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ONE HD bumps TEN HD into limbo

Fans asking about their favourite TEN HD shows are left in limbo as ONE HD takes over from April.

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TEN’s “science fiction Thursday”, Neighbours catch-up, timeshifted News and documentaries on TEN HD could become a thing of the past with confirmation that there is no contingency plan announced alongside the launch of ONE HD.

TEN HD will continue on air until April when it is overtaken by TEN’s 24hr sports channel ONE HD. The current home of TEN HD, Channel 12, will broadcast the sports content in standard definition.

That leaves Smallville and other fan favourites in television limbo. Other shows including Torchwood, Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, One Tree Hill, Friday Night Lights and Monk have found a home on TEN HD after being snubbed by TEN’s analogue channel. While some will have concluded their run by April, a spokesperson could not confirm the future for shows that drop off analogue to TV Tonight.

“The reason we’ve gone with HD for ONE is because sport is something that is just so well suited to HD, because of the nature of the content,” said a spokesperson.

One of the current benefits of having the HD channel is to allow viewers to see favourite shows in high definition. Key shows including Australian Idol, Rove, Neighbours, Supernatural, NCIS, Rush, House, Life, 9AM with David and Kim, Oprah Winfrey and The Late Show with David Letterman can all be seen in high definition.

But the introduction of ONE HD viewers will see those programmes air in digital but not high definition.

The list of sports coming to ONE HD is not without some “jewels in the crown” but it doesnt mean TEN’s analogue channel will be sports-free. Some sports will air simultaneously on SD and HD. Others may even screen on SD first.

Press Release:

Network Ten today announced the first all-new commercial free-to-air television channel in almost 50
years, a dedicated sports channel to provide Australians 24-hour sports coverage from home and around the world.

As a free-to-air channel, it will be available to Australians who are widely acknowledged as the world’s
greatest sports enthusiasts. The new channel will allow Australians to share their unifying passion for
sport: and will be named ONE.

ONE will be broadcast from early in the second quarter of calendar 2009 in High Definition (HD) on
Channel 1 and it will also be available in Standard Definition (SD) on the network’s second SD channel
(Channel 12).

Network Ten CEO Grant Blackley said ONE’s all-sports programming format will appeal to Australians’
shared passion for sport and, also, ensure that Network Ten as a multi-channel broadcaster continues to build a new and more diverse audience.

“ONE’s appeal to Australia’s natural sports lovers will complement TEN’s seriously different programming
strategy – with each channel offering viewers and clients a unique and appealing programming format,”
Mr Blackley said.

“TEN continues to pursue its targeted strategy – that is, with a primary focus on building its competitive share in the strategically valuable 18-49s, and maintaining the leading position in 16-39s. TEN is also the number one network in day time in all key demos.

“In considering the opportunities for our new multi-channel, it became obvious very quickly that sport
would be a highly attractive genre for the Australian viewing public, of both genders and all ages. There is currently no dedicated free-to-air sports channel in this market, and Ten has existing relationships with key sports rights holders and a reputation for delivery of high quality sports broadcasts.

“Importantly, the network’s upgraded broadcast infrastructure means we are exceptionally well placed to provide these three digital channels, supporting our network’s – and the industry’s – move into a multichannel and multi-platform environment.

“We anticipate that ONE will add significant momentum to digital switchover by giving Australian viewers a compelling reason to purchase an HD or SD receiver,” Mr Blackley said The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, said Network Ten’s initiative heralded a new era in Australian free-to-air broadcasting.

“Innovations such as Network Ten’s digital sport channel will play an important part in Australia’s
transition from analogue to digital television,” Senator Conroy said.

“The Rudd Government is committed to ensuring Australia completes a smooth transition to digital
television and the availability of more diverse and broadly appealing free-to-air multi-channel
programming will assist that process.”

Network Ten’s general manager – sport, David White, said sport plays a prominent role in Australian
culture and identity, and it is uniquely suited to digital TV – with its emphasis on the best broadcast clarity of picture and sound.

“The programming schedule for ONE will showcase the sports Australians love, in a way they will enjoy
viewing them,” Mr White said.

“Live and exclusive will be a hallmark of the channel.”

“Broadcasting in digital means we will be able to most vividly capture the greatest sporting events and
achievements, along with the intimate details of the intense human dramas that play out in sport.

“We believe ONE will appeal to a broad audience and very quickly become a regular and enjoyable part
of Australians’ sports viewing habit,” he said.

