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Freeview channel update

January 1st is the greenlight for new digital channels. But Seven and Nine are still playing coy on content.

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From January 1 our commercial Free to Air broadcasters are allowed to transmit a second, digital channel as we barrel headlong towards Freeview.

We’re still waiting for confirmation on what Nine and Seven will programme. Yesterday an article in News Limited newspapers gave us a bit of a progress report on network plans.

As we know TEN intends to launch ONE HD from April with 24 hr sports, leaving its current TEN HD to become the second digital channel, which will re-broadcast the ONE content in SD digital. Again, this spells doom for those who currently enjoy watching dramas, comedy and other TEN shows in high definition. The network simply hasn’t fessed up on this black hole of programming.

It’s staggering to believe that in 2009 the network won’t be offering shows like NCIS, House, Idol, Neighbours and Rush in high definition. Similarly, alternate shows such as Battlestar Galactica and other TEN HD dramas are hanging in limbo until we hear where they will move.

Here’s some other excerpts from the article on where the networks are at:

TEN
Ten was the first commercial station to announce its plans for Australia’s first new commercial multi-channel – a 24-hour sports network called ONE expected to broadcast from April. Highlights will include:

• AFL (the 2009 NAB Cup, home and away season and finals, with the grand final returning in 2009);
• 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games;
• NASCAR (live coverage of Daytona 500 and Nationwide Series);
• Cricket (Indian Premier League matches);
• Golf (US Masters, US Open, Australian PGA, Ladies Masters);
• Also netball, swimming, tennis, Formula 1, NFL and the NBA.

“We see a first-mover advantage because we’re first in the market with a sports channel,” said Ten chief executive Grant Blackley. “We chose a genre where viewers would know exactly what they’re getting and we’ve picked all the crown jewels. I don’t think anyone could duplicate a sports channel with ease.

NINE
The Nine Network says its new multi-channel concept is a ‘work in progress’. “We’ll announce what we’re doing some time in the next couple of weeks,” said Les Sampson, director of acquisitions. “But our plans are definitely to launch in 2009.”

Industry sources speculated that Nine was considering launching a news or classics multi-channel. Mr Sampson confirmed Nine had looked at these options and a range of others, including lifestyle, reality and recent movies. “Nothing’s been finalised,” he said.

SEVEN
Seven is the most coy about its multi-channel plans. “We’re committed to multi-channelling. We’re ready. We’ll announce our plans shortly,” said a spokesperson.

Senior industry sources, however, say that Seven had a lifestyle channel in the pipeline that may have been overtaken by a recent seven-year deal between Foxtel and the BBC over premium lifestyle content.  Other options mooted by Seven were allegedly a Plus-Two multi-channel that re-broadcasts content on the main channel two hours later.

“Plus-Two is a very popular option,” said a senior source, who declined to be named. “The only problem is that, in my view, it’s the best way to cannibalise your audience.”

ABC
The ABC is in advanced talks with the Government about a children’s channel (working title: ABC3), to be launched within six months of the May Budget. The new standard-definition channel would broadcast from 6am to 9pm and feature drama, factual, documentaries and entertainment.

“The commitment we’ve made to the Government is that it would be 50 per cent Australian content within a few years,” said Mr Dalton. “The final decision is theirs, but we’re having quite detailed and positive discussions about it.”

Mr Dalton said the broadcaster had also put forward the idea of a 24-hour news channel.

SBS
Like the ABC, SBS already has a second standard-definition channel, SBS2, which broadcasts a partial foreign news service. In 2009, SBS hopes to upgrade it to a full comprehensive channel (working title: SBS World) to also feature international movies, drama, foreign language children’s programs and new Australian content.

“We’ve put a proposal to the Government that includes a full second channel initially and then possibly up to two more,” said SBS director of strategy and communications Bruce Marr.

Source: news.com.au

72 Responses

  1. Lots of debate……

    Labrat TEN is planning:

    10 TEN SD
    1 ONE HD (sport)
    12 TEN SD (re-broadcasts ONE HD in SD)

    Current digital set top boxes will work with Freeview, but won’t get the Freeview EPG. Only Freeview branded set top boxes get this.

  2. Ryano- While I see where you are coming from, I think it’s really pathetic that Ten are choosing to get rid of their mainstream channel in HD for sport. Yes, sport does look good in HD, but so does drama, reality shows and comedies. Everything deserves to be in HD. Ten should not be catering for “sports lovers” exclusively in HD. Therefore, the logical step should be to have the standard Channel Ten station in HD, thus, everyone, from sport lovers to drama viewers and every other genre, gets an equal amount of shows in HD. Rather than their current plan of simply having sport in HD….

  3. The whole digital TV affair in Australia is a joke. If anything, the quality of programming has got rapidly worse since digital came along.

    The stations have had years and years to develop their channels – and it’s clear they can’t even manage the one SD channel they already have with any degree of competence or audience satisfaction. And the HD channels are a waste of time and money since the good shows were sold to Foxtel – what do they have left? And who will bother with their seemingly random scheduling.

    All this means I couldn’t give a rat’s about Freeview given the currently appalling state of Australia FTA TV.

  5. So… where is the incentive for me to rush out and buy a freeview box? If that is what I even need to do. The freeview site is a bit vague about that. Will the HD set top box I already have work with it?

    “leaving its current TEN HD to become the second digital channel, which will re-broadcast the ONE content in SD digital.”

    so, this confuses me. Will there be TEN HD, TEN SD and ONE HD? Or just TEN HD and ONE HD, in which case what happens to the current TEN SD channel? If TENHD is going to be showing the ONE content in SD digitial then what is the point of it being called TEN HD when its clearly not going to be a HD station?
    *is so confused*

    In any case, its not making me want to care about having it.

