. In October that year, amateur television history was made when broadcasters VK4BOB and VK4XRL transmitted video to Sydney's ATV clubs which was relayed by the AUSSAT satellite.

Various transmitters continue to broadcast to this day. Some Queensland ATV transmitters are located in the outer-Brisbane suburbs of Ocean View and Wamuran. In November 2012, the Ocean View site will begin its first digital transmission test.

In 2014, the Spring Hill repeater was demolished.

title: Television broadcasting in Australia


text:
Walter Lantz Productions

Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Pictures.

The studio was originally formed as Universal Cartoon Studios on the initiative of Universal movie mogul Carl Laemmle, who was tired of the continuous company politics he was dealing with concerning contracting cartoons outside animation studios. Walter Lantz, who was Laemmle's part-time chauffeur and a veteran of the John R. Bray Studios with considerable experience in all elements of animation production, was selected to run the department.

In 1935, the studio was severed from Universal and became Walter Lantz Studio under Lantz's direct control, and in 1939, renamed to Walter Lantz Productions. Lantz managed to gain the copyright for his characters. The cartoons continued to be distributed by Universal through 1947, changing to United Artists distribution in 1947–49, and by Universal again from 1950 to 1972.

The most prominent characters for the studio were Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The music-oriented Swing Symphony cartoons were another successful staple but ended after swing music's popularity faded after the end of World War II.

1928–1935: The opening years of Universal Cartoon Studios
Lantz began his career at the art department of William Randolph Hearst's New York American during the 1910s, having his start in the cartoon industry at Hearst's International Film Service, which in 1918 transferred its entire staff to Bray Productions. By the mid-1920s, Lantz was directing (and acting in) the studio's top cartoon, Dinky Doodle, also becoming a producer as Bray attempted to compete with Hal Roach and Mack Sennett by making live-action comedies. Bray Productions closed shop in 1928, and Lantz moved to Hollywood, trying to start a studio while trying to make a living in a succession of odd jobs, including driving Universal owner Carl Laemmle's limousine. The chauffeur job also landed Lantz at the Winkler Studio, which produced cartoons for Universal.

In early 1929, Universal was distributing the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons by Charles Mintz and George Winkler (created by Walt Disney). However, the popularity of the series was beginning to decline because of the lower quality of the output. Laemmle then fired Mintz and Winkler and was now looking for someone to head an in-house animation studio. Lantz won the studio in a poker bet with Laemmle. The first Lantz-produced "Oswald" cartoon was Race Riot, released on September 2, 1929. The first animators for the studio included Winkler veterans Rollin Hamilton, Tom Palmer and "rubber-hose" pioneer Bill Nolan. Bert Fiske scored the first cartoons, having done this for the few Winkler sound "Oswalds". Additions to the staff included Pinto Colvig and Fred Avery.

The earliest Lantz cartoons from 1928 were built around set plots and stories, in the tradition of the earlier Disney and Winkler Productions shorts. The conversion of Oswald cartoons into musicals was a different matter, but by mid-1930, Lantz and his staff achieved this goal. In the process however, Oswald's personality became less consistent. It could and did change drastically to fit a particular gag. Lantz's musical directors changed as well. To replace David Broekman, Lantz brought in James Dietrich, a member of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, making the jazz-era sound of the 1920s a quintessential element in the early Lantz cartoons. He remained as the permanent studio musical director until 1937. Lantz and Nolan worked in a character called "Fanny the Mule" for a 13-cartoon series announced by Laemmle in early 1930; these cartoons were never produced.

In 1931, Lantz faced economic difficulties and was forced to make cutbacks, shortening the lengths of his films and post-synchronizing a handful of the early Disney Oswald's cartoons. Another way out of the hole was to gain attention by creating a secondary series of shorts featuring a new star, Pooch the Pup. Lantz and Nolan would now divide the studio into two separate units. Lantz would direct the Pooch cartoons, while Nolan would work on the Oswalds, with both series referencing the dire straits of the Depression. Pooch never became very popular and the series was dropped in 1933. The following year, Nolan left the studio, and the Cartune Classics series of Technicolor shorts began, lasting for a year.

1935–1940: The decline of Oswald and arrival of new characters
Control of Universal by founder Carl Laemmle and his family was slipping away because of financial difficulties and came to an end in 1936. John Cheever Cowdin became Universal's new president. With the change in management, Lantz seized the opportunity to ask Universal for permission to make his studio independent. Universal agreed, and on November 16, 1935, Lantz broke off and claimed the studio for his own, even though it remained on the Universal lot.

During the mid-to-late 1930s, Oswald's popularity declined, and Lantz experimented with other characters to replace him. After a succession of failed attempts, the 1939 cartoon Life Begins for Andy Panda became an instant hit, and Andy Panda became a successful substitute for Oswald, who was retired in 1938. Lantz also switched to all-color production in 1939, shortly before Andy's debut.

