7TWO to launch November 1st
It's official. Seven's new digital channel 7TWO will be a broad entertainment channel with new seasons of Lost, Ugly Betty, Heroes and 24.
- Published by David Knox
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Channel Seven has unveiled its free-to-air digital channel 7TWO, a broad entertainment channel set to launch on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 12noon on Channel 72.
Channel Seven’s Director of Programming and Production Tim Worner said, “I am pleased to announce that 7TWO will be the new home for premiere episodes of our international hits including J.J Abrams’ Lost, Ugly Betty, Heroes and 24,” said Worner.
“We’ve been strategic in putting together a program schedule for 7TWO that allows us to grow our audience between our two channels, without sacrificing one for the other. It is a complementary relationship that will go from strength to strength maximising the opportunities for our audience and clients.”
Other titles including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Murphy Brown will screen on the channel alongside new, primetime episodes of The Jay Leno Show, five nights a week.
7TWO will feature British television including A Touch of Frost, Prime Suspect, Judge John Deed, Rosemary & Thyme and Minder to premiere episodes of motoring hit Fifth Gear, Heartbeat, Holby Blue, Benidorm, Gavin & Stacey and Britain’s Best Dish.
Additional themed nights of programming include Action & Adventure, Lifestyle and Movies with family titles from Disney’s studios.
Cooking programmes include Jamie Oliver, Curtis Stone, Rick Stein, Ainsley Harriott and Gary Rhodes on Monday to Friday afternoons.
There are new and classic programs – including Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Shortland Street, The Martha Stewart Show, Home and Away: The Early Years, Sons and Daughters, Magnum PI and Moonlighting – complete the channel’s daytime schedule.
Channel Seven also announced popular television presenter Tom Williams as the face of 7TWO.
“What I love about 7TWO is the great mix of the new and classic. I’m a big Leno fan so it will be great to be able catch that on a daily basis. And I can’t wait to see how the last season of Lost unravels,” he said.
“It’s fair to say I’ll be booking in some extra time on the couch. I can’t wait for it all to kick off.”
To watch 7TWO, tune into channel 72 on a high definition digital television or on analogue or standard definition digital television connected to a digital set top box.
Website now live: http://au.tv.yahoo.com/seven-two/
With Week 1 Tv Guide http://au.tv.yahoo.com/seven-two/schedule/article/-/article/6373630/
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- Tagged with 24, A Touch of Frost, Benidorm, Britain’s Best Dish, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Fifth Gear, Gavin & Stacey, Heartbeat, Heroes, Holby Blue, Home and Away: The Early Years, Judge John Deed, Lost, Magnum PI, Minder, Moonlighting, Murphy Brown, Prime Suspect, Rosemary & Thyme, Shortland Street, Six Feet Under, Sons and Daughters, The Jay Leno Show, The Martha Stewart Show, The Sopranos, Ugly Betty
199 Responses
Let’s just hope that SCT in Tas secures this for the same launch time, and pronto!
what a great thing to come home to, i just finished my last uni exam this morning.
wow. so it really is a full on channel. with the lack of info we had i was staring to think it would just be a glorified 7HD breakaway type thing with repeats and cheap imported factuals “urban legends” type stuff.
must have been a huge job keeping all the a secret, especially with all the new shows they have acquired for it, martha stewart, 6 feet under, sorpanos, f word, jay leno ect.
i don’t think i ever typed this but i secretly had low expectations, so i am impressed.
did i miss something? has 7 signed some kind of output deal with HBO they seem to have a lot of their shows all of the suddden. maybe something that struck up in talks with “The Pacific”. oh that would be good if there was HBO shows on 7two.
What about regional viewers?
A poor mans version of GO! and they’ve had so much time to sort it out.
Very dissapointing.
There seems to be no common theme across the network. Basically repeats of old shows no one cares about or hs on DVD, and shows treated like garbage on the mian channel. Jay Leno is already on Comedy, no need to have it on FTA, its not daytime.
