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Eleven yet to be confirmed for regional viewers

Regional viewers don't know yet if they will be able to watch shows such as Neighbours and The Simpsons when they shift to Eleven.

Regional viewers are yet to hear if Eleven will be coming to screens next year.

The new digital channel from TEN is due to launch in early 2011, but Southern Cross Media is still exploring its options.

At its recent Full Year Results presentation, CEO Rhys Holleran said Southern Cross Media only learned
about the channel just a week before TEN announced the channel.

“What we need to make the decision on is how we might serve the commercials out into different regions,” he told media.

“Those decisions haven’t been made. It would depend on the sort of audience levels that we might expect will be the key driver in that. ie. can we make a quid out of it?

“We’ll make those decisions based on what information we get back as to what we can expect from a ratings point of view, from that product moving forward.”

If the channel doesn’t launch at the same time as TEN launches it, regional viewers will be at risk of missing out on Neighbours, The Simpsons and other titles such as Dexter, Supernatural and Smallville.

32 Responses

  1. Here in regional SA we still don’t have ONE, GO or 7TWO so this comes as no surprise. Starting to think we’ll never get them despite being promised we’ll be getting the same television stations as our city brothers.

    PAY TV – FTW

  2. While I didn’t really care about ONE HD being delayed because I’m not too into sport, this will annoy me. Especially if it takes as long as it did for ONE

    Oh and can’t they just put it on 55? There are currently two sets of SC Ten, one on 5 and the other on 55. And they could just rebroadcast the direct feed, as they do for TEN.

    Overall, vary lazy network

  3. Want to voice your protest?

    Southern Cross Media Group
    Level 2, 70 Park Street
    SOUTH MELBOURNE VIC 3205

    [email protected]

    I was going to post the telephone number but I suspect the best way to get your voice heard would be through snail mail.

  4. On behalf of my mum who loves Neighbours and lives in regional Vic, I’ll add my voice to the protest! Plus, how am I supposed to watch My shows when I’m visiting?

  5. It will cost SCMG $13million for Eleven. Most Illawarra residents are lucky as there is an option available to receive Eleven. Illawarra residents can buy a VHF antenna which should give them access to most metropolitan channels including Eleven. But the best thing to do is get a quote of a professional who specializes in Antennas and ask if your home would be able to receive the signal. Unfortunately there isn’t much of an option for other regional areas including Canberra. To be honest, this will be another ONE HD all over again but my guess IF SC10 do wish to broadcast it, it would be somewhere around June-July 2011. From the information I have been given so far, its very unlikely at the moment that SC10 viewers will get Eleven from January.

  6. If they are worried about ads why dont they air national ads like GO! and 7TWO have done in the past until they are ready to put local content. I dont want another ONE debacle. We had to wait too long last time. TEN have given 6 months notice. I’m sure they can do something surely. If i miss some of these shows i will be pissed.

    I am still annoyed at the fact that 7TWO hasnt shown shows we missed when Prime decided not to bring it to us.

  7. “Can we make a quid out of it?” sums Southern Cross up – they are notoriously stingy with their product and their staff.
    Regional television licenses need serious independent review – things such as getting rid of local news (the pathetic 1 minute updates without footage do not count) and swapping out nationally broadcast programs for infomercials should not be allowed and do not serve their viewers any.
    Maybe we can get Bob Katter onto this?

  8. All the more reason for the 75% reach rules to be scrapped allowing metro network to take over all or part of the regionals so that content can be delivered to all areas.

    I read that SC10 needed about $13 million to upgrade for Eleven? If so, did they not get any of the $250 million or so rebated to the networks to help for digital transition?

  9. David S: the way i took it all was that they were moving Simpsons and Neighbours off 10(including the analouge channel) and moving it to 11 for the 2011 season.

    But i agree that it shouldnt move in reigonal areas until they all get 11. essentially for reigonal peeps, Neighbours is getting axed.. or as good as.

  10. I live in Mildura and we are the first region to switch over to totally digital reception. Digital is now the only way to get FTA television. Please 10 do your homework on this decision. The whole of Australia is watching what you do and to leave out its flagship digital only town would be a disgrace.

    I cannot see how, if we are receiving a SD feed of One now if it is suddenly changed to 11 how it would not be transmitted in this area.

  11. David, could you outline at some stage how the arrangements work for channels for regional viewers? Being a city viewer, I get lost between the differences of 9, WIN, NBN, SC, SC10, etc. Who was the rights to which channel’s city branding, and how this works for them to create a channel.

    It seems as though it would be easy if the country channels had no city channel equivalent. But given many use the same logo, surely there is some obligations that they have for viewers to deliver that channel.

  12. How can TEN take programs like The Simpsons, Neighbours, etc. off TEN Digital and put them on Eleven before the final analog switch off in 2013? As I understand the digital transition rules, until the analog signal is discontinued *all* programs that are broadcast on a network’s analog channel must be simulcast on its main SD digital channel – TEN Digital in this case.

    The only way they could move these shows to Eleven prior to 2014 is if they ceased broadcasting them on analog channel 10, and I can’t see TEN doing that with some of their highest rating programs. TEN’s need for every last rating point would seem to force them to keep such shows on analog (and therefore TEN Digital too) until the very last gasp of analog transmission on 31/12/2013.

    Have TEN actually said when the move of these shows to Eleven will happen? From the reports I’ve seen people seem to be just assuming that it will happen as soon as Eleven launches next year. That may be an unwarranted assumption.

  13. This makes me really angry…regional viewers miss out again.

    Are we to believe that these idiots had no knowledge that TEN were going to launch a 3rd channel? I mean most of Australia did prior to the announcement being made.

    I seriously don’t believe ONEHD would be profitable for them, so why they’d take that? Eleven would be more of a money earner because that’s all they care about.

    FTA TV in this country is an absolute joke. These digital channels should be launched across the country at the same time or not at all. It’s funny how we don’t hear anything from the sham that is Freeview.

    Regional people – my advice, get Foxtel!!

  14. I really hope southern cross get eleven straight away like 7mate is because i can’t afford to miss out on Small that i’v been waiting for 2 years, Supernatural that i have i don’t get to see because ten keeps dumping it and Stargate Universe plus a lot of shows that i want to give a go like Nurse Jackie, Leaving us regional viewers wait 6 months will be criminal offense for the people who watch The Simpsons and Neighbours , it’s bad enough that Tasmania is not getting eleven straight away so come on SC10 get your act together!

  15. What a load of crap, only found out about it a week before it was announced by TEN. We have all known this channel was on it’s way since this time last year, how much warning do they need? Surely this channel looks more attractive to them than ONE?

  16. WIN TV have cut some of Nine programming from yesterday. Nine Morning News at 11am no longer airs and the WIN EPG has early mornings (2am-6am) different from Nine.

  17. Southern Cross aren’t obliged to take Ten’s new channel, especially if it doesn’t make business sense. They may choose to source programming from other areas for their third channel. How does a 24 hour home shopping channel sound? SC would make more money from this than they would taking Eleven. It’s all about delivering to shareholders, not viewers.

  18. And there we have it the wonderful new fta digital channels – what a load of hype – it all comes down to ratings and who would have thought we would come back to the days of only 1 regional channel

    Who cares – there is the internet and pay tv

  19. There is absolutely nothing stopping Southern Cross continuing to show Neighbours in its current timeslot on Southern Cross Ten. They are perfectly capable of mixing and matching their programs as they see fit, just like they did before aggregation.

    In fact, they don’t even have to take Eleven at all. They could create their own channel, if they wanted.

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