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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

  1. All the sci fi nerds are mad… lol

    Call up the intergalactic war lords and have them strike down the TEN Network executives with some powerful ray beam, or mysterious virus…

    When is the last time you heard channels in a bidding war for …. jeez, i don’t even know the name of any of those sci fi shows!!!

    All of those shows you lot love can be bought in box DVD sets so you can watch them when ever you like.

    Hoorah for Ten, i look forward to getting my HD tuner early in the new year in time for your new sports channel

  5. What a brilliant Idea channel 10, why on earth we need Idol on 2 channel is any ones guess, its bad enough on one channel.

    I have no problem having ONE broadcast in SD as long as we get that channel. the only other option for people to watch the sports they are offering is to get foxtel (minimum of $56 per month for just basic and sports) or go to the local pub with foxtel (also usual minmum spend of at least $56 per month on beverages and snacks).

    This is the best thing to happen to TV since we were able to get colour! At least without paying through the nose for it.

    Keep HD, its a good channel (it would be even better if it broadcast different shows than the SD channel but I suppose we can’t expect too much)

    for all of you whinging about how bad SD looks on your big TV’s you make me sick! if it bothers you that much get out your old CRT and have some concrete for dinner!

  6. This actually sucks, I only watch HD channels because SD looks like absolute crap on a big tv. So it looks like I won’t be watching ten at all. Shame to, they have some good programs

  9. I can remember a time when TEN stood for The Entertainment Network. This is obviously no longer the case. Seriously.

    TV in Australia has been going down the gurgler since the late 90s. Ever since they discovered they make money by having idiots phoning in and voting off they haven’t cared about what other content they show, as long as it gets massive ratings in its first few weeks. Whatever happened to letting things run their course? Ever heard of growing to love shows? Perhaps if they left something on for more than 3 weeks people would have a chance to actually watch it.

    Naturally those of use stuck with SCTen HD won’t have it online until ONE HD arrives. Typical Southern Cross broadcasting. I’ll admit, I’m one of those who loves Sci-Fi. I hate how the networks treat it like the plague. Ten HD seemed like a dream come true, but now Ten is waking everyone up with the annoying beeping of ONE. If you like sports, you’ll love it. For the rest of us, we’re screwed.
    Perhaps ONE should stand for Obviously Not Entertainment.

  10. Oh my God Channel Ten I Love You!!!!!!!!!!! My dream had finally come true !!!!!!!!!! Best move ever !!!!!!!!!!! I have told 20 people at my work they all loved it!!!!!!!!!!

    Everyone here should relax and chill. Stop complaining Decisions has been made and cannot be change.
    Though if you have a look at freeview.com.au it stated that by 2009 there will be 15 Free to air channel which odd even shows 10 have 3 channel, ONE HD, 10HD, 10SD
    So relax!!!!!!!! Besides SD isn’t that bad you know ? its still Dvd quality.

  13. IT would be so much better if they were able to keep Chanel One as One sport and Chanel 12 as 10HD broadcasting the normal programs in HD, and the extra content they currently provide. I dont want to lose the afternoon doco’s!

    Are they able to broadcast two HD chanels, legally?

  14. We love to watch all our favourite shows in HD and to go back to SD is horrible on our 40″ LCD the difference in picture quality is huge. It’s all blury and pixelated.

    Ten need to do somehting about keeping everyones favourite shows in HD

  16. Channel 10 = joke.
    As many of the posts have already said just have 1 SD – as sport, 1 SD – normal programming and then have the ten HD – as a hybrid of all 10 owned content in HD.

    It is really not that hard to do. Also on some of tens promo material it says they broadcast in 5.1 all the time – that is not true.

    I will be ringing channel 10 locally and complaining about this decision and suggest anyone else who does not like it rings them and lets them know. Have attached the contact numbers for channel 10 from their website:

    Network TEN Locations
    Sydney Ph: 02 9650 1010 Fax: 02 9650 1111
    Melbourne Ph: 03 92751010 Fax: 03 92751011
    Brisbane Ph: 07 3214 1010 Fax: 07 3369 3786
    Adelaide Ph: 08 8225 1010 Fax: 08 8225 1011
    Perth Ph: 08 9345 1010 Fax: 08 9344 8076

  18. Posted by: CK on October 31st, 2008 11:29 am

    The government *could* think about giving the networks more spectrum after the analogue channels are switched off, though a precious gift like that would be controversial and annoy Foxtel, etc.

    I don’t see the problem with allowing more spectrum, at a price. And who cares if Foxtel are annoyed, they are supposed to be a premium pay service and their service in my experience is no better than free-to-air. I say annoy them to hell until they lift their game.

  19. Bindi,
    To answer your question about what Southern Cross broadcast,we receive the following here already:

    SD – 5
    HD – 50
    SD – 55

    55 is a loop of 5 and 50 is pretty much a HD demo channel.

    Ten’s 1,10 & 12 are capital city channels.

  20. I thought it was a great idea until I realized they were replacing the current HD channel. Stupid. I agree, a dedicated sports channel should just be on the SD channel 12 and leave the current HD channel as is.

  21. This is just plain stupid on! The sports channel will be available on SD 24/7, so why does it have to take up the entire HD channel as well? Why cant they keep 10HD as a simulcast of 10SD and only use the HD channel to simulcasting ONE for major sporting events.

  23. It comes down to this:

    Network Ten Limited as of April next year will have 2 TV networks:

    Ten and One

    One of them (Ten) is a national broadcaster that caters to the masses with news, comedy, reality, drama, sport & kids programming. It airs major original programming and major international programming.

    The other (One) is a niche sports network catering to sports fans that will air the leftover sports not already owned by Seven, Nine, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, Fox Sports 3 and ESPN.

    Of the two networks, Network Ten has chosen to air the later in HD. The niche network that appeals to a limited sector of the audience and will have 2nd rate leftover sports.

    Just seems an odd choice. I’d want my primary broadcast network in HD, not my secondary sports network. There’s no doubt HD is the future, as more shows and homes upgrade. They’ve decided that Ten will be stuck in the dark ages with SD, while One goes into the future with HD.

    Just odd

  24. The government can’t “permit” a two simultaneous HD channels because each needs at least 12 megabits and there’s only 23 in total to go round, for all the digital channels (HD and not HD).

    The government *could* think about giving the networks more spectrum after the analogue channels are switched off, though a precious gift like that would be controversial and annoy Foxtel, etc.

    The bottom line here is that the TenHD channel is currently sharing sport and drama and docos and scifi. Why not just continue what worked so well? I love sport in HD but also want other shows in HD — especially when you remember that not all the sports Ten is buying, are even available in HD.

    CK.

  25. David I am glad to see you back at the Australian English dinner party after that brief visit to the dark side 🙂

    I really like your idea cpandilo and that would seem to satisfy everyone, but that unfortunately that doesn’t look like that is going to happen.

    To those of you who saying that when ONE HD starts that not a single second of sport can be shown on TEN SD, unfortunately this will not be the case. In fact, I can see very few sports not continuing to be shown on TEN SD at least in the short term. Perhaps as the digital take up increases some of the less popular sports will ceased to be shown but the AFL and all other major sports will stay right up until December 2013.

    However, I think the real question is when will the government permit a second HD channel to be broadcast by the FTA networks?

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