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ONE HD: SC10 & Foxtel ‘fess up

Updated: So will regional and Foxtel viewers be getting ONE next week? TV Tonight puts the hard questions to Southern Cross and Foxtel.

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onehdidUPDATED: ONE may be launching next week to city viewers but regional television viewers will be waiting until mid year to see the new 24hr sports channel on Southern Cross Television.

Greg Dodgson, Chief Operating Officer for Macquarie Southern Cross Media, told TV Tonight the delay was caused by extensive changes to upgrade its facilities to 23 markets.

“We still haven’t built our infrastructure and we’re still testing to be able to carry it across all the sub-markets and towns in our broadcast footprint,” he said.

“We’re committed to carrying ONE but we’re still in a testing phase. And we’re still building to be able to put it across the 23 markets that we’re going to carry it in.

“It’s likely to be the middle of the year, which is not far away.”

So far some Southern Cross viewers are seeing high definition testing pictures.

“What you’re getting on the HD service is pretty pictures from around the country. It’s what we call a loop tape. That’s our programming that we’re putting out the moment because we’re building the infrastructure and testing to carry ONE.”

But not all regional viewers (ie. Central Australia) will wind up getting ONE because government regulation only requires the  HD signal in specific markets.

“There’s not a requirement to broadcast in HD in those areas and you can appreciate the cost involved in broadcasting. We’re not going to put it any further afield then we’ve got to,” he conceded.

TV Tonight has made available maps of four key regional markets: in Queensland(Aggregate market A), Northern NSW (Aggregate market B), Southern NSW (Aggregate market C) and Victoria (Aggregate market D). Tasmania and Darwin maps were not supplied.

In tight economic times Dodgson concedes the arrival of ONE is a taxing challenge.

“The metros (TEN) have only got to put out in 5 markets. This takes my Playout Centre that I look after from 35 to 63 Channels. There’s nothing like it in the rest of Australia. It’s just substantial.”

SC 10 says when the time comes it will be promoting the start date on-air and in its regular program guides.

Meanwhile Foxtel, which no doubt views a 24 hour sports channel as direct competition, says the onus on adding extra channels is dependent on channels covering the costs of adding to satellite capacity. Each network has separate retransmission deals.

Foxtel cable viewers who have the IQ2 and currently receive TEN HD will be able to access ONE HD.

Until an extra satellite is launched later this year, satellite viewers in other cities will be kept waiting.

“Currently Foxtel cable subscribers have access to all FTA standard definition and FTA HD channels via Foxtel, including TEN SD and TEN HD,” said a Foxtel spokesperson. “Any additional channels launched by the FTA channels will be available to cable customers subject to each channel’s retransmission agreement.”

Until an agreement is reached over costs, the standard digital version of ONE will not be available to Foxtel viewers either.

“In relation to satellite Foxtel customers, Optus will be launching a new satellite later this year – providing additional capacity – and we may retransmit the additional Channel TEN channels subject to Channel TEN agreeing to cover the cost of obtaining the satellite capacity to retransmit its new channels.”

UPDATED 16 March: Greg Dodgson has qualified statements made in relation to SC10 owned markets (Aggregate Markets A, B, C, D) over markets that are shared with other companies (including Tasmania and Darwin). Contrary to earlier information there is a requirement to broadcast HD into Tasmania and Darwin, however they are not fully owned SC10 stations. This means Tasmanian and Darwin viewers WILL get ONE in HD on SC10 at the same time as other markets.

“I’m confident they’ll get them in the middle of the year like other viewers but we don’t fully own that signal,” said Dodgson.

SC10 also has no plans for its secondary digital channel.

“When we broadcast ONE HD in the middle of the year it will come out as HD. But we don’t have any plans yet with our SD2 channel.”

TV Tonight apologises for any confusion (particularly for Tassie & Darwin viewers!) in the ever-changing landscape that is digital television! Please note in order to avoid further confusion, previous comments relating to these markets will be deleted.

104 Responses

  1. macca, you could get a PVR

    SC10 will likely show the same amount of sport as was in 2008 as Ten will carry it on Ten SD (10) which SC10 (5) feed off.

    ONE viewers will just get a dedicated channel in addition and more live events than Ten/SC10

  2. agree with Allista. This is absolutely bollocks that again Tasmanians are treated like second class citizens by all TV carriers (SC, WIN and Austar). It is such a stupid decision when Tasmania has about 75% uptake of digital television.

