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New international channels join Foxtel

Updated: Current affairs channels NHK World from Japan and China's documentary channel CCTV-9 join Foxtel.

2013-09-03_0042Two new international channels will be added to Foxtel from today:

Current affairs channels NHK World (Ch 656) and Documentary channel CCTV-9 (Ch 654).

Both will comprise part of the Essentials pack.

Meanwhile Pay Per View channel Main Event will also be going HD for customers who subscribe to the HD suite.

Foxtel in association with GlobeCast Australia have today launched two major Asian based channels – NHK WORLD TV and CCTV-9 Documentary Channel.

Available to Australian viewers through Foxtel, NHK WORLD TV provides the very latest information from Japan, Asia and the rest of the world, as well as a wide variety of programming 24 hours a day. Produced in Japan, the English language channel is already broadcast in 140 countries to 260 million households, and using GlobeCast Australia’s D3 Satellite capacity is now available to all Foxtel Subscribers.

The first dedicated English language Chinese documentary channel with worldwide coverage, CCTV-9 Documentary Channel is sister to CCTV’s Chinese and Asian news channel CCTV News, provided to Foxtel subscribers through an existing GlobeCast Australia/Foxtel agreement. Produced in Beijing and launching in Australia on Foxtel, CCTV-9 shares China’s culture, stories and history with a global audience.

CCTV9-Documentary will feature historical and natural geography documentaries such as ‘The Road to Discovery’ which includes a focus on archaeological exploration.

NHK WORLD TV will help Australians explore Japan with programs such as ‘Journeys in Japan’ – watch reporters travel around Japan, meeting people, exploring the local culture and offering travel hints rarely found in guidebooks.

With a growing Asian population and with the third highest number of new migrants to Australia from China[1], the CCTV-9 Documentary Channel and NHK WORLD TV (from Japan) will fulfil a growing demand for the news and culture of the Asian region and also provide a view from Asia on global issues.

The leading provider of broadcast services for Australia and New Zealand, GlobeCast Australia is dedicated to delivering high quality content to support Foxtel’s Australian platform.

Richard Freudenstein, Foxtel CEO said, “It is more important than ever that Australians understand and engage with the Asian region. These two high quality, English language channels will make a valuable contribution to that engagement.

“Foxtel is pleased to be working with GlobeCast Australia, one of our most valued partners, to deliver these important services.”

Simon Farnsworth, GlobeCast Australia’s Chief Executive Officer said, “We are delighted to continue strengthening our strategic relationship with Foxtel, and to deliver a broad range of strong channels to their platform.”

21 Responses

  1. @Adriana: “Why does foxtel keep giving its paying viewers channels that nobody wants to watch instead of giving us channels that we want to watch.”

    In this case it’s ‘cos they are cheaper. Cheap as in free.

  2. Awesome! This will make up for the loss of TV1 and SciFi (or whatever its called now) at the end of the year!

    … as the great Homer once said – “Oh, by the way, I was being sarcastic”. If it wasn’t for the sport, I’d have cancelled my subscription long ago.

  3. @ David Knox – thanks David I just thought I’d ask given more answers come from you than the networks. Plus after Friday you might be able to update the article to show what really happened.

  4. Oliver Queen?, spoken like a true Foxtel employee, obviously you get your Foxtel subsided if you think spending over a $100 for the stuff theu dish up including commercial is not reason to complain, unlike Europe , America etc, it;’s a monopoly here so we can;t go anywhere else!!!

  5. All the people complaining about foxtel, stop whinging about it here, and either disconnect or find something else to do other than whinging about how shit foxtel is, how crappy the film channels are, how many ads they show, the shitty picture quality etc.

  6. NHK has been free to view on Optus D2 for years,it’s ok but I wouldn’t pay for it.Love how Foxtel spin this stuff like their doing you a favour,they cut the number of movie channels and it’s all for their subscribers benefit…unbelievable load of tripe they do bleat..

  7. Wow, crap picture,looped programs, give us something decent Foxtel, and the movies now, garbage,cancelling the movie package, and what is with the Hitler, sorry History channel anything new ever coming on?

  8. Glennc – it was an issue with the MyStarHD boxes, which Foxtel confirmed yesterday afternoon on their Facebook page.

    I was another person who didn’t get the channels.

    It has been resolved now though and the channels are on for those subscribers as well.

  9. MLJ is right that currently none of the channels (NHK World, CCTV9 or Main Event HD) are available for existing Austar subscribers. I tweeted Foxtel and got a reply of ” sorry you can’t view the channels yet, it’s a known issue, we are working on having this fixed ASAP!” Once again Foxtel’s poor effort at making it’s company a national one and not segregated. Well at least we can expect the IQ3 by the London Olympics…oh wait sorry 2014. Wonder where I got that idea from =p.

  10. Yes, clearly these channels are ‘Essential’.. yeah right. As I mentioned in the Foxtel survey results yesterday, the Essentials pack is full of channels the majority of people including myself would not watch.
    CCTV should be under the Documentary Pack, and the News channel should be under a newly developed News pack. I do not understand why Comedy is not under Essentials, humour is an essential part of life.

  11. These two channels are self-centered 3-hours on a loop, certainly nothing like Australia Network. “CCTV Documentary Channel is going to…establish industrial standards(including standards on subject selection, form, technique and pricing), and gradually shape a unified, open and orderly documentary market, with a view to laying a solid foundation for industrial operation of this line.”
    OK…whatever.
    @Adriana – From Beijing and Tokyo actually. They are free, no-charge, please rebroadcast us channels.

  12. In regards to Main Event, it should have been one of the first channels to be launched in HD not nearly 6 years later.
    In regards to NHK World and CCTV-9 Documentary, this is a clever move by Foxtel to try and increase it’s penetration by offering more culturally diverse channels. In saying that, I think individuals of Chinese or Japanese culture would prefer channels that are actually in Japanese or Mandarin/Cantonese than English, But they are FTA channels so Foxtel would only have to pay to rebroadcast them which is their usual cheap way.
    But nevertheless, we all want more than 1 HD channel a year, and if we gave a HD channel to any channel that had an audience share higher than the average audience share of current HD channel’s we’d see over half of the entertainment channels with HD feeds as opposed to the current 23% – and that is just entertainment channels. Not to mention…

  13. HD Main event….10 years tooo late….

    now, Sky have just finished Ultra HD trials.

    why is foxtel still struggling to to even put out 1080p HD…

    sky has news in HD….
    we get a mess of SD…..

  14. Why does foxtel keep giving its paying viewers channels that nobody wants to watch instead of giving us channels that we want to watch. Like more movie channels . The movie line up is crap.99% of foxtel channels are garbage . I only have it for the sport and the premier league. The rests is unwatchable .too many adds too many repeats of repeats. Seriously a current affairs channel from Hong Kong and china. What are they thinking.

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