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More HD, movies and sport.

Those new Foxtel channels coming later this year, will be dominated by HD, themed movie channels, timeshifting and sport.

salmonAccording to a report today, the new Foxtel channels coming later this year, will be dominated by movies and sport.

Showtime could drop Showtime Greats and offer themed channels in Action, Premiere (both tipped to be HD channels), Comedy and Drama.

Movie Networks could offer Family Movie Channel, Starpix 1 and Starpix 2 (the latter two both in HD).

Also on the list of possibilities are National Geographic Wild, Lifestyle You, The Style Network, Discovery’s Turbo Max, Kids CC and 13th Street (a crime and suspense channel).

Sky News Local is also tipped.

Likely to join HD are FOX8, W and Fox Sports 1 and 2 while Sci-fi, Lifestyle You and Turbo Max will have time-shift channels.

Meanwhile, Austar is expected to roll out more than 20 new channels in November.

Most of the channels were leaked in a consumer survey earlier this year.

Source: The Australian

22 Responses

  1. I heard Movie network will simulcast their channels in HD. dont know how many tho.
    showtime splitting the channels up into genres??? how many will they have? Hope they have lotsa more movies otherwise they’ll be repeating even more than now!

  2. More movies, and sport. FOX8 and more FoxSports in HD bloody Brilliant!

    More Sci-fi channels would be a waste on the mainstream.

    Great time to be with Foxtel.

  3. I think Foxtel hinted at their new prices around a month ago and there was only a small increase but more flexible packaging options. They will always have packages as why offer channels seperately if no one ends up buying say History or Aurora? Packaging gives greater exposure. I think Foxtel has improved a hundred times over in the past year. They are able to take the risks with programming that FTV can’t. Without Foxtel we would never be able to watch shows such as True Blood, well not legally anyway

  4. Wonder what the bill will be!?

    Imagine… paying $150+ a month to view shows… where you pay $40-50-60-70 a month for the interweb and can view what ever show you’d like….. practically when ever you want…. and if you get Apple TV or a streaming device…. right onto your TV…

    Magical!

  5. Oh god no, not more stupid timeshifted channels.

    With Skynews local from what Kim Williams said on a edition of Sky Business, he hinted that Skynews local could infact take over the screens on Sky active. If that is the case, then each state that foxtel broadcasts would get one. So Sky UK could be removed altogether.

    Also I find it strange that Foxtel is creating more sports and movie channels at the expense of general entertainment. The problem is that Foxtel has essentially told those that are not big movie or sports fans to Go F*** themselves, as they are not considered important.

    I like movies, but would like to have more variety of entertainment shows. How about a general Aussie channel showing the range of dramas, comedies and mini series that have been made over the last 30+ years.

  6. this would be a good line up if this turns out to be correct, i wonder if all these channels will launch at once or over a period of weeks/months. also looking foward to the changes with sky news as well as seven, ONE and go! becoming available on satellite, like other have said i hope the remaining 4:3 channel also become 16:9.

  7. Channel Nine is the senior citz channel isnt it?
    I think one of the other reasons why Foxtel has not upgraded channels to 16×9 is because they purchase the show in a screen format.
    When Will and Grace was on Arena, it was on 4:3 and 14:9 for the widescreen eps as the channel is 4:3 format. However when the show moved to 111 Hits, it was still shown in 4:3 and 14:9 even though it was a 16:9 channel.

  8. I actually think it is a good idea to have a Pensioner Package (but leave the basic as is with Fox8 and Arena), adding in UK, Hallmark, History, W, Ovation and the possible Family Channel and Who Dunnit would cover most of there needs (if they want more then pay for it like Sport etc). Having UK, Hallmark, History, W, Ovation spread over two $16.00 packages on top of the $42.00 is a bit much, I think anyone who has a Seniors Card could get that package (like a lot of business’s give discount to Senior Card Holders), an extra 1,000 subscribers at $50.00 a month is better than them not subscribing at all.

    Then again with ABC2, SBS2, ONE, Go, and whatever 7 come up with, perhaps our Senior Citizens will find more too watch now and not really need a special package, especially when say Go has different programming to Cricket over Summer (which has been my Mum’s major complaint that in Summer all there is is Sport on the channels especially weekends).

  9. You’re never gonna please everyone, and I’m sure there are plenty of old folks who watch Fox 8. I know my pop goes for the WWE Wrestling on the weekends.

    Maybe a 10% discount would be nice for them, but at the end of it day it’s a luxury and they have to pay up like the rest of us.

  10. Wish Foxtel/Austar/Optus would come up with a package for Pensioners like my Parents, if they could have a special package so Channels like History, Ovation, UK, W and Hallmark (plus maybe the new Family Movie and Who Dunnit Channels my Mum loved those on the UK), were on then I think they would find they would pick up new subscribers in that age group.

    As that link has it, it would be 42 + 16 + 16 … so they would be saving at least 16 per month … and really those are the Channels they watched most anyway before deciding it was too much cost (be better if they could come up with a Basic for those over 60/65 really, like my Parents never watched Arena, Fox8, so take those away add the others and make it 50 a month/600 a year).

  11. Movie Network have already committed to HD – their facility was upgraded to HD last year and they have been running coming soon ads for “Movie Network HD”. (Possibly a composite channel with movies from the 3 main channels?)

  12. Cool finally some Austra news but we seriously need the remaining 4×3 channels to be updated to 16×9. Even channels like Arena and TV1 now have lots of shows in widescreen it’s about time they were able to air them in the correct format!

  13. You’re not filling me with confidence here David.

    My Foxtel contract is up in December. If they haven’t made their move by then I’ll be a sad panda. I’ll settle for all the channels to go widescreen!

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