  4. @Craig, I’m with you mate. Once again F1 fans get screwed. Here goes another year of sitting up ’til 1 or 2am to watch the races. I’m not holding my breath for their mid-year start for the regionals. No wonder people are abandoning commercial TV in droves…

  5. Great to have some answers or at least something sounding close to having answers rather then nothing at all in relation to SC10 and ONEHD. I get the feeling that local commercials may be the real reason for regional multi-chanelling hold backs as opposed to infrastructure issues and suggest one possible solution is to have a generic feed with a combination of national ad campaigns and network promotions to remove the need for local ads in the short term. Then each regional network could add in the ads in their own time and have ONEHD on their HD channel rather than scenery.

  6. Gotta make a comment on this one…The Queensland map shows Monto (west of Bundaberg) as being in the distribution area to receive One, however we’re actually serviced by a signal translater at the Mulgildie Plateau site which SC10 has so far not upgraded to digital, despite the work originally being planned for July 2008 (so I was advised in October 2007). The only signal we have access to in Monto is the snowy analogue signal.

    In May 2008 after a couple of emails to SC10, they conceded that “due to a number of factors including equipment availability” that the service wouldn’t be up and running until December 2008. Here we sit in March 2009 and SC10 is not answering any more of my emails to advise when they now expect the service to be active, while they rake in the advertising dollars with Harvey Norman screaming at us that digital has arrived and we should all buy a large panel.

    Though I will give SC10 a couple of concessions – at least they answered a couple of my emails (WIN does not), and at least they have an email address (Seven Qld does not).

  8. Thanks David for clarification on the colored maps, Just a pity sports fans will be left in the dark until ‘mid-year’ just because they can’t place the ads into the programing, seams like a cop-out to me when they have been running without ads for well over a year now!

    BTW what is ‘mid-year’ is it anything like ‘coming soon’ or ‘fast-track’ which are nice terms but meaningless. Mid year could mean before September?

  9. it better not take ten 5 years to come to an agreement over cost with one like it did with their main channel, by the way 7 still havn’t come to an agree with retransmission on optustv.

  10. Which gets back to the question of “Is Digital TV a con?” Of course it is. They wouldn’t be able to sell HD televisions without the lure of HD content. The loops on WIN and SC10 have been going on longer than 12 months. I bought my first digital tv way back in 2001 and the Canadian countryside on WIN was exactly the same back then. That’s eight years they have had to sort this crap out and have done SFA about it. Me thinks that there may be a case here of false advertising and deceptive practice which could be brought before the courts.

  11. SC Ten will not be showing One by mid-year. This is exactly the same promise I got out of them (in Canberra at least) last year regarding TenHD and the HD only programming. Nothing has happened on that front, they simulcast ordinary Ten programming if Ten does, but still do not/can not show TenHD only programming.

    Bindi , SC in Tasmania are a 7/10 re-broadcaster. Ten content is being moved to TDT (digital only, but being jointly operated by WIN and SC its unlikely to take up One), and SC in Tasmania will show Seven programming. Hence, SC has no rights to no One, on either SD or HD. They should end up showing SevenHD – but probably won’t. Tasmania only has two commercial networks on analogue. WIN as a Nine affiliate, Southern Cross as a 7/10 affiliate moving to a pure Seven basis (except, for this year at least, with 10’s AFL broadcasts). I’m not sure in what SC broadcast in Darwin, but from a quick look on Wikipedia it looks like SC in Darwin is going through the same thing as in Tasmania. i.e. going from being a 7/10 affiliate to being a 7 only affiliate, while Ten programming goes onto a digital only (DDT) platform. SC therefore do not, as SC at least, have any responsibility for OneHD or OneSD. Both TDT and DDT have some SC ownership, along with the local Nine affiliate.

  12. i correct my statement about sc10 and foxtel finally giving info on one as it sound like you sough them out not the other ways around, if you hadn’t asked them i wonder when sc10 and foxtel would have released this info as there isn’t much time left till launch, they probably would have just let viewers find out for them selves on march 26

  13. Being more awake now than I was when i first commented – SC are full of it. They were always able to show programs on SC Ten HD (Ch 50) when the programme was available in HD (NCIS, House etc). They showed the Superbowl. They had that ‘MyTalk’ crap on a second SD Channel a few years ago. Which would indicate to me that they do indeed have the ability to broadcast both a HD channel and a second SD Channel.

