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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.

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72Channel 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/

This post updates.

199 Responses

  1. Wow, its a very good sched – lots of classics for those who wanna relive the memories and fresh new shows for the younger people – can’t wait for Ugly Betty! (even though I’ve watched the whole of Season 3, I will still be tuning in) And also for Heroes! Hopefully there will be some other repeats/ timeshifted shows from 7 but really after a few months of anticipation, i can’t ask for more!

  3. There goes HD for Lost, Heroes, 24 etc. Crazy.

    The only HD content I seem to watch these days comes from Blu-Ray and the internet. My PVR is currently chock-full of low-quality SD shows.

    What did I buy a full HD TV for, again?

  4. The people saying “Can’t wait for Leno!!1!1” clearly have never seen the show. It’s laughably bad, even worse than when Jimmy Fallon first took over Late Night.

    And about the M rating on Comedy Channel, everything on Comedy is given an M at the very least regardless of the content, just like Channel [V] and a bunch of other Foxtel channels.

  5. I receive 7 Qld on the Sunshine Coast and i have retuned a few times since the announcement. Has anybody got the time image on 72 who get 7 Qld? For me 71, 72 and 73 are all still simulcasting 7.

  7. @ Smacca. Where are the 1 million people that lives in areas with no digital TV? Even so, that is 4% of the population. Meaning 96% of Australians have digital and access to 7TWO. (Seven affiliates will certainly carry 7TWO on their second channels, after Go! and One getting national clearance it will happen soon)

    It’s not that the networks have not “bothered” to go digital. They have. But for some local stations in these remote areas that make up 4% of the national population – it probably has been cost prohibitive at this point/.

  8. Underwhelming…why so much secrecy over a rather ho-hum lineup? Seems like the place for decades-old series, movies no one wants to watch and axed shows that don’t rate. Heroes in a primetime slot is okay, but the show isn’t what it used to be. Reaper was a good premise that wore thin by episode 9.

    I also notice they’re skipping around 10 Ugly Betty episodes from season 2 and going straight into the third season. I’m sure the fans will be happy.

    And why bother repeating mediocre series like Brothers and Sisters and What About Brian, let alone from the first seasons? A waste of space. As someone said, this could have been so much more than a poor man’s GO.

  9. Actually, upon inspection of the first week’s guide, I’ll say GO! has a far better program choice at the moment. There’s barely anything there that I want to watch. Plus who wants 1.5 hours of scrubs 6 days a week?

  10. -At least they’re not rebranding the main channel as 7 One (like sbs did, SBS One HD still confuses me when I’m channel flicking for OneHD).

    -I hope lost s6 still airs on the main channel.

    -The name isn’t the best, but the quality looks better than GO!

    -Did I see Frodo and the ring in that trailer? If so, why is it that Nine was able to air Lord of the rings on GO! a couple of months ago?

  11. Who needs to leave the house anymore between all the usual FTAs, plus GO! and 7TWO now? 🙂 Be interesting to see where Sons and Daughters kicks off given it’s airing once a week at the moment in the early hours of Friday. And I’d love to see the pilot of H&A again to see when Bobby, Frank, Roo and Sally were oh so young.

  12. Fantastic news about Heroes & Lost.
    Hopefully they fasttrack the final season of Lost when it starts in Late January…

    Hoping that them getting Jay Leno means the Comedy Channel will remove it from their line-up, Monday night on Comedy Channel: Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jay Leno, Bill Maher, Conan, Kimmel, Fallon, Letterman – It’s just too much chat, and Leno is obviously the weak link there, with Kimmel running a close 2nd to that crown.

  14. Call me gloomy and negative, but most people’s reactions here shock and appall me (I’m looking at you Michael). A couple of months ago, we were all going, “oh, what a terrible and unimaginative name, pathetic Seven pathetic, you’ve had since January to get this channel up and running, it’ll be a lifestyle channel or something boring like that, etc.” And now we are all going, “Wow, what a great channel! Who cares that the name is atrocious and it took them so long, I’m extremely happy now yahoooo!” like we’ve all forgotten everything else. But as a Hobart viewer (a Capital City but apparently “regional”) there’s a one in a million chance that we’ll be receiving it anytime soon, so perhaps it’s none of my business anyway.
    PS terrible name.

  16. Well i’m liking this. Lost, Heroes, 24 can all get a decent timeslot. Six Feet Under, Sporanos woudl be great to see these shows from the beginning again. Not too fussed with the British soaps/crime mysteries, but would love to watch H&A Early years. Used to love when they showed them 4 in the arvo. Reaper, finally can watch that. Where’s Samantha Who though?

  19. What an anti-climax. The name is dreadfull. The lineup is bland. They had a chance to create a comtemporary channel and blew it. No wonder free to air broadcasters are facing a slow and painfull death. They are living in last century and can’t adapt to the modern age. I will stick to the internet and cable tv for my entertainment.

  20. Ms Bogues will be happy with a Home and Away Omnibus on Saturday afternoons since I watch 7PM Project at 7pm. David: Any idea how far behind 7TWO will be with Shortland Street from it’s original NZ broadcast?

  21. LOL @ Marco XD

    Seven two doesn’t realy roll off the tongue but I’m so glad it’s not “Mate”. Also, why does Channel 7 feel the need to put Tom Williams everywhere? I mean, what could a channel possibly need a ‘face’ for? In terms of programming, the only one that I’ll be watching is Heroes. Hopefully it’s on at a sensible time. I wish they’d play Eli Stone again. Also, maybe Scrubs and Family Guy could be GO’s comedy repeats?

  23. At last Ch7 has got its act together with 7TWO !

    I quite like the mix of programmes, something for everyone.

    If you haven’t seen any of the *Judge John Deed* episodes then I suggest you give this show a go, Martin Shaw (recently aka: Inspector George Gently) is brilliant and the story lines are well put together.

  24. You logo whingers, it don’t matter.

    Hardly ground breaking programming just more of the same.

    As I guessed only ABC and SBS have some difference while ONE is nothing like the rest.

  25. Seven has not signed an output deal. If anyone would, then it would be Showtime/Showcase. It’s not uncommon for networks to on-sell shows, so its taken me aback the surprised that has been expressed. Some examples for the recent past:

    West Wing (Nine –> ABC)
    Flight of the Conchords (Ten –> SBS)
    Seinfeld (Ten –> Nine)
    The Nanny (Ten –> Nine)
    Friends (Nine –> Ten)

    If you’re looking for reasoning, then it’s simple. Nine knew the shows are a bit long in the tooth, and that it’s unlikely they’ll be rerunning them anytime soon. With their high DVD sales, it’s not like people will be queueing up to tune into the shows, so why not make a bit of extra scratch an sell the shows.

    If they were new HBO shows, then I could see the cause for alarm.

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