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November 22 for 72?

David Leckie is understood to have given OzTAM of 8 weeks notice in the readiness to launch Seven's new digital channel.

seven 008November 22.

That’s the date being tipped for Seven’s new digital channel after CEO David Leckie gave OzTAM formal notice of the launch last week.

Leckie reportedly sent a letter to OzTAM giving eight weeks’ notice of the launch on November 22 so that ratings would be available for the channel’s first broadcasts. GO! missed out breakout ratings in its first weeks because it failed to provide ample notice of the new channel.

While the signal would be located on channel 72, sources said it would not necessarily be called 72.

Seven’s corporate affairs spokesperson Simon Francis, said yesterday the network still intended to announce its plans for multi-channelling “soon.”

“While we can understand the speculation, we’ll maintain a polite silence until we choose to release our plans,” he said.

Sources said several media buyers had been briefed informally about a general entertainment channel that would feature programs previously shown on Seven, such as Ugly Betty and 24, as well as blocks of younger-skewed programming provided by Disney.

Official demographic details of the channel have not been revealed, but it is expected to program against the other free-to-air channels in a bid to split audiences for their popular shows, with some specualtion it could target a similar audience to GO!

Previous industry rumours have swirled about everything from lifestyle to movies and general entertainment.

Seven is also understood to have registered several names including PLUS7 and 7PLUS, amongst others.

Launching on November 22nd would give Seven just one week of extra audience in the official ratings year, which ends on November 28th.

Source: The Australian

40 Responses

  1. David, it appears Kim Williams has confirmed that both the new 7 and 9 channels will be on Foxtel cable Tues Nov 24, 2 days after 7(2) launches on Sun Nov 22. GO on ch 129, but no confirmed number yet for 7(2).

  2. Jim, what i find amusing is that people like yourself, think that its just the way it is, and nothing can be changed.
    Your the reason that government, large companies and others get away with sh?t that they do, no i dont think my comments alone did much, others on this site had said similar things about channel 7 not us alone did anything, and you think some exec at 7 dont have the office boy/girl check this and other sites,
    probably advertisers, dcbde, other media even rival tv stations were wondering when. i bet even channel 7s own staff were, most of us were wondering when, but seemingly not you
    never did i make this personal, but you have

  3. TVfan,
    7HD will similucast the 7SD channel from what I have seen in the advance guides for nextw eek I assume this is so they can prepare the second digital channel, similar to what Nine did?

    But I had a look in the TV week guide today and next week they have a movie listed on 7HD in primetime, Disney’s Hercules, I think it’s a Tuesday or Wednesday night, can anyone confirm if the movie thing they’re doing on 7HD will still continue?

  4. O yeah, forgot about the night cap! Too long ago to remember! But still, it was a 7HD program, which gives hope that 7 do invest in aussie productions for its multichannels. Hopefully though it’d be a scripted program as it’d prob have a better chance at survival in the long run.

  5. Just checked the tv guide and it looks like from next week channel 7 is stopping showing different content on 7HD. It will just broadcast the same content from the 7SD to 7HD.
    Can someone confirm this ?

  6. great choice. Ch9 had a huge bookcase filled with great shows that we all wanted to see, and now have the chance. Ch7’s bookcase might be smaller, but i’d say the programs are way better! Commission a great aussie program for a Wednesday night staple, bring back all those ‘niche’ US programming that ch7 think dont have large appeal, and the channel could give GO! a run for its money. Also, launching right at the end of the year will help, as they wont be directly under the spotlight ratings wise. Even if it does overtake GO in audience share, its not going to happen in an instant, so letting it build over summer will make for an interesting Feb!
    So is the Aussie Open as a whole on that anti-whatever list, or can some of it be shown on a mulichannel first? I wonder if this years open will be in HD?

    i think its possible ‘ch72’ will commission aussie programming, or at least An aussie program . 7HD was the first commercial mulitchannel to commission its own program with This Is Your Laugh wasn’t it?

  7. If it is to be similar to Go that is really diappointing. Multichannelling was supposed to deliver more choice and a greater variety of programmes to viewers. We do not need another channel that will show almost exclusively American programmes, almost all of which have already been screened elsewhere. At least with One, Ten has sought to do something different, although at the moment it is full of sports no one in this country is interested in. SBS’s new offerings are pretty pathetic, but that’s really the government’s fault. As for the ABC, things were looking promising, but now we’re told all three channels will broadcast children’s programmes for much of the day.

  8. There has been much speculation about why Seven has procrastinated with it’s second channel – the popular theory was that they were just waiting to see what TEN and Nine did and then go with whatever rated best.

    TEN decided on the riskier all sports station and Nine played it very safe and just whipped out sitcoms from the past and shows that target the teen market exclusively.

    No surprise that Seven has decided to go the “GO!” route. It’s cheaper than ONE and will give them the added 2-4% to really kick the other stations out of the stadium!

    I for one would love to see shows like Ugly Betty, 24, Boston Legal, 30 Rock, Arrested Development, Golden Girls, Murder She Wrote etc – and this sort of programming will definitely give GO! some competition!

  9. Great news that it will be a bit of an entertainment channel. Love also they are putting disney stuff on there. I wonder if they will get Kyle XY, Secret life of an American Teenager and Greek?

    Also it will be fantastic to finally see Ugly Betty. I just hope they start off where they finished. I bet we will also see repeats of our favourites like Housewives, Greys, Prison Break, Heroes, Hopefully the final season of Stargate Atlantis as well.

  10. if they have access to younger disney shows i hope they replay the cartoon “gargoyles”, this was one of my favourite cartoons as a child, i would love to watch it again.

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