    I’ve heard a few mentions (including a comment on this article) that the delay is due to their inability to insert advertising into the feed – surely can’t be that hard if they can manage to do it with the regular ten feed. Maybe if they pulled their heads out of their a***s they could figure it out!

  14. The coloured areas on those maps are the markets that are regulated to show HD, therefore they are the 23 areas that SC 10 intends to show ONE in HD by mid year.

    Peta, thanks for the Syd IQ2 info, you’re more accurate than my Foxtel source! I must admit researching this story was a bit of a nightmare. I trust ultimately it has been of some help to those desperate for answers.

    Sameer there is no ONE SD earlier on SC 10 as far as I know.

  15. those in the regional markets must get so annoyed always hearing about the mutichannels but never getting to see them, their pretty much saying screw you to those customer who will never receive one as it cheaper not to give you access, just shows they care more about profits than their viewers
    i wish foxtel could carry onesd from the beginning so i could at least watch it on the second tv in the kitchen which does not have a digital tuner but has foxtel if someone else is watching the tv in the lounge, at least sc10 and foxtel have finally cleared up if they could be carry one or not even if its bad news although they could have told us this earlier than one week before launch.

  16. Well that doesn’t surprise anyone with sc10, if they cant get there act together on HD why dont they show ONE on similcast on SD in regional areas. We have 2 SD channels here in gippsland on channel 5 and 55 so I dont see why 1 of them can’t be showing ONE from the start.
    SC10 need to get off there backsides and start looking after the people that have made them what they are today as if theyd didnt hae the regional support from people they would not exist………..

  18. If the Loop we’re seeing at the moment is (in Canberra) is because “building the infrastructure and testing to carry ONE” then what was it doing for the last 12 months before ONE existed? Sounds like a load to me.

    SC were perfectly capable of showing the Superbowl and endless HD loops but rebroadcasting ONE is a technical challenge that requires further testing? Please. Sounds more like SC has agreed to tow the Freeview line and talk circles and never give any legit answers.

  19. Over the credits of ‘Ice Age: The Meltdown’ that was on SC Ten last night, we got a lovely 2-3 minute promo about One HD starting in 12 days time. Obviously, its not, and this promo was intended for Ten viewers – it’d be nice if SC Ten could have inserted some other show promos over the top of that one!

  20. thanks for seeking clarification from SC, David. It’s nice to know that they will carry One eventually.

    Whilst I can appreciate the fact that they have a lot more regions to broadcast into than Ten does, they’ve had many years to get moving on this. Hopefully they can get it up and running by mid-year/

  22. “It’s likely to be the middle of the year, which is not far away.”

    It is when you want to see the extended Australian F1 coverage in 2 weeks time!

    And what infrastructure? Here in the WideBay area we’ve had their “pretty pictures from around the country” test 10HD on ch50 and 2nd 10 SD on ch55 for well over a year, flick a switch and it would be on here!

    As for Foxtel well that is only available in areas most likely to get ONE HD, regional areas use Austar will still be left out! And we have NO access to 7, 9 or 10 only ABC1&2 and SBS.

    BTW what do those maps mean? they have pretty colours but no info as to what they mean…

  23. I don’t believe SC10 for a moment. The reason for the delay is they haven’t the ability to put local commercials into the 1HD feed. They have already shown that they can relay the 10HD signal without any problems.

  24. Thanks David for finally breaking the wall of silence that SC was putting up. As a regional viewer it is so annoying to constantly have to listen to excuse after excuse as to why we cannot have access to the same HD broadcasts as capital city markets,yet we have no problem getting the same SD broadcasts.

    What i would like to see is Foxtel or another player/s come into the market as a fourth FTA commercial entity and have all the other FTA commercials (7,9,10,WIN,Prime,SC ) stripped of their channels ( both SD & HD ) if they do not or cannot supply actual programming content 24/7 – not loops of barns in the countryside – to all or individual markets.

    I know i didn’t buy a HD set to look at the same barn over and over again. In this day and age there is no reason why any market should not have access to the same content as everyone else. Funniest thing is these guys wonder why their viewers are in decline. Now lets see what WIN and Prime are going to do.

  25. @David, did you ask them ask if they will broadcasting ONE in standard definiton any earlier on SC10. Thanks for getting some answers though.

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