★★★★★ 0/5

ONE to launch March 26

TEN will launch ONE, its 24 hour high definition sports channel, on March 26th.

97
Leave a comment

onehd-logo2Network TEN has announced its 24-hour sports channel, ONE, will launch on Thursday 26 March 2009 at 7.30pm.

TEN says the opening weekend will include:
• AFL‘s much anticipated first-round showdown between Richmond and Carlton will be the first sporting event to air on ONE in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, with the match to be broadcast simultaneously on ONE and TEN.
• Also on 26 March, ONE will broadcast an exclusive Swimming Australia SKINS event showcasing the Australian Swimming Team and international stars, including Olympic gold medallists Oussama Mellouli and Therese Alshammar. The SKINS event will be shown first in the Sydney and Brisbane markets, with coverage in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth following the AFL.
• Then, ONE will feature live and extended coverage of the Formula 1 ING Australian Grand Prix over the
launch weekend with more than 22 hours of action across Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Full details of the schedule for ONE will be announced closer to launch. TEN also promises:
• Extended versions of the ‘must-watch’ show for sports fans, Sports Tonight.
• More extensive coverage of domestic and international sport than ever seen before on Australian free-to-air television, including AFL, motor sport (Formula 1, Moto GP, NASCAR), netball, cricket, swimming, golf, NFL, NBA Major League Baseball, NCAA College Basketball and Football, and others.
• New, locally produced shows.

Network TEN’s General manager of sport, David White, said “We know our opening weekend will give viewers a sensational introduction to ONE, and mark the beginning of a lifetime’s habit of essential sports viewing.”

This means March 26 is also the date that TEN’s other programming will no longer be available in high definition.

ONE will broadcast from 26 March 2009 in High Definition (HD) on Channel 1 and also in Standard Definition (SD) on Channel 12.

97 Responses

  1. This no HD for non sport is BS.

    Surly Ten has spend millllllions on updating their studios for HD, all for nothing? It’s total BS. Didn’t Neighbours only just go HD? Clearly left hand has no idea what right hand is pulling off.

  6. Heaps of hate here for TEN, but…

    Even though I’m not a sports fanatic my brother would love this channel and Ten seems to be the only channel who cares about dedicated specialty programming. Do I see a drama channel from Seven or a lifestyle channel from Nine? No.

  7. Oh…. and it’s funny how Ten say they have 3 channels. Guess what they’ll be showing on the night the channel launches? That’s right – the same AFL game on all 3 channels.

  8. So they have a dedicated sports channel, and still the AFL gets delayed in Brisbane/Sydney – this channel is an absolute waste of time. I give it two years at the absolute most. Channel 12 (One SD) should be the dedicated sports channel, channel 1 should be a HD only channel, with content from both Ten and One.

  9. Russell, we know most answers.

    – Will Ten HD exist anymore? No.
    – What happens to shows such as House and Rove in HD? SD only, how poor!
    – How can Freeview be 15 channels when Ten intends to have only 2? They have 3, but even ABC simulcasts on ABC HD. Freeview is over-hyped.
    – Will OneSD and OneHD show the same programming? Yes.
    – Will viewers in areas served by Ten affiliates get OneHD / OneSD? Not sure….
    – How do Ten justify calling it “3 channels” when 2 of them are identical? All our HD channels are predominantly just SD signals with a few variations here and there,

  10. Russell:

    I’m sure Ten won’t be alone in the “two channels advertised as three” issue, given that the HD channels for ABC, Seven, Nine and SBS are mostly just simulcast of their main channels with a few token break-outs and I wouldn’t hold my breath that these channels will offer any significant programming other than to simulcast an SD channel. As I said in a comment to an earlier article on this site, the best we can probably expect from Freeview is 10 unique channels (we currently have seven in SD) + 5 HD simulcasts – and that’s in the capital cities. Regional areas who knows??

  12. Craig I just emailed SC10 programming, asking for a “statement”. Not feeling too hopeful though.

    To those who are confused: TENHD goes completely. There will only be 1HD with sport 24/7.

  13. So now we have a date for the death of Channel Ten in the eyes of those who watch quality television. 7 weeks to go.

    Stan, the Freeview web site is hilariously wrong. No digital channel in Australia has the space for two HD channels. As of March 26th, anything people watched in is native HD on TenHD – all the US shows, as well as local productions like Rush, Neighbours, Rove etc – will not be seen in HD at all, ever.

    The sports nuts have crowed loudly over this move by Ten, but I predict here and now (and actually have been predicting ever since it was first announced) that it will backfire on Ten in a big way, and the person who pushed it through will be collecting the dole sooner rather than later.

    As for the shows that TenHD used to show exclusively, well, rumour is that Smallville’s already been sold off to BlockyVision… err I mean Foxtel…

  14. Steve I know it’s confusing but the current old analogue and SD digital channel are the same, carrying all the normal shows. OneHD/SD will sport 24/7 sports both carrying the same content so ch10 will effectively had 2 channels.

