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Delays for 9HD and 9Life on Southern Cross

Southern Cross promises to have both channels active by mid-August.

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9HDViewers in Southern Cross markets will have to wait longer to see 9HD and 9Life when the new affiliate deal with Nine kicks in on July 1st.

“SCA will broadcast 9HD on channel 50 on viewers’ remote control and 9Life on channel 54 of viewers’ remote control but the two channels will not be immediately available on 1 July,” an SCA spokeswoman told Mumbrella.

“We have ordered the new equipment we need to broadcast the two channels and as soon as we are able, we will put them to air.

“They will both be up and running by mid-August at the latest.”

The delay means events including NRL and the final State of Origin may not be available in High Definition to regional viewers. 9HD content is available in standard definition on Nine.

9Life titles will still be accessible via 9NOW.

Nine on 5 markets include Regional Queensland, Southern NSW and regional Victoria.

Update: 9HD confirmed for launch on July 1st on Southern Cross.

5 Responses

  1. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the Nine suite of channels in Tasmania given its not Sthn Cross but they are moving to what is currently 3 MPEG2 channels (1 HD, 2 SD) plus datacasting. I imagine it’ll mean loss of HD primary channel and 9Life. Oh well, hopefully its all sorted out soon.

  2. Does anyone know if there is any mandate by the govt. (i.e. under the Broadcasting Act) or by the ACCC which would not allow for a network which has more than one affiliate in a market to pull channels solely for the reason that they are switching primary affiliates? According to The Australian last week the affiliation agreement for Nine in towns like Mildura and Griffith is yet to be finalised. In these towns WIN currently has the affiliate for both Nine and Ten, and I can just see WIN not launching an additional HD feed for Nine and dropping 9life completely despite them offering the channels up until now under their existing Nine affiliation agreement and continuing to be a Nine affiliate (although not primarily). It may not be illegal but it is definitely unfair given if SCA took over like in the other markets the channels are at least planned to relaunch.

  4. Definitely Ten is the winner in this switcharoo. Ten now need to get another channel to combat 9Life and 7Flix. Still say a dedicate Crime channel is there best angle. One still seems to be all over the place in my view. Not sure what audience they are chasing on it. Another idea is to have wall to wall comedy shows like New Girl, Last Man Standing, etc.

  5. A few days after the new affiliation agreement was signed, SCA had a FAQ up on its website saying these channels would be delayed by a “few months” because of equipment issues… so to have them in August frankly is very good.

    In regards to NNSW, I got this reply yesterday from 9on5:

    ” in answer to your question about SCA Ten getting HD in Northern NSW. Yes we will be installing HD In northern NSW but it will take us a little longer – it will probably be more like September. Again we have to order equipment, get it installed tested etc.”

    So at least they are being open an honest about their situation.

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