Some of the sports highlights that viewers can expect to enjoy on ONE include:
AFL – the 2009 NAB Cup, home and away season, and finals including the Grand Final returning to the
network in 2009
Netball – ANZ Championship Competition and all Test matches featuring the Australian Netball
Diamonds, exclusively for the next five years
Commonwealth Games – 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games
Cricket – Indian Premier League Cricket, the world’s premier annual Twenty20 cricket competition
Formula 1 – every round of the F1 World Championship
Moto GP – extensive coverage of every round of the World Championship
NASCAR – live coverage of the Daytona 500 and other major Sprint Cup races, live coverage of the
Nationwide Series, as well as Sprint Cup qualifying
Australian Rally Championship – exclusive coverage of every round
National Football League (NFL) – three games per week live, including the flagship Sunday and
Monday night games, as well as live coverage of play-offs and the Super Bowl
Major League Baseball (MLB) – five games per week live, including prime time coverage of play-offs and World Series National Basketball Association (NBA) – three games per week live
Golf – US Masters, US Open, World Golf Championships including the Accenture MatchPlay
Championship, the CA Championship, the Bridgestone Invitational and the World Cup, Australian PGA,
Ladies Masters, 2010 Ryder Cup, and 15 additional international and domestic events including the Johnnie Walker Classic, and the Asian tour’s flagship event the Singapore Open and the tour’s seasonending Volvo Masters of Asia.
U.S. College sports – American football and basketball
Tennis – ATP and WTA tennis, details to be confirmed, approximately 11 tournaments during 2009.
Swimming – Network Ten is delighted to announce that, from 2009, it is the exclusive broadcaster for
Swimming Australia. This includes coverage of the Australian Swimming Championships, Pan Pacific
Championships, Australian Short Course Championships, FINA World Short Course, Swimmer of the
Year – a minimum 109 hours per year for the next eight years.

According to rights agreements and current Federal Government anti-siphoning regulations, some of these sports and events will also be shown first or simultaneously on TEN.

To preview and review the week’s events and to continue the conversations about sport that Australians enjoy, there will also be a series of new programs dedicated to the sports Australians love. These will include a new live AFL show on Monday nights, weekly wrap shows for NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR Sprint Cup series and Nationwide series, Formula 1, Moto GP and US PGA Tour.

Every week night, ONE will also broadcast two expanded editions of Sports Tonight, bringing viewers
further in-depth news from both domestic and international sources.

From time to time, ONE will feature extreme sports, emerging sports and a range of sports-related
programming including documentaries.

BACKGROUND
The ONE SD channel will be separately badged and marketed, and used to promote the premium ONE
HD service to SD viewers.

ONE – Branding
The name ONE expresses the channel’s mission to share the greatness of sport with all Australians –
capturing the passion that unites us as one. It was inspired by the irrepressible response of the crowd toa classic goal and the sense of bonding we experience in that dramatic moment, an inspiring effect only great sport can deliver.

Breaking from sporting channel clichés, the logo communicates the fresher, more accessible approach
that is the essence of ONE. It shows that our goal is to capture the unique and much loved place that
sport has in everyday Australian life, beyond just the generic highlights and generic feeds of today’s
offerings.

Digital TV – Australian market penetration
Digital take-up in Australia is accelerating, and is following global trends. Currently, 42 per cent of
Australian households have a digital receiver and, at the time of the launch of ONE in 2009, this is
expected to be around 50 per cent.

Digital TV – multi-channelling policy and digital rollout
Under government legislation (Broadcasting Services Act) free-to-air commercial broadcasters will be
permitted to provide an additional SD digital multichannel each from January 2009 in addition to the HD
digital multichannel currently provided.

The Australian Government has announced that all free-to-air television broadcasters in Australia will
complete the switch from analogue transmission to digital-only transmission by the end of 2013.

REGIONAL VIEWERS: Please see information in comments and other stories on this site that indicate “mid year” for SC 10 and TDT. Please do not ask for further detail on when this will arrive as there is currently no news. For more recent stories on ONE HD kindly click on the show tag at end of story. Kindly read comments before asking repeat question. Thankyou.

184 Responses

  2. Here’s an idea, why not broadcast this instead: – Channel 10: normal Ten SD
    – Channel 12: ONE SD
    – Channel 1: a mixture of ONE & Ten in HD.

    The above would work better because then all programming filmed in HD which are shown on Ten & ONE can both be shown on the HD channel (Channel 1). Besides, not all the content that Ten plans to show on ONE is even in HD anyway such as the Australian Rally Championships, Swimming, some Golf tournaments, Formula 1 and MotoGP which are not filmed in HD. So, this way, all content on Channel 1 will actually be filmed in High Definition. So there is no need for 2 HD channels as others have suggested.

    So:- Ten gets their sports channel.
    – Viewers still get their favourite programs in HD (those that are actually filmed in HD).
    – Ten gets sports in HD (those that are actually filmed in HD).
    – The bandwidth can be used more efficiently with 2 SD channels, a HD channel and 2 EPG’s to be broadcast.