  6. It really is remarkable that Ten is going through with their plan to remove TenHD. While I am not a sporting buff, I have no problem with Ten devoting their new channel to sports. In fact, good on them for being on top of the ball while Seven and Nine twiddle their fingers. But to actually remove high definition from their original channel is just plain wrong. Rather than catering for their main audience, they are now giving the HD option to a minority group who watch sport. Truly pathetic! And from the sound of things on this board, many people feel the same way. You do have to wonder if Ten did any research, focus groups, heck, even though as their audience would think before making their announcement.

    While some may not like the idea of a Plus-Two channel, honestly, I don’t hate it. I have IQ and yet still often use the +2 channels that Foxtel has to offer. I think a lot of viewers would find it useful. Though no doubt Seven will be too scared to try it, for fear that they’ll not have a full audience during the first showing…

  7. It’s a bit rich of Ten to claim that OneHD has ‘all the crown jewels’, given that it will be lacking many of Australia’s most popular sports. Rugby league, cricket (aside from a single foreign Twenty20 club tournament, which hardly qualifies as a ‘crown jewel’ compared to international cricket or even the Sheffield Shield) and the V8s all spring to mind. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if Ten makes a move when the rugby league TV rights come up for renegotiation in 2012: apparently the NRL is considering offering the regular season, the finals series and State of Origin as separate packages to push up the total price, so even if Ten doesn’t have the money for the entire league program it could still snap up Origin or something.

    I’m hoping that ABC3 gets up, because presumably that would mean that ABC2 would no longer be showing children’s shows throughout the day, and could show more documentaries and so on instead.

  8. I always considered HD most useful for sport over anything else… which is why it was sporting events that went HD before anything else. I mean seriously, what does House in HD offer over House in SD? Perhaps Sci Fi or action shows like perhaps Rush which use special effects might look better in HD but standard programming in HD is a waste compared to HD sport.

    Now that i’ve pointed out the logical to the sooks, There is viewer numbers to consider. And simply, Nascar, NFL etc etc yer HD is good for them sure, but a waste when viewer numbers would be so far down, in which case i’d prefer HD Rush and so on. But bring on the Commonwealth Games!

    I did honestly think ONE would be SD… however if they are showing LIVE sport in HD… well… I won’t argue

  10. “It’s staggering to believe that in 2009 the network won’t be offering shows like NCIS, House, Idol, Neighbours and Rush in high definition. Similarly, alternate shows such as Battlestar Galactica and other TEN HD dramas are hanging in limbo until we hear where they will move.”

    I agree with you David As much as I like sport I am concerned for the people that watch everything else in HD. Particularly the people that now are more than likely resorting to downloading.

  11. Im suprised there is such negativity to ten’s sport HD channel. I always thought sport was one of the factors driving the adoption of digital tv in this country. I mean, i agree with comments here that its a joke they are getting rid of of the channel the way it is now, but i suppose i’d be more mad if i relied on FTA networks at all to begin with. I’ve been using Channel BT for so long now im honestly not that fussed about any of this freeview stuff anyway.

  12. This is a pretty poor effort on behalf of the free to air networks. They;ve known about the 2nd SD channel for a while and yet they’re still in planning stages. I’m surprised we have to wait 4 months for One to launch, surely ten has had enouhg time.

    As for TenHD going, although I don’t have an HDSTB i do agree with the comments that they should leave TenHD and just have One in SD only. Seriously who needs HD sport?

  13. This whole Freeview thing is sounding worse and worse every week, it’s nothing but empty promises from the networks to people so they don’t go to Pay TV or the net for programming. They can hardly handle one channel of content each without screwing it up or changing their minds every week, how on earth will they work with two?

  14. I’d assume that the new multi casting channels won’t launch on January 1st but can be broadcasted something after that date.

    As much as TenHD going upsets me, I really am more interested in seeing what Nine and Seven will do with their multichannelling.

  15. Do the channels actually have to make use of the extra channel?

    Isn’t there a legal requirement of 20hrs HD a week….1HD may struggle to keep that much sport every week.

  17. I agree with Chris about his comments on the OneHD and OneSD channels being re-simulcast…

    What’s the point when Ten is part of Freeview and all Freeview tuners are HD tuners so they will effectively reduce the choice to 14 channels…

    Maybe Ten should go all out and launch another channel in addition to One…

  19. I am pretty upset at Ten HD going – A good comparison to the situation would be if the next Playstation 3 patch decided to no longer support outputting bluray movies in 1080p and you had to watch then in 576i instead.

    Why they couldn’t have one on the 2nd SD channel and keep Ten HD rebroadcasting a mix of content from the 2 I don’t know.

  20. “ONE HD from April with 24 hr sports, leaving its current TEN HD to become the second digital channel, which will re-broadcast the ONE content in SD digital.”

    I think ONE 24 hour sports channel is enough. Why waste a valuable channel by making it a duplicate of an already unpopular channel? If they left Ten HD as it is, they would have the best of both worlds. It’s puzzling.

  22. I like the idea of Nine doing a 24 hour news channel – they would of course have to fix up their content and make it less local focused but they do have good presenters and resources.

  24. So how many years have they known about the 2nd SD channel option? and most are still in the planning stage!

    Apart from ch10 (who want to piss off more people than ch9 these days) I would not be surprised if the other SD channels don’t come on line until very late in the year.

    But they are right it could cannibalise their main audiance, like the plus 2 option, which is a great idea but maybe best left to pay TV.

    It’s a joke after all this time ch9 is still a work in progress 😆

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