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Nine to launch new channel before 7mate

Nine has set a date for the launch of its second digital channel, five or six days before Seven launches 7mate.

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“I wanted to call it Dave but everyone said ‘are you joking?'” says David Leckie.

Instead Seven called their new male-skewed channel 7mate.

Presumably nobody thought to ask the same question of that idea.

Dave, of course, mirrors the male-dominated channel in the UK which shows titles like Top Gear, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Red Dwarf and Bottom.

7Mate, which launches on September 25 with the AFL Grand Final, will aim at young males aged 16-39.

Seven CEO David Leckie says the channel “will take a couple of years to make a good profit” but “it will make a profit in year one”.

Advertising will be sold across Seven media properties via SMG Red Unit.

“Anyone in the marketplace will tell you that James Warburton, Kurt Burnette (network director of sales) and their team do a great job selling television, Yahoo!7 and magazines,” he said.

But the Australian Financial Review says Nine has set a date for the launch of its second digital channel, five or six days before Seven launches 7mate. Rumours on Nine’s channel extend from a crime channel, lifestyle channel or a female-skewed channel possibly called GEM.

However, it still requires 8 weeks notice to be included in the OzTAM panel.

AFR also reports Seven is counting on 7mate to correct the failure of 7TWO to broaden the reach of the Seven brand.

“We are very pleased with 7TWO but we think we can do a lot better by the way. GO and ONE are going very well. We saw an opportunity and we are looking forward to it,”  Leckie tells The Australian.

Source: The Australian, afr.com.au

49 Responses

  2. I read the channels on wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeview_Australia and in the list of channels it says 9HD / WIN HD & NBN HD will be closing down in September this year. I guess it’s to make way for 9’s third channel.

  5. @Paul – your SD set-top box (STB) can’t pick up HD channels even if they are transmitting a program that was made in SD. It’s the data stream not the source content that is the determining factor. If you wish to record something on a HD channel, you will need either a HD STB to feed the signal to whatever you currently use to record, or a HD hard-disk recorder or PVR to record the HD stream directly.

  6. I think to advertise ANY of the terrestrial channels as ‘HD’ is a con.

    All of the so-called ‘HD’ channels have precious little ACTUAL HD content. Most of it is up-rezzed SD. Anyway, they’re all transmitting 720p any ways.

    I search the airwaves for any true HD-souced material. I was even hoping the Election coverage was to be HD – nup – all Networks are still shooting and broadcasting news in SD. The ONLY thing HD about any of the coverage was Seven’s logo on the HD channel pasted over the SD telecast….and boy, was that logo sharp compared to the rest of the graphics.

    Free to air SD is shocking on a good 50″ 1080 plasma or LCD. It’s so fuzzy it could ruin your eyesight. So, as I said the majority of ‘HD’ broadcasts are a con.

    BTW – can anyone tell me for certain that ABCNEWS24 is HD or rezzed SD? It sure doesn’t look it. Soft and fuzzy like the rest.

  7. Woody – why?

    Nine CEO David Gyngell confirmed months ago that the technical building aspects of the new channel was underway.

    If they want competitive advantage by launching before Seven, and they’re ready, then good luck to them.

  9. Hey Mates! anyone else seen the 7Mate promos?

    IMO this would rate as high as GO! or 7TWO, as each new digital channel gets more specialized they will take less viewers, but I guess the point is the total viewers for the networks when they group the channels.

    But my question is, the viewers have to come from somewhere. So will this mean they will except lower numbers on the main channel from some of their shows if the totals add up?

  11. @moo cow, basically each of the networks has a slice of spectrum for their analogue channel (7MHz) and another slice (also 7MHz) for their digital channels (digital allows between 2 and 4 channels in a single 7Mhz frequency allocation, depending on HD/SD split and so forth). By Dec 2013 all the analogue transmissions cease, whereupon those frequencies revert back to the government and the broadcasters keep their digital allocations (they end up swapping their original analogue frequencies for new digital frequencies but the total bandwidth they get is the same as they had in the analogue era – 7MHz each).

    The government plans to auction off the former analogue TV frequencies for new uses – e.g. 4G mobile phone and wireless internet, possibly some mobile TV, etc. Frequency’s worth big bucks and the government is keen to make as much from it as possible (amazing eh?)

    Originally the idea was that some of that old analogue spectrum would be sold for one or more new DTV networks, but that now seems unlikely – the telcoms and internet companies have more money and the government is constantly being lobbied by the existing networks to not allow any new competitors into their playground.

  12. As someone who really thinks that channel seven has terrible names i think ‘dave’ would have served better than 7mate LMAO

    i think the stuff on 7two is atrocious. i quite lkike a lot of the stuff on Go. and i only watch the snow shows on One and any other extreme sporting show that i notice while flicking through. Ten has gone in a horrendous downward spiral where it used to have a lot of shows i loved to nothing in recent times. and i very rarely watch seven andnine. and only one show from nine. i don’t think i’lkl like gem. im a tom boy and i don’t like girly shows …. but im for Go! atm. I’m waiting for ten to redeem themselves but im not holding out hope

  13. At least Nine is targeting its new HD channel, as opposed to 7 which is essentially creating another ‘general entertainment’ channel. Yes I’m aware of the fact that it’s meant to be male-oriented, but half those shows there don’t interest me one bit and the line up seems to be quite similar to 7two.
    It’s a pitty that we’re losing the HD simu-cast of both nine and 7 though, particularly nine who actually bothered to upgrade their news cameras to HD. I’m hoping they find time to put the nightly news on their hd channels, and other important shows.

  16. Newtaste – maybe your AFR is different, but mine starts off this way:

    “Nine Network has set a date for the launch of its second digital channel Five Or Six Days before arch-rival Seven Network reveals its new channel 7mate.

  17. Can someone help me? I have a SD Digital Set Top Box that I record shows on and a HD Tv. I know that I can watch the new channels on the TV, but to record them do I need to buy a HD Set Top Box? I’m just confused since it seems that very few programs will actually be in HD, so though the channel is in HD would I still be able to tape the programs that are in SD on the HD channel?

    Thanks..

  18. Just keep those digital channels coming,Do we really care if its in HD or SD as for the picture quality on my screen,the difference between the two is very little.

  19. I don’t get the logistics of it all but why is it impossible for there to be more bandwidth for more channels and have them in HD? Have they been given a allocated amount or something?

  20. Grinspoon, there’s no need for extra bandwidth. 7mate (HD) will replace 7HD and Nine’s new channel will replace Nine HD (or if rumours are correct GO! will go HD, replacing Nine HD, and the new channel will be SD taking over GO!’s former SD slot). TEN’s new channel will presumably just replace the useless One Digital (SD) leaving OneHD and TEN Digital as is.

    The picture quality won’t be any worse than it is now, but it won’t be any better either (well, aside from GO! if it becomes HD of course). Of course the most logical arrangement would be for all the network’s main digital channels to be HD and the secondary multichannels to be SD, but until the analogue switch off in 2013 that’s not allowed, the main digital channels have to be SD.

  21. I have the AFR, and the article does mention that Nine and Ten are launching new channels, Ten in 2011 and that Nine’s launch is ‘close’. But it doesn’t claim that Nine will launch 5 or 6 days before 7mate, and neither does the article in The Australian. Do you have another source you haven’t referenced?

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