What’s happened to HD?
Our HD programmers seem to have taken a break for the holidays too. Forget about looking for alternative schedules from the commercial networks.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Programming on HD channels has taken a holiday at some networks, with fleeting attention by networks to provide decent alternative viewing.
On some days next week on TEN HD there is only 3 hours of dedicated programming. On other days there is none.
Evening HD programming has dried up over summer on TEN, with no alternatives once provided by shows like Monk, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Torchwood, Eureka and The X Files. Those shows have now either concluded, without being replaced, or simply stopped.
When TEN HD was announced by TEN it promised “50 hours per week of programming viewers won’t see on the main TEN channel.”
Elsewhere, 7HD will only offer 3-4 hours alternative programming in the evenings from Monday January 5. It will feature titles such as Urban Legends, The Grid, Dr. Danger, Gear plus documentaries and repeats of Lost, Alias, Scrubs and Heroes. Its afternoon HD programming appears to have been demoted in favour of tennis, but its evening HD programming interrupts the sport from around 9:30pm.
Nine’s HD programming is largely unchanged, with alternate programming from around 10:30pm with shows like Nip / Tuck, The Ellen deGeneres Show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and repeats of Weeds and Stingers. Friday and Saturday nights are without any HD offerings.
That leaves the public broadcasters as the only true ‘alternative’ channels on Free to Air, though neither ABC2 nor SBS Digital are high definition. ABCs provides constant alternate programming, including its themed nights such as Arts and Music (Sundays), Drama (Tuesdays) and Comedy (Thursdays). ABC HD remains a high definition re-broadcast of ABC1.
SBS Digital maintains its ethnic news bulletins from around 5am – midnight.
From January 1st the three commercial networks are allowed to broadcast their second digital channel. TEN promises its new sports channel ONE HD to launch around April.
But if summer HD programming is anything to go by, some could be struggling to fill their new offerings with content.
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- Tagged with Alias, Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Danger, Eureka, Gear, Heroes, Lost, Monk, Nip / Tuck, ONE HD, Scrubs, Smallville, Stingers, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Grid, The X Files, Torchwood, Urban Legends, Weeds
39 Responses
i’m not going to complain, i think a 9,7,10HD should be exactly that, a HD version of 7, 9, and 10.
when 2nd SD channels come out then i will expect new shows.
P.S. does anyone know what 9 has planned for their 2nd SD. 10 has sport, 7 has heaps of shows in the cupboard/summer shows that don’t rate well enough for ratings, but 9?
all the shows i thought they were going to air they sold to foxtel or they have ruined it too much to ever see the light of day. i’m assuming they will fill it with more repeats.
After all the hype, digital TV is almost a complete waste of time in this country. Better picture quality is about the only positive aspect to it, otherwise where’s all this extra content? The way it’s going, the FTA channels may as well shut down their HD channels completely – with nothing on them, why bother? I’m glad I only bought an SD box for my TV.
Ellis:
The final episode of Justice League Unlimited is been shown at 1:30 AM on NineHD on Thursday 8th January 2009. The late night scheduling of cartoon series by Nine, has also been inconsistent (on one week, off the next week or two).
I don’t know why Nine bothered to show Justice League Unlimited and Xiaolin Showdown, since the skipped the first two seasons of both series.
Yep, digital TV in this country is a joke. Ten HD has been especially disappointing seeing as they hyped it up so much with “50 hours of exclusive content you won’t see on the main channel”. What’s more, they promised extra content for Big Brother, The Biggest Loser, Australian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. There was absolutely no additional content for any of these shows. I paid 400 dollars on a PVR in anticipation for extra Big Brother content when there was none! The only program I have used it for all year was Battlestar Galactica. I have never had the need to record anything. It pisses me off so much, just thinking about all that wasted money.
i expected this to happen. and i can understand.
when multichanneling is allowed the HD chanels will become less of a second network and more of a HD version of the original network. this period now is just setting up for the change. and holding ammunition for second networks.
in the losng run i guess this will benefit viewers.
The thing that annoys me is that Digital television has been around since 2001. Almost 8 years of Digital tv, and only now is the government allowing the FTA networks to broadcast different content on the extra digital channels. It’s silly, I mean we could have had an established digital network of different stations by now, and yet instead we’re only just beginning. How on earth did the Aust government expect the majority of people to switch to digital by 2008 if they offered no incentive. No wonder they had to increase the deadline by 5 years.
Abc Two is ok if you’re into their kind of programming, for me though i only find it of little use, however if I was a young kid i’d have loved it because it’s pretty much abc for kids all day untill prime time.
Making the ‘new’ HD channels availible to those only with hd stbs was silly aswell, surely they gov’t could have allowed them to simulcast those channels on the respective networks spare digital channel.
Freeview is nothing more than a marketing tool to see DVR boxes, which don’t even allow ad skipping.
Bindi is correct, Ten’s winding down TenHD in the hope of making people forget that there used to be alternate HD programming on Ten. But what will their viewers with HDTVs make of the discovery, come April, that nothing on Ten at all will be seen in HD again? Considering almost all US production and a vast amount of Australian production is in HD (including Ten’s own Rush and Neighbours) that’s a big sacrifice to make in favour of obscure imported sport that nobody really wants. Freeview’s misleading advertising has people thinking TenHD will keep running next year. It will not. It is dead. It will vanish come April, if not sooner.
As for Smallville, according to one report (which I have not been able to verify) Ten has sold Smallville on to Foxtel.
