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TEN to launch new channel

TEN signals a new channel for 2010, plus Junior MasterChef and locks in The 7PM Project for summer.

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tencThe TEN Network will launch a new digital channel in 2010, reports the Courier Mail.

A third digital channel will launch sometime in the next 12 months, it reports.

Commercial networks are currently allowed two SD channels and one HD channel. Currently TEN has TEN, ONE HD and ONE SD which retransmits the feed from the 24 hour sports channel. But as GO! and 7TWO offer entertainment formats they potentially erode TEN’s market share. And as half the country is now on digital it makes the ONE SD channel less viable -except for viewers who have a standard digital rather than an high definition, of course.

It would also presume TEN is eyeing a makeover of its second SD channel rather than ONE HD itself. Many viewers are still lamenting the loss of key entertainment formats in high definition by TEN: MasterChef, So You Think You Can Dance, Rove, Neighbours, Australian Idol, Merlin and more. When TEN opted for high definition sports, it did so at the expense of its other brands.

TEN made the announcement of the new digital channel at its 2010 Program Launch last night in Brisbane.

It also announced a new Junior MasterChef to follow MasterChef next year. This idea has been floated by Programmer David Mott before.

He told TV Tonight in July, “We might do a professionals version or a teen version. We’ll always do one other shorter run but it might not be celebrities.”

TEN also confirmed The 7PM Project would run through summer and into the new year (hopefully with a few tweaks?).

TEN rolls its Program Launch into Melbourne tonight and Sydney tomorrow.

So what would you like to see on a new digital channel?

Source: Courier Mail

106 Responses

  1. Ha, good luck running 7pm throughout summer in the hope of finding an audience. I can see it being comprehensively beaten by what will probably be repeated repeat sitcoms on 9 and 7.

  2. Selfish thing that I am – scratch HD and broadcast all in SD where my equipment is best served to capture 🙂
    Apart from that – Yes Scifi would be a good theme

  3. Oh I thought of some more…..Medium, The Office, Flight of the Concords, L&O UK, Harpers Island.

    I’m not necessarily a fan of all these shows but it’s a bummer that they’re just sitting on a shelf at Ten gathering dust.

  7. Great news!! I saw something on Wikipedia about this earlier this year.

    What I think that Ten could do is a compromise between TenHD and OneHD. Have 5pm – midnight broadcast in High Definition from Ten, then the rest of the time for One. Seeing as the majority of live sports for One are broadcast out of prime time it would be best to put them on HD, and let Ten’s prime time shows be in HD. Not many people will complain about not seeing their daytime Oprah in HD …

    I’d love the new Ten to have just a general entertainment channel. As much as I love Ten News I don’t think it would be good in a 24-hour format. Besides, I believe ABC4 will be a dedicated news channel (*crosses fingers for BBC World News incorporated somehow*). Seven and Nine also have a lot more variety of movies, and their next channels may be 24hrs of movies.

    This assumes this gets past the government …

  8. Should be a mix of ONE and TEN, so if there are clashes with sporting events they can show one on one channel and on this new channel and then all your alternate programs you would put on it as well.

  9. I hope Nine can manage to grab the rights back to the Smallville show from Ten (that they stupidly onsold onto them) before this channel gets up, so they can air it on GO (as well as seasons 1 – 7) where it’d be a good fit, as season 8 hasn’t been aired on Aus TV (I’ve seen it), nor has the current, final season 9.

  11. Unlike Seven, Ten can’t claim this has been a well-kept secret. I think many there think One has been a big mistake – especially when Go! is showing the kind of content that used to be Ten’s forte.

    Anyway, the can start with reinstating the programs they ditched when they got rid of Ten HD And can they please start showing The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson that I believe they own the rights to? It’s an hilarious show and it hurts me every night when Dave Letterman tells us it’s “up next”.

  12. Cool. This is more great news from Ten. Go! Seems to be eroding their 16-39 audience. Tens whole business model relies on 16-39 heavily so you would expect to see plenty of content aimed at that demo to keep the kids exposed to Tens advertising.
    I would also speculate the channel would be aimed heavily at women 16-39 since One HD is very male demo heavy and that reflects in the ads you see there.
    So you will def see shows like 90210, the new Melrose Place, Sex and the City, Friends, maybe even prime time eps of Oprah and other female friendly stuff from Tens daytime slate thrown in. I also reckon a show like Ready Steady Cook in a early prime time (6-7pm) slot would be a masterstroke!

  14. They should just have a general purpose channel which gives them maximum flexibility.

    Look at Go. They manage to have old retro cartoons, themed nights, a mix of genres, movies, sitcoms like Seinfeld and programs that were recently axed from their main channel.

    I think the second digitial channels will be useful for the commercial networks. There are a lot of programs that attract a reasonably sized passionate audience but don’t rate enough for prime time on the main channel.

    They might as well screen that content and attract new viewers rather than leave it sitting unused. Also in the future everyone will have digital and may regularly watch the second channels.

  16. Junior MC? That will be interesting..

    No more NCIS repeats – overkill. Yes they rate well but its the fastest way to kill a show. People will get sick of it. (Not me though! Never)

  17. I think Ten would go well with a channel similar to C4 (NZ).

    It’s different enough to Go! and would aim at a market not currently targetted in FTA and shouldn’t canibalise Ten SD’s current target market too much.

  18. hopefully it will be all the shows that they have dumped. I hope its youth orientated like GO!, even though ten is for 16-39 yrs. Some great titles would be The Office, Will and Grace, Californication, Dexter, Friends, Smallville, Melrose Place, 90210, Buffy and Futurama. Plus lots of repeats of House, ncis and the oc!

    Teen night, sci fi night, vampire night, Showtime, sitcoms. Sounds like a great channel already.

  22. AFR is reporting that ONE will become HD only and the new digital will take the SD.

    ONE might take a slide from already low ratings because less people have a HD stb.

  23. Anything to counteract all the third rate boring sport on ONE HD. In particular I’d like , Supernatural, Dexter, Californication, 90210, Monk, Smallville, Angel, Futurama, Psych. And any other shows that Ten used to screen but took off or shoved to the graveyard shift.

  25. I’m pretty sure this will be a general enteratinment channel with shows that have not yet been onsold to Foxtel. Ten are always targeting the younger audience, and they have a lot of shows they dont play. It could basically be Australia’s version of TheCW.

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