TEN: movies, news, youth, music channel?
TEN chief executive Grant Blackley floats several ideas of the direction a new digital channel could take.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
As comments buzzes about which way TEN could go with its next digital channel, today chief executive Grant Blackley has floated a number of genre ideas for the channel with the Brisbane Times.
”There are quite a number of [programming] options that we could adopt that will range from a movie channel to another sports channel (what the?) to a news channel to a youth channel, which we could probably do better than others given the extent of content we have,” Mr Blackley said. ”We could do a lifestyle channel, we could do a documentary channel, we may even do a music channel. The options available to us are many and we will make that choice in due course.”
This presumes TEN is not necessarily thinking of a broad entertainment channel like 7TWO, or to a lesser extent, GO! But probably not ruling it out either….
He also indicated TEN was the best-placed commercial broadcaster to exploit several IPTV services planned for next year.
Source: Brisbane Times
40 Responses
I wish people would stop asking for classic/retro shows, they are dated and belong in another time, anyway isn’t that what foxtel is for.
Wow how predictable are the people on this site – I bet myself that the First comment here would be “No not another sports channel” and I was right.. get a life people – who cares what TEN does with their third channel as long as we get more choice and variety (and yes two sports channels equals more variety if thats what they chose to do)
I think Ten could pull off a youth/music oriented channel quite well. Think FlyTV (ABC’s first multi-channel effort from 2001-2003). Edgy, creative, and great fun.
I’d like to see another entertainment channel so TEN could put there shows they’ve taken off somewhere.
@billy ray valentine – the SD channel is the one likely to change with TEN putting so much into ONE HD for 24/7 sports.
Under current legislation the only was that Ten can launch the third channel is because they won’t run their main channel in High Definition. How come people complain about this, yet they want Seven and Nine to launch new channels too (and thus they won’t have their main channel in HD)?
There needs to be a change in regulation to allow for more SD digital channels …
I’d love Ten to start up a Discovery/National Geographic/CI channel. I used to watch that 24/7 on Foxtel.
i would like a music channel, but I doubt it would rate well, and so I don’t see Ten going through with it. Does anyone know if Nine will be launching a third channel anytime soon? If they don’t, Ten may beat them in the ratings.
does this mean the SD simulcast of One HD will end?
what date are they planning (roughly)?
Yes. No date. Roughly 2010!
I believe it will be a youth channel. No doubt about it. He even stated that ten has enough stuff for a youth channel in his statement.
They should definitely show all of Ten’s classic shows and biggest hits. Prisoner, early Neighbours, E Street, Richmond Hill, Number 96, Perfect Match, The Comedy Company, Blankety Blanks etc. There sure is an audience out there for these shows and it would be a shame for them to not bring them back.
haha another sports channel? A doco channel would be good if it was in hd
Why would people suggest Ten do a movie channel? All I ever hear is complaints that Ten repeat their movies ad-nausium, so them programming a whole channel of movies is just asking for trouble.
Lets see …
Movies- Won’t happen. They don’t have enough movies right now, and with Seven and Nine in deals with Warner Bros, Universal and Sony, there aren’t many big companies left for Ten to get output deals with.
Sports- Highly unlikely as it would be pointless with OneHD.
Music – While it is relatively cheap having a 24hr music channel will not rate anything substantial.
News – While they can get a lot of news from their CBS and Fox output deals there would need to be a lot of Australian coverage for it to rate, and this could be difficult as Ten doesn’t have the known News resources that Nine and Seven have.
Documentaries – Whilst this seems good, it would be very hard to get a 24hr documentary channel up and running. Whilst this would be a personal favourite I don’t think it could happen, especially since Foxtel has the rights to the Discovery and History channels.
I’d personally like to see a mix of News and Documentaries, however this is unlikely unless Ten can get the rights to Discovery and History channels …
I’d like a movie channel, but I really think that a movie channel should be HD.
The next channel should contain some sport, as I have said before, when there are clashes with different sports that can happen from time to time then one of them can be shown on this channel and the other on ONE. It should be basically a TEN/ONE TWO channel of sorts I’m hoping for.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Ten (and the other channels) should use their extensive archives to show some classic material. There are vast amount of shows like Go Set, The Go Show, Matlock Police, The Box and even Young Talent Time with hundreds of hours of episodes just sitting there.
I know there’s an audience out there who would dearly love to see these shows and should be catered for – we should preserve our culture instead of dismissing it.
TEN has a big back catalogue of movies (surprising considering the amount of times we’ve seen About a Boy) which it could use to launch a movie channel- but you have to consider what that would mean for daytime programming. Movies are expensive to buy rights to and woudl be wasted on the small daytime audience.
I agree with Andrew B that there isnt enought content to make ONE interesting all the time at the moment to justify a 2nd sport channel.
I think a mix between movies and youth oriented material would be right for TEN- they have the experience of catering to this audience but expect them to take a different tact to GO!
Ten have enough content to make the new channel reasonably general like 7TWO rather than niche.
I think a music channel would be a waste. It is well known that people don’t watch music channels very long – only a few songs at a time. Although this maybe a direct result of having mobile sub ads evey 2 or 3 songs – I know I never leave a Foxtel music channel on that reason preferring to turn the TV off and use radio instead.
As for more sports, well they spruik ONE as being more successful than Fox sports but there is barely the content to justify one sports channel let alone a second one. Maybe years down the track when 100% digital and anti siphoning rules are a distant memory.
All options sound good except for the lifestyle channel. Once again, Ten is doing the best with Freeview.
I’m not really that fussed anymore, I have too much to watch now, lots on 10 and GO!, a few on 7 and 7TWO, the occasional movie on 9 and nothing on ONE. A lot of the shows on 10HD got to finish up there like the 4400, I saw the end of BSG on dvd and eureka is screening now on 10, the biggest loss of 10HD was smallville, hopefully GO! can get hold of it or 10 will show it, otherwise I guess I will just have to buy the dvds. 10 put all their eggs in the ONE basket and I have not watched it at all, instead I fill my time with shows on GO! and 7TWO and am not really interested in the future 10 network digital offerings any more. If they want to offer me some shows to watch then I will, but if not I have plenty now on GO! and 7TWO. I’m now starting to think about what 7 or 10 shows to give up so I have more time for 99 and 72.
The ABC would be best placed to do a music channel, less annoying sms text ads and on-screen clutter, minus annoying innane raindead hosts, and wider selection of music clips and much deeper archives, and all ad free. Just extend rage into a 24/7 ABC multi-channel.
Before everyone complains he’s no way going to tell you months in advance what the new channel is and it won’t be sport.
Be prepared for a VH1-Youth General ent channel with lots of music.
I hope they stick with a general entertainment channel, given the success of GO! I think they will.
No no no not another sport channel
i would like a mixture of news documentaries, lifestyle and then general entertainment over night no retro stuff thats boring,
and dont take as long as ch 7 did to announce & launch their 2nd sd channel
and did i mention No Sport?