Seven permitted to switch Australian Open to 7TWO
The Government has lifted restrictions on the Australian Open to allow the Seven Network to continue its broadcast on 7TWO.
- Published by David Knox
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The Government has lifted restrictions on the Australian Open to allow the Seven Network to continue its broadcast on 7TWO.
Senator Conroy announced the changes yesterday, which relaxes an anti-siphoning rule that requires the events to be broadcast on Seven’s primary channel.
“I am pleased to announce changes that will allow the Seven Network to continue coverage of matches on its digital multi-channel 7TWO where they clash with regularly scheduled programming on the primary channel,” he said.
“These changes will provide tennis fans with improved coverage of one of Australia’s premier sporting events.”
As recently as last year Seven suspended some closely-fought matches to cut to Seven News, Today Tonight and Home and Away.
Seven yesterday welcomed to changes.
In a statement Seven boss David Leckie said, “We welcome the Minister’s decision to allow flexibility in our broadcast schedules for the Australian Open.
“It is a pragmatic positive for our viewers and the sport and recognises the reach of digital television which is available to over 75% of Australians and increasing.
“The past couple of days have provided an indication of how we will approach the issue of managing match coverage and our commitment to Seven News, in particular.
“Our switch in scheduling of the tennis to 7TWO to allow Seven News‘ continuous coverage of the floods impacting Queensland and northern New South Wales graphically indicates the benefits of the flexibility of the new digital channels in ensuring we meet the demands of all television viewers.”
This week Seven has switched Medibank International and AAMI Kooyong matches to 7TWO to continue coverage of the flood crisis, but neither was on the anit-siphoning list.
The new anti-siphoning list will only require Finals to remain on the primary channel once legislation is passed.
The Australian Open broadcast begins on Monday.
A Seven spokesperson explained to TV Tonight that use of 7TWO for matches would be made as needed.
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- Tagged with Australian Open, Home and Away, Seven News, Today Tonight
36 Responses
@Chris – Obviously you don’t care, but the network does and that is why they will continue to screen them whether you like it or not.
Everything on 7TWO after 9.30am to 1pm was first run content.
Couldn’t care less about no Best of Morning Show screening.
@Donald why do you think One would be any different? They haven’t had any HD tennis coverage either thus far and unlike 7 and 7two, ONE is a HD channel.
I think HD is overrated anyway
CK, 7 are just too lazy to show it in HD is the reason. Their alleged reason for not showing Bathurst in HD was the number of cameras needed (citing using 32 cameras for the coverage, though fans would’ve been quite happy to have some in HD rather than none at all – obviously the stick-cams will be SD, but that’s no reason to not have HD track-side cameras), but clearly you don’t need that many cameras to cover tennis – they simply don’t care about showing sport in HD (so hopefully One will pick up the rights at some point). The fact they’re not showing the tennis in HD proves the fallacy of their given reason for Bathurst not being in HD.
As glow noted, if you’re in the position of having to record it in order not to miss it, you now have to worry about if it’s going to switch coverage to a different channel in the middle. If 7 just showed they cared about broadcasting sport in HD, and had it on 7mate to begin with (as well as the primary at selected times), then you wouldn’t have to worry about coverage changing channels mid-stream, and you also wouldn’t have to worry about 72 programs getting shoved off, which as noted by someone else are amongst the highest ratings programs of the secondary channels.
@ the other Paul who must be in regional SA like me. All the best to everyone in flood affected areas but like others have said this week on other posts on this site, they keep showing the same stuff over and over. With no digital channels in regional SA yet except ELEVEN, just thankful this week I could watch the tennis from Sydney on Eurosports and next week if need be, I can watch the AO on FoX Sports.
@haydn…Don’t care if they rate. Doesn’t mean they are any good. Ratings don’t equate to quality.
Plus sport should not be delayed when there is a spare channel playing worthless programming.
@Chris – Those “rubbish repeat British programs” you’re talking about are almost always the highest rating shows on any of the extra digital channels and have been consistently for over 12 months. Obviously not everyone thinks they’re “Complete Tripe”
Could be challenging to record such matches on your PVR.
We’ll have to add post padding on an alternative channel!
I wonder if the PVRs with the CRID-enabled Freeview EPG are smart enough to continue recording on a different service?
Well, the charity match is scheduled at 2pm while Seven plans to show it at 4pm.
Any word as to whether channel 7 will televise the Tennis charity match to be played this coming Sunday for victims of the Qld Floods?
This is a great news amidst of all the tragedies happening at Queensland at the moment. Let’s hope that we get to see the night matches live for the first time.
They deliberately bastardised their coverage last year to gain this concession. It remains to be seen how contemptuously they will use it (e.g. still showing things on delay).
As for not using 7Mate – Channel 7 hardly know what 16:9 is judging by the black side bars they assume would be hidden by overscan, so HD at short notice certainly won’t happen.
Does that mean perth can get the night session live on 7two?
Guys, at the moment this means exactly what it says. That Seven has the capacity to switch to 7TWO, nothing more, nothing less. We will have to wait and see how this plays out in practical terms.
@anton – i think they are using 7two which is SD instead of 7mate which is HD because more ppl have SD STB rather than HD STB therefore more ppl can watch 7two as opposed to 7mate.
@milk crate – i think the reasoning behind the finals having to be on the main channel is that not everyone has digital tv and the finals are considered ‘important’ and therefore everyone should be able to watch them i.e. cant be on multichannels.
Hope that makes sense.
Great decision to allow 7 to be able to do this. I presume it will just mean that the tennis may interrupt 7two between 6pm-7.30pm, while 7 is at news, TT etc.
but why must finals still remain on the primary channel. this doesn’t make sense to me.
Airing AO on 7mate in HD would be So Much better, though.
Who cares about what was on 7two if it get interrupted by Tennis. 7two is full of rubbish repeat british programs. Complete tripe.
The tennis should take precedence. It is a grand slam tournament and obviously rates quite well. If you don’t like it…go and watch the rubbish on Gem
It’s bad news for people in Regional SA who do not have 7TWO at this stage, but 7TWO along with the other multi-channels (7mate, GO!, Gem etc) will be available hopefully by June this year.
Will they still show it on delay in Queensland at night?
and not a single mention what happens to the programming that would have been on 7TWO? Just look after Tennis fans most important thing.
Good to see that. It’s exactly what multi-channelling should be about. When your main channel has something important going on then regular scheduled programming can continue on your second channel.
Why they wouldn’t have it in HD on 7mate is beyond my comprehension.
Finally some sanity from those in charge and they finally realize this is 2011 and the majority have digital. This might also push those without to go and spend the 50 bucks and get a Digital STB.
What about the 7two viewers? It’s bad enough that Seven take up their entire schedule with sports and news and now 7two viewers won’t know if a show is going to be aired or not?
So they can switch coverage, but not offer an alternative match. They’re not quite there yet, are they.