MTN is a television station licensed to serve Griffith and the surrounding Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (M.I.A.). The station is owned and operated by WIN Corporation as a Seven Network affiliate. As WIN is the sole commercial television broadcaster in the area, they also supply the stations AMN, a Nine Network affiliate, and the supplementary station MDN, a Network 10 affiliate. This twinstick operation was permitted due to the broadcasting authorities considering Griffith and the M.I.A. too small for three television companies, but large enough for a single company running two stations. The broadcast region covers approximately 39,700 square kilometres, encompassing 20 urban centres which include Leeton, Narrandera, Hay, Hillston and Lake Cargelligo. According to 2006 Census data, it is estimated the region has a population of 64,200. History MTN began transmission on 15 December 1965 on channel 9. At its launch, MTN was owned by Murrumbidgee Television Limited, a publicly listed company, whose shareholders at the time included local radio station 2RG. The costs of operating a television station in such a small market led MTN to join with CWN–6 Dubbo and CBN–8 Orange in forming the Television 6–8–9 network, in 1973. While the majority of the programming and identification came from the network, MTN did run its own news service as well as some programs of local interest and popularity, separate to the rest of the network. In March 1981, the network was rebranded as Mid State Television. Rancorp, who were the existing owners of stations RVN/AMV in Wagga Wagga and Albury, acquired Mid State Television in October 1987, and thus adding additional stations to the network. In November 1988, Mid State Television rebranded as Prime Television. During this time, regional areas were serviced by one commercial station and the ABC, and as a result, the regional commercial network hand-picked titles from the three metropolitan commercial networks to air in their region. Unfortunately, this meant that regional viewers were not able to watch all of the same shows as their metropolitan counterparts. As a result, the Hawke government introduced aggregation, whereby regional stations would be grouped together and become sole-affiliates for one metropolitan station, and additional stations would launch in regional areas so that regional viewers had access to the same amount of channels as metropolitan viewers. However, the government deemed Griffith and the M.I.A. to be too small a market for aggregation, and as a result, MTN was