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Another win for regional viewers

Regional viewers in Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill will soon receive Channel Nine as a digital only channel.

Regional viewers in Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill will soon receive Channel Nine.

The new Channel Nine service will commence on Sunday 31 October as a new “digital only” channel.

Southern Cross Media’s Victoria/South Australian Group General Manager Rick Lenarcic said,“We’ve successfully provided Channel 7 and 10 programming to viewers and advertisers in these regions for some years now, but we are aware that our viewers are also keen to see Channel 9.

“While we’ve previously had an agreement with the Nine Network to broadcast its coverage of the cricket, we are delighted that we can now bring Nine’s main channel to Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill. It’s an exciting development in the TV history of the region.

The official digital switch over date for the region is 15 December 2010.

“We are also working towards making additional digital multi-channels available after the digital switchover date, when we will have more spectrum capacity. When we are ready to announce the start dates for  additional digital multi-channels for Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill, you’ll hear about it first on Southern Cross News,” said Lenarcic.

To watch Nine viewers need a digital set top box for existing televisions, or a television with a built-in digital tuner.

Channel Nine will be on Digital channel 8.

17 Responses

  1. @Secret Squïrrel and Smacca –

    It is easy to just say it is a money issue, but aside from that (the same could be said for Southern Cross rolling out “11” in Qld next year ) anyway asides from that.

    It probably has more to do with the fact that WA is last in the country in the digital rollout, so GWN etc will probably wait till closer to 2013 before they start giving multichannels to that area.

    I assume the only way to get freeview channels in Bunbury (is to pay for them via Foxtel) that seems to make the statement of why pay when you can get it for free not true for Bunbury.

    I assume if you decide to live in Margaret River , etc they also do not have the new multichannels?

    Maybe people need to write to their local politcians ?

  2. @vinny @Secret Squïrrel
    I agree. It was bloody weird that they didn’t include any of the south-west area in the rollout. It’s where GWN began. Still, I’m happy Kalgoorlie came first for a change. 🙂

  3. @Vinny – I know, isn’t that odd? It’s WA’s biggest city outside the Perth-Mandurah conurbation with more than 50 million people in the broadcast area. GWN don’t seem to have much money to spend on new infrastructure (or current – their signal is shocking in some places). Not sure about WIN but they’ve been busy converting in regional areas in other states (prob with higher populations).

  4. To Paul,

    You might need to read Tuesday’s edition of the Border Watch. The State Manager of WIN is quoted that the new channels will be comming.

    I think the timing will depend on the supply and availability of new transmitters as each of the existing transmission sites will require two new transmitters to provide the full suite of Commercial Freeview Services.

  5. Viewers in the South East & Riverland SA having been receiving Channel 9 since October 4 last year, under the name WIN 9 but really it’s just Channel 9 Adelaide, with local commercials. But when are we going to get the digital only channels? (GO!, 7TWO, ONE HD etc) WIN Television SA in Mount Gambier said a while ago that they will not provide these channels due to financial reasons. Thankfully due to Mt Gambier being close to the Victorian Border most people here can recieve Victorian Channels with the right TV antenna.

  6. I assume the digital channel will be a relay of Channel Nine Adelaide and not Channel Nine Sydney? Up until today’s announcement, SC’s coverage of cricket in Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill was split between GTS/BKN (Seven) and SC Ten, frequently interrupting their schedules, especially when the Australian Open tennis was shown on GTS/BKN. With the analogue switch off and the new Nine digital channel, this will (hopefully) never happen again.

  7. This is great news! More channels for everyone this year.

    ABC News 24 for everyone. 7mate on Sept 25 available in regional areas through Prime at the same time as metro areas and on Oct 24 in Tas and Darwin. Gem in all regions that get Go on Sept 24 and in Darwin on Oct 4 when Go will become available (Darwin is pretty lucky this year!). Eleven looking likely to launch everywhere at once in 2011 except remote Aust and regional WA. Griffith NSW is also getting Ten in November which is also good. WA is get commercial channels on digital and also ch 10 and remote areas getting Imparja will get Ten next year. And also community coming to digital. Adelaide will get ch 44 on Nov 1st. So big win this year! 🙂

    Looks like Regional SA will get the new 6 digtial channels or at least the 3 SD channels in December at the earliest and this would likely include Win Sa as well.

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