    Get this weeks TV Guide for more info on the whole HD/SD Freeview confusion.

    Yes pietro I want to know what they plan for regional areas which look like being left out once again 🙁

  15. David

    I’ve never seen an issue generate as much confusion and debate as the TenHD / OneHD plans.

    No one seems to know for sure what is happening.

    – Will Ten HD exist anymore?
    – What happens to shows such as House and Rove in HD?
    – How can Freeview be 15 channels when Ten intends to have only 2?
    – Will OneSD and OneHD show the same programming?
    – Will viewers in areas served by Ten affiliates get OneHD / OneSD?
    – How do Ten justify calling it “3 channels” when 2 of them are identical?

    Perhaps you could reach out to Ten and Freeview for an exclusive interview on your site to clear this situation up?

  16. Daniel….regional TV has nothing to do with TEN. Complain to SC, Prime,WIN etc. TEN cannot show the games at different times on the two channels as that is considered a replay of which TEN does not have the AFL rights to. / Scott…it’s the amount of Bandwidth that is made available that prevents mulitple HD channels from going to air. / Johnson…why would they continue to shoot a show in HD when it is only going to be shown in SD? Why is this even a concern? / Ellis…don’t think too hard. You don’t speak for anyone but yourself. No-one complained before HD was here about shows not being in HD. No-one will care once it’s not made available. And you should check top rating shows…they are sporting events. / Stan…Foxtel is your only hope for live AFL games into Sydney 100% of the time. It is too costly for the Networks given the crap ratings. TEN does show them live if the Swans are playing.

    This move is a great point of difference to encourage Digital uptake in Australia. Clearly showing House and other cool shows in HD wasn’t pushing it hard enough. Seven and Nine are dragging their heels, so rather than get angry about not seeing Harold Bishop in High Def, start having a go at the other Networks for not doing anything.

  17. Paull on February 6th, 2009 12:05 pm “It’s not like TenHD exists anymore, it’s nothing more than a mere logo.”

    you are totally right, but don’t let 10 fool you into thinking that this was a natural thing and that they had run out of content for it. this was a deliberate move by 10 in preparation for ONE so that people would think exactly that, don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes.

    and for those of you asking what happens to all the shows that were dumped to 10HD only- they are gone, some sold to foxtel, others will never air on tv, the best you’ll probably get is the dvd when that eventually comes out.

  18. Agree, David. According to teh freeview list of channels it looks like that Ten will have to HD channels: one call Ten HD and the other called One HD. So, I’m assuming that the third one, called Ten, is going to be SD and analogue.

  19. RE: tomothy on February 6th, 2009 12:23 pm

    it is unthinkable (but then again, not really surprising) that multi-channelling now gives us three versions of the same thing! What happened to alternative content which is what these channels were meant to be?

    I think the more information that comes out about Freeview the more irritated the viewers are going to be.

  20. So, let’s see. They will be showing this on One-HD, One-SD and because their audience is stil mostly analog, it will have to be shown on Ten-Analogue and thus Ten-Digital also.

    So we get four channels all showing the same thing. What a load of crap.

  21. How much did it cost TEN to convert studios to HD? Presumably all this money is now wasted. Shares in Ch.10 anyone?

    We regional viewers need a statement from SC10 as to what their plans are…if any.

    IMHO there is much less HD on FTA than there was a year ago. And more people are buying TVs with HD tuners. Fabulous!

    H.264, I love you.

  22. Right now the HS and 2nd SD channels are not in the ratings list so 24/7 sports makes sense, plus I guess they can cross promote with the other shows on the main channel bringing in more viewers.

    As I said before I just hope we get in to catch the F1 opener!

  23. this sucks!! 24 hrs of bring sport!! i like footy but everything else just sucks, 10 obviously aren’t looking for a ratings grab, everyone knows sats are sport days and how badly they rate.
    i want movies, docos, and axed tv series

  24. Oh dear, we get short-changed in Sydney again when it comes to AFL games. It looks to me that AFL will have have find another TV station that is willing to show it live or at decent times otherwise Foxtel will be the only choice to watch them.

  25. American College Football and College Basketball is something I’ll definately be watching it’s where you see the upcoming players for the NBA and NFL.

    I don’t watch NFL that much but I certainly follow the NCAA and NBA with great interest. I think it’s been 15 years since I saw an NBA game on FTA TV.

    And Monday’s LIve Cleveland vs Detroit game was a huge treat. It was a great game to watch that had me on the edge of the seat right until the end.

    Can’t wait to watch Boston vs LA Lakers today and LA Lakers vs Cleveland on Monday.

    Thank you Ten for bringing something that I’ve been waiting for for years.

Leave a Reply