Background info -- initially, regional areas in Australia only had two television channels broadcasting in their area: ABC, and their local commercial station (which would pick and choose programming from the three metropolitan TV networks 7, 9 and 10). Over the late '80s and early '90s the process of "aggregation" happened: television broadcast regions were combined in threes so that each region would have three regional commercial networks instead of one, each broadcasting over the entire enlarged area in competition with each other.
Naturally, what happened was that the regional networks ended up affiliating themselves with the metropolitan networks -- e.g. in regional Victoria, 7 affiliated with Prime Television, 9 affiliated with Vic TV (which later became part of WIN Television), and 10 affiliated with Southern Cross Television (later rebranded Ten Victoria, then Southern Cross Ten). So the regional channels essentially turned into clones of the metropolitan channels, only with a few locally-produced shows and different ads.
So, here's my thought: is there any way to have aggregation still happen, but prevent the regional networks from directly affiliating with the metropolitan networks? So each regional network would have to bid against its two competitors for programming content from all three metropolitan networks rather than just getting it automatically from only one? In other words, is it possible to keep Prime, WIN, NBN, Southern Cross and all the rest of them as actual separate networks with their own identities rather than turning them into rebranded extensions of 7, 9 and 10?
Naturally, what happened was that the regional networks ended up affiliating themselves with the metropolitan networks -- e.g. in regional Victoria, 7 affiliated with Prime Television, 9 affiliated with Vic TV (which later became part of WIN Television), and 10 affiliated with Southern Cross Television (later rebranded Ten Victoria, then Southern Cross Ten). So the regional channels essentially turned into clones of the metropolitan channels, only with a few locally-produced shows and different ads.
So, here's my thought: is there any way to have aggregation still happen, but prevent the regional networks from directly affiliating with the metropolitan networks? So each regional network would have to bid against its two competitors for programming content from all three metropolitan networks rather than just getting it automatically from only one? In other words, is it possible to keep Prime, WIN, NBN, Southern Cross and all the rest of them as actual separate networks with their own identities rather than turning them into rebranded extensions of 7, 9 and 10?