    So does anyone have a problem with this idea? (Ten, I’m looking at you.) Earthquake, but all those channels are in SD and they have no real EPG so that is why so many channels can be fiited into the Digital 44 service.

  3. Why can’t they have this?

    Channel 01 – Ten HD One (Sport)
    Channel 10 – Ten SD (Normal Programming)
    Channel 12 – Ten HD (Ten SD Simulcast in HD)

  4. Not a sports fan but think its a great idea. Main demo for sports is young men, main demo for uptake of technology such as large screen TVs, HD receivers, etc also young men. Sports fans like to have their sport in HD. The channel will do well and help promote further digital uptake.

    Still needs to be a solution to the problem of current 10HD shows being shown somehwre on a HD channel. I personally like the option of watching 10 news at 5.30 rather than 5 followed by 7 news at 6 as an hour of 10 news at 5 just isn’t necessary!

  5. While I am upset about the loss of a second Ten channel filled with some great shows that will now not see the light of day, I am more upset over the fact that I can’t watch any show on Ten in HD!

    I think it’s somewhat frivolous to argue sci-fi fans against sport fans in relation to this change. What I will argue is that surely their mainstream channel, you know, the one they’ve had for over 40 years, should benefit from HD, not some random new channel. Their mainstream channel appeals to a wider demographic and I’m not talking about their alternative programming, but their mirrored programming during the day and primetime. Sport appeals to a specific demographic. Why then should sport take front position to receive HD services over their general programming? Surely an episode of say, House, would reach a wider range of the demographic than “college sports,” and is certainly more worthy of the HD services as well!

    I’m all for multi-channels and hope the other networks consider developing a multi-channel strategy, but not at the cost of losing mainstream programming in HD!!!

  6. slydoggie, how does Channel 44 have Digital TV Guide (Channel 4), NITV, ACC, NSW-TV, ABC News, another info channel, Teachers TV x 2 plus 7 extra parliament channels if there is only enough room for 3 channels?

    Last time I checked Ten ditched their Ten Guide channel ages ago (only Nine has a dedicated Guide now). There should be room. If the ABC can look at having abc1, abc2, abc3, abc hd in addition to it’s 2 radio stations all running why can’t Ten have two HD channels and two SD channels (other than parliamentary law)?

  8. Ten are in the tv business narrow minded or not. If there wasn’t such a bombardment of US made shows and some UK/ Euro/Asian/Sth American series were brought in (heck what about Canada) then viewers would not be watching a couple of eps then turning off since there would be some uniquiness factor involved. I mean, Nine will show 2 or 3 versions of CSI, Ten have NCIS mingle with Law and Order and its spin offs. Everytyhing seems to be hybrid of a franchise model (a Maccas version of tv). That is what I think has led to some US drama faling because of over saturation rather than poor quality. Weeds is a great show, 30 Rock, The Wire. You either wait forever or set the PVR timer to 12am-3am to see them.

    Viewers want some variety, why else is Packed …Rafters and FInd My Family doing well. Not the greatest series of all time but a chnage from solving crime and human/android hybrids looking to destroy earth. Even the ABC Breakfast will rate well because it won;t be 1xmale and 1xfemale boofheads with their sidekicks in news/weather/sport talking FM breakfast crap instead it will be another boring (but different) news program which if it was the only breakfast tv show would have people complaining they need the aforementioned boofheads as an alternative.

    Thank God SBS exists as a standalone broadcaster

  9. This is insane! I can’t believe this is actually happening. So all the Australian camera crew and so on that now have updated equipment for the move to the future and HD for the shows made in Australia.. now might as well throw them out and just use cameras from yesteryear!

    To think 10 was such a front-runner with HD.. and now they go and ruin the best HD channel out there.

    Also having a line-up with Smallville and so many other cool shows was great too. It is so saddening that TEN HD started off so well… only looking to be going backwards rather than improving.

    I really, really, hope that they find a way to hold onto TEN HD.. even if they have two HD channels.

  10. Yes loosing TEN HD is bad, i will miss the neighbours catch up.
    Nothing much else really.
    But ONE will be awesome. I am so hanging out for NBA!

    Now here is hoping they get the NHL

  13. what a slap in the face to sci-fi fans whose shows have all but completely been pushed on to 10HD. we went out and upgraded our equipment, ran around telling people that 10 was doing a far better job than 7 and 9 in use of their HD channel and now this is what we get. what are we supposed to do with all that equipment now? stereotypically speaking sports fans and sci-fi fans are not the same people. so now everyone who was loyal to 10 for a year is shafted while they run after a completely new market, except for those that already upgraded for the few sports they show now. let’s just hope 9 and 7 do a better job next year, coz 7 is just repeats and 9 is only shows that were axed after 1 season. although 10 was the perfect candidate coz they had axed so many shows they had plenty on the shelf, what do the others have that would fit into a genre night? 9 could go with moonlight, terminator the sarah connor chronicles, fringe and primeval, those are the only shows of theirs i watch, but are they really at a stage where they should be on HD only?

