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Seven to announce multichannel plans soon

David Leckie says Seven will unveil details of its digital channels before Christmas, while CEOs talk down rumours of a Freeview rift.

Channel Seven will unveil its plans for its multichanneling before Christmas, says the Brisbane Times. The move will follow TEN’s recent announcement of ONE HD, its 24 hour sports channel to launch in April.

As the networks gathered for the Freeview marketing launch in Canberra this week, rumours of a rift have been denied.

Reports on Monday claimed the Nine and Seven networks were in a stand-off with the Government, wanting an assurance that the Government will not issue a fourth TV licence when the analogue spectrum shuts down in 2013.

The ABC’s Kim Dalton, and chairman of Freeview was astonished by the news. “I’ve had no word of this at all,” he said. “We met [Senator Conroy] as a group a month or so ago and had a very constructive discussion. Every network was represented in the room at CEO level. There was no discussion whatsoever about all this.”

Seven’s David Leckie called the stand-off rubbish, saying, “Our plans are not contingent on a fourth network. It has nothing to do with it. We have a responsibility to do it and we intend to do that. We will launch early next year.”

Nine’s David Gyngell was the only CEO not to attend. But Nine’s executive director, Jeff Browne, showed up, and he also claimed no knowledge. “I heard that,” he said. “I don’t understand where that has come from. We have got our strategy for our digital channels and we are developing that. There are no strings attached.”

Meanwhile Channel TEN’s Grant Blackley claims TEN is to sign up three “principal sponsors” for ONE at up to $2.5 million a pop. And he went further: before Christmas, ONE will have six paying premium backers signed up.

Freeview will be available via any High Definition set top box or HD television wherever the digital signalis available. However, only Freeview-branded set top boxes will be able to receive the Freeview Electronic Program Guide which displays all programming information in one format.

Source: Brisbane Times, Sydney Morning Herald

16 Responses

  1. i wish ch 7 would use one of their spare channels to telecast the bathurst 12 hr .. even a static camera would pull more ratings than whats on now .. come on seven show us you can make this freeview a real thing

  2. It will be interesting to see if prime can pull their heads out to get this right by the launch date. Prime can’t get it right for SD now let alone HD in the Lakes Entrance area in Eastern Victoria!

  3. Wait..
    So Freeview channels won’t work on an SD stb? we have one built in our video/dvd recorder and it picks up all SD channels, I thought that freeview broadcast in SD aswell as HD.

    Plus, won’t be happy if the epg is freeviewbrand only. That’ll mean panasonics built in epg reciever on our video/dvd recorder won’t work.

  4. Well we can’t generalise because it’s so complicated. We do know that Prime, WIN and SC are part of Freeview, so if you get the Freeview box hopefully it means yes to those stations. Freeview says all Aussies that can receive an HD digital signal will get the channels.

  5. this EPG thing is quite worrying, because if they don’t continue broadcasting the EPGs in the current format or one my machine can use with upgraded software, then programming my recordings in is going to become quite difficult and annoying. and while it is not sufficient to render all early take up machines useless it will decrease their functionality quite significantly. so here’s hoping they keep up the old one as well as the new one.

  6. What I believe it is is a interactive service – not the normal EPG system (in effect EPG + VPG) – well that’s from what I’ve read – but if so, where’s the spectrum gonna come from? Or is it going to be software based and aggregate the current EPG data.

  7. “However, only Freeview-branded set top boxes will be able to receive the Freeview Electronic Program Guide which displays all programming information in one format.”

    What’s your source for that, David? I don’t see that mentioned in the linked articles, and if true it would be the first definitive statement on the subject from anyone, anywhere. It would also mean that the hundreds of thousands of STBS, TVs and PVRs already out there would not be able to use the new EPG. Which would be a very dumb move by Free TV Australia. Buy a new PVR and TV in “these uncertain times” just to get the Freeview-sanctioned EPG? They’re dreaming if that’s the plan.

    An EPG for all channels can be transmitted by every individual channel using the technology already in place (EIT) as part of the standard digital TV (DVB) spec.

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