.. Oh, and more of Tom Williams, how un-original.
I guess now we know why there was such secrecy surrounding the Jay Leno deal on the Comedy Channel.
Eh, it’s decent.
I hope they put this on foxtel, because i’ve waited too long for UB episodes, and i dont want to miss any while im overseas. But congrats to Seven for finally launching this channel 🙂
Now I’m wishing the TiVo had a couple of extra tuners. I can see the season passes starting to clash like nobody’s business!
On NBC, Jay Leno is classified TV14, on the Comedy Channel the show is classified M. How will 7TWO show Leno at 6:00pm in a G timeslot. Will they edit Leno?
Lame!
Hang on … I bet with all these channels that it will end up that there will be five shows I want to watch all on at the same time and then nothing else of interest for hours … always happens!!! Can only record two and watch another … Damn!
Jack!
So what now becomes of the 7HD channel, we get 2 new sd channels Go! & 7TWO and lose 2 HD channels, something is very wrong here……………
Im still extremely happy about 7TWO yay 7
I’m glad I’ll get Lost, Heroes and 24 at (assumed) decent times.
To those in the “constantly disappointed with everything on TV” group who seem to post quite frequently I’m curious as to what you actually thought would be on this channel????
Whether or not we all think its an inspired choice of a name (it’s not) or full of quality programming (mmmmmm. There some good stuff there…) at least it’s more choice and that’s a good thing.
Reaper is great, Benidorm is hilarious and the old mystery shows are always welcome at my place (can’t wait for 13th Street on Austar!).
This announcement makes things interesting. I wonder if Foxtel will carry it from Nov. 15 now instead of Nov. 24? Good mix of programming, but the only show I would hang out to watch is Lost, as long as it is fast-tracked.
Shortland Street!!! OMG! OMG! OMG!
I loved this New Zealand Soapie when it was on Nine years ago … can’t wait to see it again!
Also be good to see Emmerdale and Coronation Street which are the only real competition to Docotr Who in the UK …
Jack!
@ Jack: How is it “unfair” to the viewers who don’t have digital (and it’s the minority, not the majority – digital TV penetration is at 55% now)
Digital TV has been around 8 years now, and a set top box costs $29. If you love TV that much to worry about missing out on certain shows, $29 is nothing.
And the reason these shows will be on 7Two, is that not many Australians care about them in the first place. So not sure what is “unfair”
Waiting now to hear when Seven’s affils will launch the new network. I’m certain they will. Lord knows there will be outrage if they don’t! (At least on TVTonight!)
Much like GO!, channels ought to be taking the lead of PayTV and having distinct identities, instead of being so broad they can shove in any show they’ve got hanging around on their shelves.
This is a great opportunity to reshape TV as we know it, and they’re deliberately diluting it and making it bland. Now there will be at least five channels that screen the exact same kind of shows every weeknight. Instead of choosing their channel deliberately, I now can pick any one randomly to get the same kind of entertainment value.
An uninspired move.
Ah nice, I see Reaper is in the line up.
Very smart of 7 to put premier episodes of favourites Lost, Ugly Betty, Heroes and 24 – this will do more for digital uptake in this country than any other measure. put quality programming on digitial only channels and the viewers will follow.
With this and GO! i think i will need to buy the expander drive for my Tivo finally.
Wonder how many consultants were employed to come up with that name
They had me until Tom Williams was announced as the face of the channel..
Looks ok, just glad they’ve got something on the air. Leno, 24 and Heroes are what im excieted about, the rest is meh. As for the name its crap and unoriginal.Still i see this channel getting better in January/Feb when they can fasttrack 24 and Lost.
only 9 Days until it launches. I will be watching at least tuesday-thursday. ugly betty, heroes and then stargate and the jay leno show. great primetime lineup and a fantastic promo on the website.
I’m not loving the name, but it’s still good to have another channel. It says they will premiere international hits on 7TWO, so I’m wondering if that means they will show the same or next day on 7 as well???