Nine, meanwhile, has on-sold many shows, a bizarre decision given that they would have been perfect to fill the schedule of a new second digital channel. That implies that Nine’s plans for that channel are somewhat more mediocre (and comments from Nine HQ seem to confirm that). Imagine a “quality” alternate Nine with shows like Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Terminator, Gossip Girl, Studio 60 etc etc, all plugged on the main channel as a fresh choice – “Nine, the home of quality entertainment” etc etc. Well, it ain’t going to happen now.
so now city folk can experience what us country bumkins have been with digital channels-nothing
The FTA’s are treating us like pieces of Crap when it comes to the new Digital & HD Age, by staying in the stone age when it comes to Digital & HD.
My guess is the FTA want people to join up to the PayTV Generation.. or they are focusing on that upcoming disaster known as Australian Freeview!
ABC HD isn’t always a simulcast of ABC1 — since ABCHD is national but ABC1 is state-specific, sometimes you get different programming (or no programming, in the case of the state’s news broadcast). And during the Paralympics, ABCHD was an HD simulcast of ABC2. (Which, given ABC2’s low bitrate, was very welcome indeed.)
I may be showing signs of geekiness here, but NineHD was showing the last season of Justice League Unlimted, they were up to the second last episode last week, but did not play the last episode this week, nor is it scheduled next week. I was really getting into it and am upset they’re not showing the last episode!
It’s kind of pathetic the networks have been taking a break with these channels. Why not starting programming in marathons of new series? A sort of Summer catch up time for viewers who may have missed out. Or at the very least put on some movies now and again….
Even in tne event there was no new content, which of course there isn’t, whats stopping them from replaying some of the HD content?
I’m sure there are pretty of people who would have missed a lot of the HD content when it first aired, thru lack of equipment.
although having a sports channel is a good idea this will mean there will be no hd programming on ten other than sports. shows such as law and orders, house, movies etc. that are currently shown in hd will only be available on ten sd as all of the hd channel will be sport.
Well in Tasmania there is (almost) no alternative programming at all only at midnight on win HD there is a show and a repeat of Ellen. 😐
Good. I’ve always maintained these ‘breakaway’ HD channels are a dumb idea. As more and more ‘top-shelf’ (and I use that term very, very loosely) content is filmed in HD, simulcasting this onto the HD channel (ie how it was a couple of years ago) is a better idea than dumping unwatched programming onto there.
So of the promises “15 channels” how much will we really get in 2009.
Ch7 has a few shows on their HD “Break away” but mostly old re-runs, ch9 has a few things which differ from the main channel, as does ch10 (until ONE starts) but none of this is promoted so unless you have a HD box and keep checking you would never know what is out there, the on screen and printed guides are a joke.
ABC 2 has different content and does SBS so until ONE starts we’ll still have just 7 channels with a spattering from 7, 9 and 10, so much for the promised 15 channels, maybe in 2010?
Obviously the people that are “the best in television” think that the general public deserve stuff all.
David, I would love a list of unaired shows/eps held by networks – they probably have enough content to fill 15 channels non stop for 6 months.
“…struggling to fill their new offerings with content.” You better believe it!
I feel sorry for all those households who have spent (wasted?) thousands of dollars to watch the lotto draw and weather forecast in widescreen with surround sound. I hope they have been able to impress their friends for a few minutes at least.
I was happy to buy a SD box for $45 the other day to watch the occasional digital show not available on free-to-air (generally ABC2). Connect it to my old CRT big tv and enjoy the same content with less blur and a brighter picture!
They should have auctioned off the digital licences to encourage new players/competition. The fact that they haven’t given local community tv a digital licence is a travisty given they produce more fresh local content across Australia than the so called professional commercial channels combined!
Struggling to fill new offerings with content?
I think it’s more a case of Ten and Seven pretty much giving up/winding down their HD channels as they get ready to launch their brand new channels “one” and sevens yet to be named channel
I think 100 pay channels out there and all the shows on network shelves make it pretty obvious there is more than enough content
I was starting to like TEN HD a lot as it is the channel i was 95% of the time. However, i have recently begun watching 7HD. It offers better stuff. I’ma gonna miss ten hd though :(.
“But if summer HD programming is anything to go by, some could be struggling to fill their new offerings with content.”
It’s no struggle. The networks are just not interested in providing new options to their viewers. And as a result they will continue to die slowly as their viewers move to other entertainment (PayTV, Internet, XBOX, PS3, Wii, DVD, Bittorent)
“TEN promises its new sports channel ONE HD to launch around April.”
And in doing so there will be no more Drama being broadcast in HD on TEN.
well we know why 10HD has disappeared to make way for ONE, come the new year even the docos are gone, all that is left is sport. what viewers would have liked to see is them burning off shows and getting as many as possible out to air before the take over -like smallville season 8, 2nd half of BSG season 4 or eureka season 3, but in order to stop people being totally outraged at the loss of these shows to a 24/7 sport channel they are trying to separate the two events so that people don’t realise the connection. so that when ONE takes over they can spin it like we are not losing anything (besides picture quality on every single 10 show that is) and only gaining something, but some of us know the truth, if ONE was not planned they would have found replacements for those timeslots when the seasons came to an end rather than just going back to simulcasting.
glad to hear 7 is still going ahead with those shows the week 2 advanced guide has nothing at all high-lighted in blue so i thought they were stopping too, must have just been a mistake.
Makes me wonder what alternate programing they will offer, we may have 15 FTA channels in the new year but at least 6 of them will be just copies of the main 3. With the variety and holiday marathon specials offered on PayTV there is no way FTA can compete with that!
Instead of the movies why didn’t 7, 9 and 10 show xMas eps of shows they already own, new and old?
David, with your innmumerable contacts are you able to please find out when SC10 will be re-transmitting 10HD completely instead of the dribs and drabs regional viewers get at the moment. And the same for WIN which isn’t showing the cricket in HD to the frustration of many. Thanks.