A Decade of Excellence

16 Jun 2009

On 30 April 2009, Broadcast Australia celebrated a decade of excellence in transmission as owner and operator of Australia's only truly national transmission network.

The journey began on 30 April 1999, when the Federal Government completed the sale of the National Transmission Network to business NTL Australia (NTLA). NTLA was at that stage made up of about 40 staff, mainly based in Canberra. The Sydney office was nothing more than a rented room with a table, a few chairs and some fixed line phones at the PriceWaterhouseCoopers office in the city. Realising that growth was inevitable, NTLA established their own office in Sydney's northern suburb of St Leonards in August that year.

Business started to grow with success stemming from securing managed transmission contracts for digital TV with the ABC for its national rollout and SBS for its metropolitan and phase 1 regional rollout.

In February 2002, Macquarie Bank agreed to acquire NTLA and in June 2002 NTLA changed its name and re-launched its new brand - Broadcast Australia, which then went on to be the seed asset for the Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group (MCG).

The growth between 2002 and 2008, both organically and through corporate activity is a testament to a strong and dedicated team. In this time Broadcast Australia established The Bridge Networks (TBN), acquired Telequipment Pacific and Broadcast Engineering Services, a majority stake in Hong Kong based RFE (Radio Frequency Engineering), Kordia repairs and maintenance and Hostworks and TBN North, in England.

Today the Broadcast Australia Group has nearly 500 employees in 4 countries, and while the size, strategy and diversity of our business has changed, our fundamental strategic goals have remained focused on what we set out to do in 1999 - be a trusted, customer outcome focused services provider, enabling content owners and managers to connect with their audiences over multiple platforms, with a sound financial base and ambition for growth. The strength of our business is primarily as a result of our solid and enthusiastic customer base who look to us for world leading technical excellence and support in radio frequency engineering.

Broadcast Australia continues to be on a journey - proud of our achievements and focused on the future. We are excited about what lies ahead and our part in it, particularly with the evolution in radio to the digital platform, the expertise we bring to the table through the Federal Government's digital switch over for TV and wherever else the market takes us,