In 1940, the Walter Lantz studio was in trouble. Universal once again was facing severe financial difficulties and possible bankruptcy and decided to cut their weekly advance to the now-independent Lantz studio. This left Lantz scrambling for alternative sources for funds, forcing him to shut down the studio for a while. Lantz was able to gain the rights to the characters of his films (including Oswald the Lucky Rabbit) and an Andy Panda cartoon, Crazy House, was developed into Lantz's first fully independent film. Lantz used the film as a final appeal to the heads of Universal and, in the end, was able to reach a satisfactory settlement with them. By autumn 1940, Lantz's studio was back in business again. The year also marked the debut of Lantz's biggest star: Woody Woodpecker, who debuted in the Andy Panda cartoon Knock Knock.

1940–1947: Swing Symphonies and a "Guess Who"
Woody quickly became extremely popular, being given his own series in early 1941, and became one of the most famous examples of the "brash bird" cartoon characters of the late 1930s/early 1940s such as Donald Duck from Walt Disney. The success of Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat and Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy (the former becoming subject to controversy and even protest soon after its release over racial stereotypes) also led to the introduction of the Swing Symphony series that fall, often featuring popular musicians of the time. The series ended in 1945 at the twilight of the big band era.

After the studio's 1930s cartoons were scored by a succession of composers, including James Dietrich, Victor Records producer Nat Shilkret and Harman-Ising veterans Frank Marsales and Darrell Calker took over in late 1940. Calker's arrangements became noted for their distinctive swing flavor.

After Disney's success with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Lantz studio planned to make a feature, Aladdin and His Lamp, featuring the ascendant comedy duo of Abbott and Costello, but after Mr. Bug Goes to Town failed at the box office, Aladdin never made it to actual production. Late in the decade, Lantz attempted to do a feature-length cartoon again, but it never came to fruition.

1947–1949: United Artists and first closedown
In 1947, Lantz renegotiated his seven-year Universal contract with Matty Fox, the new vice-president of Universal. The deal was interrupted when new ownership transformed the company into Universal-International and did away with most of Universal's company policies. The new management insisted on getting licensing and merchandising rights to Lantz's characters. Lantz refused and withdrew from the parent company by 1947, releasing 12 cartoons independently through United Artists during 1947 and early 1949.

The cartoons from this period stand out for their slicker animation compared to the previous Universal releases, mostly because of the influence of director and Disney veteran Dick Lundy, as well as the addition of Disney veterans, such as Ed Love. This era also marked the end of the Andy Panda cartoons, whose popularity was waning.

Under the deal with United Artists, Lantz was supposed to receive percentages of box-office receipts to pay for the production costs of his cartoons. UA however attributed a tiny portion of the dollar amounts to Lantz's shorts from the features. This was because UA was, at the time, a struggling studio attempting to re-establish the position in the industry it had in the 1920s. The result was that Lantz exceeded his standing loan of $250,000 from Bank of America (he had left Irving Trust in 1942). At the recommendation of BAC president Joe Rosenberg, Lantz decided to shut down his studio temporarily at the end of 1949 until the loan was reduced. He asked Universal to reissue his older films during the hiatus, a request accepted by Universal president Nate Blumberg.

In the interim, Lantz made a series of film ads for Coca-Cola and introduced "The Woody Woodpecker Song" as the theme song for the character. He also went to Europe to look for studios that could animate his films there, approaching government incentives not found stateside, and lower labor costs. However, the postwar economic situation of these countries as well as the presence of stronger unions than in Hollywood led him to back out and keep making films in America.

1950–1967: Revival and venture to television
In 1950, the Walter Lantz studio opened its doors once again. The first effort the studio produced was a brief sequence featuring Woody Woodpecker for the George Pal feature Destination Moon, released on June 27 the same year. Lantz then renegotiated with Universal for seven cartoons to be released the following year, provided that they all feature Woody Woodpecker. Lantz and his crew immediately set to work on the new batch of shorts. Two of these new films — Puny Express and Sleep Happy — were previously storyboarded by Ben Hardaway and Heck Allen during the United Artists period. In 1951, the new cartoons were finally released and became instant hits with audiences. They were so successful that Universal commissioned six more shorts for the following year. Overall, 1951 marked the beginning of a new era for the Walter Lantz studio.

During the mid-50s, the film industry was suffering and losing money, meaning lower budgets for cartoons. By 1956, there were only seven animation producers in the short-subjects business, and by the end of the decade that number would dwindle to three. Walter Lantz and his distributor, Universal Pictures, knew that the only way to subsidize the rising costs of new shorts was to release their product to television. Norman Gluck, from Universal's short-subjects department, made a deal with the Leo Burnett Agency to release some older Lantz product on television. Burnett handled the Kellogg's cereal account and Lantz soon met with the Kellogg's people to sign the contract. At first, Lantz was not very eager and admitted that he was only working in the medium because he was "forced into TV" and "cartoons for theaters would soon be extinct".

The Woody Woodpecker Show debuted on ABC on the afternoon of October 3, 1957, and lasted until September 1958. The series was seen once a week, on Thursday afternoons, replacing the first half hour of the shortened The Mickey Mouse Club. Lantz integrated his existing cartoons with new live-action footage, giving the show an updated look that satisfied both viewers and Lantz himself. The live-action and animation segments created for the show, called 'A Moment with Walter Lantz', featured an informative look at how the animation process for his "cartunes" worked and how the writers came up with stories and characters. The live-action segments were directed by Jack Hannah, who was fresh from the Disney Studio, where he had done similar live-action/animation sequences for the Disney show.

