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Networks gear up for big launches

Television networks are looking to unwrap some of their shiny new gifts to media and advertisers soon.

2010It’s getting close to that time of year again.

Television networks are looking to unwrap some of their shiny new gifts and reveal what is on their calendar.

Next week ABC will have a media launch for ABC3, its new digital channel for kids.

The launch will take place in Melbourne fuelling speculation the channel will be Melbourne-based. The broadcaster is also bringing in media from interstate for the big event.

ABC3 is expected to launch late November or early December.

Meanwhile TEN will unveil its 2010 Program Launch the week afterwards. Its launch comes hot on the heels of the MIPCOM trade event.

Once again CEO Grant Blackley and Chief Programming Officer David Mott will be racking up the frequent flyer points, presenting next year’s highlights to media.

At last year’s launch David Mott announced MasterChef Australia as its Big Brother replacement. This year’s launch should indicate the future for some key shows including Australian Idol, The 7PM Project, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, 9AM with David and Kim and the yet to be announced host for The Biggest Loser.

Meanwhile it remains to be seen whether Seven and Nine will even have any splashy affair to advertisers and media. Last year they laid very low. SBS revealed some of their key titles for late 09 / early 10 a few weeks ago, while Foxtel had just had one of its biggest media events in a very long time.

42 Responses

  1. I wouldn’t want to see OneHD get the chop mainly because One Digital looks shocking compared to the HD version (it’s all blocky like GO!) on an HD screen. But they could always air something different on the HD channel when the sports program is not HD (ie when they’re showing those sports magazine style shows that are in 4:3 SD, would be good if the HD channel switched to Ten for that duration).

  2. i hope they dont dump 9am. its’ a hell of alot better than kerry anne and the super flogs on 7.

    7pm project is dead. but 10 will keep it going for another 7 years just to make things worse. like they did with big brother

    idol was dead last year and this year is the funeral and the wake. but they will keep that going as well.

    10 like to keep ordinary projects going

  3. Well, what ten should should do is completely axe 5th grader, keep 7pm project, keep 9am and bring out another digital channel, something like GO! don’t bring back big brother because i dont think it’ll work so just extend masterchef by like another 2 weeks of episodes. for idol, keep it but the format should change (marcia doesnt bring much constructive criticism and jay dee is really really boring). also for summer, encore glee (to get ready for the second part of the season since they havent finished filming all the season yet) and encore rush (like what they did last year).
    Note to TEN: dont get anymore roving enterprise shows, they fail badly, even rove itself are achieving pretty low.
    btw, the channel 10 logo looks nice. i personally think channel 10 has the best visuals out of the 3 commercial fta channels.

  4. the problem with the 7pm project is that masterchef comes back it will go into hiatus. but 7pm project is a news program and news does not go into hiatus, they should either get rid of 7pm project or maybe move it to 6pm. it would seem a bit silly to take it off during masterchef as there will still be news to talk about.

  5. @George: legislation only allows the commercial channels to have 1xHD and 2xSD channels. To add a new channel, Ten will have to have one of the following combos:

    TenSD + OneHD + new SD channel
    TenSD + OneSD + new HD channel
    (i.e. either OneSD or OneHD will get the chop)

    And I hope it’s soon. They’re reportedly still waiting for Seven to show its hand tho… how long is that? Six weeks?

  6. i expect 9 to do a full 2010 launch complete with about 30 shows we will never see, but 7 won’t do a launch at all. 7 are the most secretive of them all, we didn’t know about double take until production was finishing up. and factuals just keep popping up out of nowhere.

    it will be interesting to see what the big pickup ten had from mipcom. 7 snapped up the big one the marriage ref. and looks like that filmmaker show was somehow snapped up before mipcom (which i think ten were eyeing). they were the 2 biggest shows, so there is no obvious choice out there.

  7. I really do hope they keep 7PM project.. i try and watch it as often as i can, and it really is quite enjoyable. I think they’ve found the right balance between comedy, news and conversations. Hopefully they can hold onto it for a bit longer..

  8. The “celebrity” contestants have made 5th Grader missable. If it’s axed, it’ll be their own stupid fault. Nobody wants to see “celebrities” paid to pretend to be contestants “playing for charity”.

    Idol is as good as dead. And after this year’s season, nobody will miss it.

    7pm Project, I too hope it survives. I started off loathing it, but have become quite fond of it.

  9. I actually don’t mind the 7PM project, there’s nothing else better at 7 and it’s the first time I’ve regularly watched something at 7pm. I didn’t start watching until a month or so after the launch, and although it’s not the best show out there, it’s far from the worst and I hope it does remain in some form.

  10. I think that Idol will come back for next year, and work to create a much better format for the show. Although TEN have been searching for a new ‘big entertainment’ format like Idol, they said it was for in 12-18 months time, which would put replacing Idol in 2010 unlikely. At that international formats show that was on recently (where TEN said about searching for a new format) weren’t they also trying to find something new for their 6-7PM block?

    Next year I think the 9AM format will stay, but there will probably be drastic alterations. 7PM Project I think would work well in a late-night timeslot, and hopefully TEN will comission a new reality show to replace the ‘Big Brother void’. Along with this they could extend the order for MasterChef episodes to fill out the time better.
    And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think it would be a good idea for TEN to bring back Big Brother next year, but for in the summer non-ratings period. Sure, it’s expensive, but it’ll have next to no competition in that time and in turn bring in a healthy profit.
    I hope they have some new local dramas. Rush is absolutely awesome, but I’d love to see more. Give us some variety! I’d love to see an Aussie show along the lines of Glee, 90210, Gossip Girl and the like.

    Also, I hope TEN are working on their 3rd digital channel. If they put One HD to 720p (which ironically enough is better suited for sports programming than 1080i) they have the bandwidth for a third SD channel. Another Go-style channel would be absolutely awesome, and if Seven are working on one too it means that we’ll have three-way competition in that section of the market, meaning better viewing options for us!

  11. “This year’s launch should indicate the future for some key shows including Australian Idol, The 7PM Project, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” All of which are doing nothing for TEN and should be chopped immediately. That 2010 logo is rather cool though.

  12. Idol and 7pm probably won’t be back…but hey, its Ten, they might flog a dead horse for as long as they possibly can.

    I expect they’ll try something new like a stripped reality/game show/factual… whether it goes the way of MasterChef or Taken Out remains to be seen.

  13. Love the image of the channel TEN logo as part of 2010. We all saw that coming though. I wonder what the slogan for TEN will be next year. Seven had 2007 is channel 7. Nine had Choose 9 in 09.

  14. I still remember Ten has some shows it promised but never delivered this year. I think one of them was a Factual-type called Undercover Boss. It sounded like a decent premise too.

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