After months of test transmissions, Melbourne's ATV Channel 0 came on air at 6.30pm Saturday 1 August 1964 with an opening preview by newsreader Barry McQueen and childrens presenter Nancy Cato. The first live production, This Is It!, followed at 7.00pm.

Sydney's network counterpart, TEN10, arrived in April 1965 with the lavish TV special TV Spells Magic. TVQ0 Brisbane followed in July 1965, and SAS10 Adelaide in August 1965.

Early local productions on the new 0-10 network included pop shows like Go!!, Happening 70 (and 71) and Kommotion (featuring a young Ian "Molly" Meldrum); variety shows featuring Jimmy Hannan, Barry Crocker and Mike Walsh and the long running talent series Showcase. Early drama productions included The Rovers with Rowena Wallace, police drama The Long Arm and the sitcom Good Morning Mr Doubleday.

The 0-10 Network mostly lagged third in the ratings, particularly in Melbourne and Brisbane where it had to encourage viewers to convert older TV sets to receive the new '0' frequency. The turning point came with the arrival of popular dramas Matlock Police (1971-1976), Number 96 (1972-1977) and The Box (1974-1977) leading to 0-10 taking number one spot in the mid-Seventies. Other popular 0-10 programs during the seventies included The Mike Walsh Show (1973-1976, before moving to Nine in 1977), Young Talent Time (1971-1989), The Price Is Right (1973), Blankety Blanks(1977-1978) and the international cult hit Prisoner (1979-1986).

In 1975 0-10, along with the other networks, converted to full-time colour transmission, although ATV0 broadcast the first colour program on Australian TV as early as 1967 with a country horse race meeting being telecast in colour.

During the seventies, TEN10 and ATV0 launched Australia's first one-hour news services. In 1978, TEN10's Katrina Lee became the first female newsreader on commercial television. A young reporter by the name of Jana Wednt made her TV debut on ATV0's Eyewitness News in 1979.

0-10 also scored a coup in 1978 when it secured the rights to televise the Melbourne Cup.

The 0-10 Network became known as Network TEN in January 1980, coinciding with ATV0's transition to ATV10 at 2.00pm on Sunday 20 January.

Despite some ratings disasters in the early eighties, the decade saw Network TEN perform very strongly, particularly in the years it had the Olympic Games coverage (the opening ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, telecast live to Australia on a Saturday morning, rated 56). In 1985, TEN took a gamble and resurrected the axed Seven Network soap Neighbours. The revamped series became an instant hit in Australia and overseas and is now in its fifteenth year.

With Neighbours and other successes like Perfect Match, Return To Eden, Prisoner, The Comedy Company, Good Morning Australia, Eyewitness News, the major blockbuster movies of the time and the big-budget Kennedy-Miller mini-series, TEN became a strong force against the top-rating Nine Network.

In 1988, NEW10 arrived in Perth and TVQ0 Brisbane changed over to TVQ10.

By 1989 things were not looking so good with declining ratings and new shows like Roseanne, thirtysomething and E Street not rating as well as hoped. An attempt to relaunch TEN as 10 TV Australia in July 1989 was ill-fated with the network soon going into receivership. The network then became known as The Entertainment Network in 1991 before reverting back to Network TEN.

During the nineties, TEN fought back with a programming strategy aimed towards the 16-39 age group and providing alternatives such as the 5pm News. The network soon became an extremely profitable operation with strong shares of the desired 16-39 demographic.

Popular shows of the decade have included imported shows like The Simpsons, The X Files, The Nanny, Seinfeld, Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. Also featured during the decade were local shows Healthy Wealthy and Wise, Heartbreak High, Jeopardy, State Coroner, The Panel, Sex/Life, Medivac, Big Sky and the popular 1998 mini-series Day Of The Roses. High ratings were also achieved with the 1994 Commonwealth Games and the continued Melbourne Cup telecasts.

TEN has recently joined the other Australian networks onto the internet with its revamped website, www.ten.com.au and also, along with the other networks, will be moving onto digital television in 2001.