1967–1972: Final years
By 1969, other film studios had discontinued their animation departments, leaving Walter Lantz as one of the only two producers still making cartoons for theaters. The other studio was the start-up DePatie–Freleng Enterprises working for Lantz' former contractor, United Artists.

From 1967 to the studio's closure in 1972, Universal distributed the Lantz cartoons as packages, and theaters would play them in no particular order. Lantz finally closed up the studio in 1972; he later explained that by then, it was economically impossible to continue producing them and stay in business, as rising inflation had strained his profits, and Universal serviced the remaining demand with reissues of his older cartoons. Bye Bye Blackboard, a Woody Woodpecker cartoon, was part of the final slate of cartoons made at the Walter Lantz studio. Thirteen were completed for the 1972 season: one with Chilly Willy, four starring the Beary Family, and the rest with Lantz' star character, Woody Woodpecker. Upon discovering that it would take a decade for his shorts to show a profit, Lantz himself decided to shut down company operations, and threw a farewell luncheon with his staff at the announcement on March 10 the same year, with him handing Woody watches to them.

In 1985, Lantz sold everything outright to MCA Inc. He painted landscapes in retirement and still lifes of his cartoon characters. Since then, Universal has continued to used Woody and also used Woody in the Theme Parks or merchandising. Universal has since produced new projects, including television series and movies.

Legacy
Unlike other American major animation studios, the Lantz studio never continued full-time during the classic period of American animation, closing down in 1949 and reopening its doors two years later. It was finally shut down permanently in 1972, after the end of the Golden Age of American animation. Since then, the studio's characters have continued to be used in syndicated television series, and in licensed merchandise. Lantz re-issued six of the 1931–32 Disney Oswald cartoons, including Trolley Troubles, Great Guns! and The Ocean Hop.

Throughout the studio's history, it maintained a reputation as an animation house of medium quality. Lantz's animated shorts (dubbed "Cartunes") were considered superior to Terrytoons and Famous Studios, but they never gained the artistic acclaim of Walt Disney Productions, Warner Bros. Cartoons, MGM Cartoons, Fleischer Studios or UPA. However, the studio benefited from gaining talent from the other studios who were tired of the management there and usually found the Lantz studio a more enjoyable working environment. Tex Avery was just one of the many talents Walter Lantz Productions benefited from on the rebound.

In February 2006, NBCUniversal (who still owns the Lantz library) sold the trademark rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit along with the copyright to the original 26 cartoons produced by Walt Disney to The Walt Disney Company. The sale was part of a deal that centered around both the rights to Oswald and NBC's acquisition of the rights to the NFL's weekly Sunday night game; in exchange for NBCUniversal selling the rights to Oswald to Disney, Al Michaels was freed from his contractual obligations with ESPN and ABC so he could join NBC and become the Sunday Night Football play-by-play man.

In July 2007, Universal Pictures released The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection, a three-disc DVD box-set compilation of Lantz Cartunes. A second volume was released in April 2008, followed by a vanilla release in 2009, Woody Woodpecker Favorites, which contained no new-to-DVD material. Animation historian Jerry Beck, partly involved in the production of the DVD releases, has stated that plans for further volumes are currently on hold.

In 2008, Illumination, an animation production company founded by Chris Meledandri, made a deal with Universal Pictures which positioned Illumination as NBCUniversal's family entertainment arm that would produce one to two films per year starting in 2010. Like Walter Lantz Productions, Illumination retains creative control, and Universal exclusively distributes the films.

Free-to-air linear channel MeTV officially brought back the Walter Lantz cartoons output on American television starting from 2 September 2023, airing every Saturday as part of the Saturday Morning Cartoons 3-hour block (one hour of which, dedicated to Lantz, being The Woody Woodpecker Show) plus on weekdays as part of Toon In with Me.

Producers

 * Walter Lantz

Directors

 * Walter Lantz
 * Bill Nolan
 * Tex Avery
 * Alex Lovy
 * Les Kline
 * Rudy Zamora
 * Fred Kopietz
 * Patrick Lenihan
 * Burt Gillett
 * Elmer Perkins
 * Ben Hardaway
 * Emery Hawkins
 * James Culhane
 * Dick Lundy
 * Don Patterson
 * Paul J. Smith (1953-1972)
 * Ray Patterson
 * Grant Simmons
 * Jack Hannah (1960-1962)
 * Sid Marcus (1963-1966)

Storyboard artists/writers

 * Walter Lantz
 * Homer Brightman
 * Dalton Sandifer
 * Tedd Pierce
 * Al Bertino
 * Dick Kinney
 * Cal Howard
 * Sid Marcus
 * Dale Hale

Music

 * Frank Marsales
 * Darrell Calker (1940-1949, 1961-1964)
 * Clarence Wheeler (1951-1966)
 * Walter Greene (1962-1972)

Filmography
Theatrical short film series

title: Walter Lantz Productions