Ticker News has started broadcasting from a new state-of-the-art studio facility in Port Melbourne. The switch was turned on at the channel’s new home on Monday morning.
When Mediaweek scored a preview of the new site just a month ago it seemed unlikely founder Ahron Young could quickly turn the roomy but blank office space into the desired new HQ he was dreaming of.
But we know not to underestimate Young’s ability to achieve the unlikely, and he was on hand with his team Monday morning at the former executive office of General Motors Australia as the Ticker signal flickered to life at the start of a new week.
Ticker News Melbourne reception
Young and his COO Jed Bertalli have nicknamed their Port Melbourne home “Ticker Park”. The new facility includes a vast newsroom, two HD studios, control room, offices, green room and sweeping views of the Melbourne skyline.
Ticker CEO Ahron Young told Mediaweek: “We’ve grown up so fast and we are proud that Ticker News now boasts world-class TV production facilities. We wanted to provide an ultra-modern, collaborative space for our journalists and producers, who can even walk outside and work from the massive green park.”
The 24 hours news network created by Young in 2019 first began broadcasting from a cramped co-working space in Melbourne’s CBD, before moving to Richmond in March 2020.
Young: “We outgrew our space in Richmond within a year and began looking for a new home just over a month ago. I’m told for a start-up, it’s a good problem to have. We’ve spent the last few weeks burning the midnight oil to complete this massive project.
“At Ticker Park we now have so much space to grow. We already have the capability of running two completely separate 24-hour news channels if we wanted to.
“We are currently in the process of designing a new massive Studio 1, which is world-class and would very much feel at home in New York. It’s a complex task and we are working with leading set designer Mal Nicholls and our graphics team at Lightrise to challenge what we know and create something truly unique.”
The new Ticker offices is decked our with marble floors and mahogany timber paneling that used to be home to the car company’s chief executive.
“I reckon we’ve got Alan Bond’s taste on a Kerry Packer budget,” laughed Young.
“We want Ticker to feel grand, but we are proud to be a startup, punching above our weight and taking on the big guns. We have grown from hard work profit, with no external shareholders or debt.”
Although Mediaweek toured the space a month ago, it took a few more days to complete the paperwork.
Young: “We only got the keys to the office two weeks ago, and then Victoria brought in new restrictions and eventually a lockdown. It was a race against time and rules to not just complete what we knew we needed right now, but also plan for what we might need once everything shut. I was still finishing off the final touches at 1am Sunday night.”
The Ticker News team led by Young navigated a number of challenges in those two weeks: “Everything that could go wrong went wrong. We had to install lightning-fast Internet via a dish on the roof pointing at the Rialto because we discovered we couldn’t rely on the NBN copper.
“We also had to remove the huge Holden board room table from our newsroom. Of course the cablers forgot to run the correct cables to the right studio so we had to get up into the roof. Then the removalists couldn’t help us because of the lockdown, so we hired a van and moved an entire office and studio ourselves just hours before the lockdown came in.”
Ticker Park building foyer
Watch Ticker News here.
Watch the Ticker News with Mediaweek episodes here.
Top photo: Presenter Adrian Franklin on-air in Ticker News’ Studio 2 with construction on Studio 1 underway next door
See also: Ticker News turns on Singapore, fast tracks move to ‘Ticker Park’ home