  15. Cry me a river.

    Craig, there are no current ratings for HD so the loss of these shows is not a loss at all.

    Earthquake, the broadband spectrum does not allow enough room for 2 x HD + SD + EPG. The HD channels would be equivalent or less than SD!

    Neon Kitten..you are great at broad statements speaking on people’s behalf…I am an avid sport viewer….HD sport is noticeably different and I do give a rats arse. Getting your knickers in a twist about all this does nothing. Sports will still be in 1920 x 1080 where possible. Sure you miss out on watching a few shows, but as you repeatedly state on this site, you are very found of downloads anyway so I fail to see why you are so upset.

    Richard, Sport, including NAB Cup, will remain on TEN as per normal until the launch of ONE.

    If CH 10 has spent money on upgrading equipment, surely that is their problem? Why are you all so insistent on pointing out this fact? It was actually a smart move at the time given that there was no clarity in what the additional channels would offer. To pioneer a new technology involves risks. Get over it already.

  16. I imagine that, like Foxtel, sport will be a drawcard to push people to upgrade their TVs to HD. I don’t watch sport, so anything that might lead to having only dedicated sports channels, hopefully eventually removing sport from SD altogether, is okay by me.

    I also currently cannot view HD, and have no idea when I will in the future, so it’s not a loss for me personally. I expect by the time I do upgrade, more HD channels containing regular programming will have been sorted out.

  17. Since the history of TV, sport has been in Black and White, Analogue, then SD Digital. If people have been able watch it like that for over 50 years, there is no need to have a dedicated HD sport channel, and get rid of quality programming.

    Why do networks spend all this money on new studios and equipment to film in HD then not air it. A good example is Neighbours. Last year every Neighbours set was repainted, and some refurnished for HD filming, so they look better in HD. What a waste of money that was, I bet Freemantle who make the show are not impresssed that they spent all that money for nothing.

    I better not see one split second of sport on TEN SD after April if they have ONE HD and SD to air it all.

  18. Really, who cares. The few movies I have watched on Ten HD were NOT even transmitting 5.1 sound, what a joke. Especially since they advertise that Ten HD is so fantastic etc etc. Ten HD is a big waste of space compared to other channels HD offerings. Will not be missed, hopefully the sports will have good sound quality.

  21. Oh, and by the way, on that pure-comedy-gold press release: “the channel’s mission to share the greatness of sport with all Australians –capturing the passion that unites us as one”

    …is followed in the very next paragraph by…”Breaking from sporting channel clichés…” Ten, can I have some of the drugs your PR people are apparently hoovering? 🙂

  22. Absolutely idiotic decision from Ten, and given the superb work they’ve done in leading the HD multichannel race by a mile this year, it’s really, really disappointing.

    As for the spokesperson: “sport is something that is just so well suited to HD, because of the nature of the content”? Oh, give me a break. Sports viewers in this country don’t give a rat’s about picture quality. And sport is not well suited to what will become a low-bitrate HD channel. Expect blocky pixels and screen breakup with your AFL, kids. No, it’s shows that are produced at the highest technical standard in HD that deserve to be seen that way. Life is a prime example, Torchwood another. House. Eureka.

    And then there’s local HD production – Rove, Idol, 5th Grader, GNW, even Neighbours… was all that expense kitting studios out with $250,000-per-camera HD gear for nothing? Better check eBay for cheap HD broadcast cameras come April, film students! I’m absolutely, totally disgusted by this insane decision from Ten. And I’d tell them directly, too, but I know that I stand a much greater chance of being heard by them if I comment here. So here’s my suggestion, Ten: forget the pissing contest with Foxtel. Promote the hell out of your new SD sport channel, and sport fans will be happy. But keep TEN HD. Please.

  23. Great.. Now we’re stuck with 576i for the good TV shows. Honestly, TEN, what is up with you guys? Are the falling ratings making you dizzy or something?

    The loss of TEN HD will be a big one. R.I.P. Sci-Fi Thursday. 🙁 And goodbye being able to watch things in prettyful HD.

  25. While sports is a big ratings winner cutting all those other shows could cost ch10 ratings, that’s when they change the ratings system to include HD and other channels 😛

    Why do they have to simulcast it on ch12 if they are pushing the whole HD angle and want people to buy newer HD TVs and set-top-boxes?

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