Television
- 1 January – Australia's first Digital commercial free-to-air channel, Tasmanian Digital Television begins broadcasting in Hobart as a supplementary broadcaster to existing broadcasters Southern Cross Tasmania & WIN Television. On the same day, WIN TEN goes on air in the Mount Gambier & Riverland regions of South Australia as a supplementary broadcaster to existing solus broadcaster WIN Television.
- February – Deal or No Deal debuts its 5.30pm timeslot on Seven.
- February – Top-rating game show Wheel Of Fortune makes a super international revamp and a super new-look over to continue its long-run on Seven Local TV.
- 15 March – Foxtel launches its new digital service, Foxtel Digital.
- April – After 18 years at SBS, Margaret Pomeranz & David Stratton announce their resignation from the station to move to the ABC to present a new program, At the Movies. Four younger presenters replace them on The Movie Show – Megan Spencer, Fenella Kernebone & Jaimie Leonarder with Marc Fennell presenting a segment on newly released DVDs.
- 26 July – Broken Hill resident Trevor Butler proposes to his girlfriend immediately after winning A$1,000,000 on Big Brother
- 21 November – 16 year old Casey Donovan wins the second series of Australian Idol defeating 21 year old favourite, Anthony Callea
- 11 December – The Network Ten is the next Australian television network to introduce a watermark on its programs, although the watermark was broadcast on Ten News. It was located on the bottom left of the screens by TEN-10 Sydney before switching to bottom right in 2006.
Ending this year:
- November – Burke's Backyard (1987–2004)
- November – Australia's Funniest Home Video Show (1990–1999, 2000–2004) (program comes back as Australia's Funniest Home Videos and revamps a new-look and new theme in 2005.)
Read more about this topic: 2004 In Australia
Famous quotes containing the word television:
“It is among the ranks of school-age children, those six- to twelve-year-olds who once avidly filled their free moments with childhood play, that the greatest change is evident. In the place of traditional, sometimes ancient childhood games that were still popular a generation ago, in the place of fantasy and make- believe play . . . today’s children have substituted television viewing and, most recently, video games.”
—Marie Winn (20th century)
“Television is an excellent system when one has nothing to lose, as is the case with a nomadic and rootless country like the United States, but in Europe the affect of television is that of a bulldozer which reduces culture to the lowest possible denominator.”
—Marc Fumaroli (b. 1932)
“Photographs may be more memorable than moving images because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow. Television is a stream of underselected images, each of which cancels its predecessor. Each still photograph is a privileged moment, turned into a slim object that one can keep and look at again.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)