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Nine to launch ‘entertainment channel’

Nine has finally confirmed plans for its multi-channelling, with a general entertainment channel launching in the second half of the year.

wehearttvWe have lift off. The Nine Network has finally confirmed plans for its multi-channelling, with a general entertainment free-to-air digital channel launching in the second half of the year.

“Yes. It will be an original channel,” Nine CEO Mr Gyngell told The Australian. “It will be stand-alone, not just time-shifted.”

The announcements shoots rumours of a time-shifted channel dead in the water. Gyngell indicated that while it could work as part of the strategy, time-shifting was not a strong enough basis for an entire channel.  Clearly, that’s because it cannibalises your flagship channel. Why watch CSI at 8:30 when you can watch it at 10:30?

Industry sources speculated that the channel could look like a cross between general entertainment pay-TV channels TV1 and FOX8 plus some lifestyle programming.

But Nine has also on-sold a number of shows including Chuck,  Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Gossip Girl (which it retains via re-broadcast rights).  And as we know there is a string of Nine shows we have all been waiting to see: Survivor, Weeds, Nip / Tuck, ER. Damages (S1) is also coming to pay television. Maybe this channel is where the uninspiring Superstars of Dance will land too.

“You want to be very careful of what sort of content (you put on your digital channels),” said Gyngell.

“You don’t want to flood the market with inventory. Delivering to our advertisers — that’s our primary focus.”

Nine is also in negotiations to renew its output deal with Warner Bros, which provides shows such as Two and a Half Men, Without a Trace and Cold Case.

With ONE launching this week in HD and SD, this now leaves Seven as the last of the three big commercial FTAs to announce plans for its multi-channelling.

Seven had already indicated it would announce plans within the month.

Source: The Australian

58 Responses

  1. I’m a big fan of australian made products and disappointed that nine hasnt even mention any australian own shows.. why dont they reconsider and have a channel dedicated to australian products only, so what if they are repeats of good old australian shows.. we are already paying for repeat episodes of shows with foxtel so whats the differance here..

    channel 10 and channel 7 should also do the same, If I was the prime leader of all this I would certainly make it compulsive that each channel provider has one channel just for australian products…

    example: channel 7. blue heelers (old episodes of cause), deal or n deal, home and away and such.. with new currant australian shows

    example: channel 9. water rats (old episodes of cause), nrl footy show, today show, stingers (old episodes of cause). with new currant australian shows

    example channel 10 god knows what they have most of it on ten is sports any way

    this would defintely draw in the australian public and might get the aussies back to free to air tv instead of watching pay tv commercials all the time

  2. Survivor, Gossip Girl, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Weeds, Damages, Nip/Tuck, E.R., Fringe, Gordon Ramsey – All are better shows than anything currently shown on Channel 9, particularly Survivor, Gossip Girl and Curb Your Enthusiasm. These all need to be shown on the new entertainment channel. Repeats of Seinfeld are also welcome.

    I’m guessing this will mean that Channel 7 will launch a lifestyle channel. I don’t really care, as long as ONE keeps showing 24-hour sport, I’ll be happy.

  3. @ Chris, i agree with everything you said, i also want to point out that Australia has a “locked-down” tv network, ie only ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine & network 10 are allowed to provide more channels, and also the D44 trial in Sydney which i think ends late this year so those channels may disappear as well buy the end of the year.

    meaning that other networks example the BBC or ITV or virgin media coming into the australian market on a free to air basis insn’t going to happen., im not saying that we would get 50 channels wanting to come into this country straign way but over time who knows

    u have to rmember discovery just launched a free to air channel on freeview in the uk. so i wish that we would see a free to air discovery channel in this oz but its not going to happen any time soon unless laws are change, does anyone agree with me?

  4. Shane, is it really what the people want or are they just watching the best of the crap because there is nothing else on. I think what Teddy Bar means when he says “insulting the viewer” is generally the bad acting and storylines, who makes this stuff and why? All I can say is Charlie Sheen and Hugh Laurie (best known for Blackadder) must be getting well paid. The UK version of “Life on Mars?” was far superior than the US version, all due respect for Harvey Keitel who is a great actor.

    Sure, UK TV would have its fair share of US TV but I think the majority of content is locally made. That is how it should be here and shows like Underbelly are a good example that it can be done. At least British TV and to some extent Australian TV has some reality to it rather then just glamourous actors in unreal situations with unreal storylines.

  5. Teddy Bär, i agree that we should have a more content from different places on tv,. to quote u “I do think that 80% of American shows shown here are crap.” i do as well but most of those show get high raiting, ie: brothers and sisters on 7, which i will never watch because its not my type of show but it works for 7. also could u tell me what u mean when u say “insulting to the viewer.”, because there is nothing wrong with nudity or crime on tv, if u dont want to watch it, just turn it off, u are asking for more choice(ie, uk show) and if u mean to take shows of the air that u find insulting, its that taking choice off me.

    Yes, at the end of the day it all comes down to money, ie. the cost of buying the programs, and thats also why i have foxtel to have more choice so im not stuck with the ABC,SBS,Seven, Nine & TEN but i do agree that we shouldnt have to pay for tv to watch shows from the uk or where ever.

    Also i have never lived in uk to see there freeview but yeah i wish the FTA networks here could on day give us the choice of channels they have. like foxtel here without having to pay, even better foxtel could just give us something like freesat from sky so at least it would give “tv provides access to the australian market, reply?

  6. Shane,
    I would respectfully disagree Quote “theres so much tv from the USA because thats what people want” End Quote.

    I am not saying that we, I, do not want shows from the US. I do think that 80% of American shows shown here are crap and insulting to the viewer.

    In the end it comes down to a captive audience with a lot of trash on all the channels and economics i.e. A lot will do with the cost of buying the programs and I would not be surprised if J.B. HiFi is any indication then the British shows are somewhere around twice the cost of the US shows.

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