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Southern Cross adds ONE HD from July 2

TEN's 24 hour sports channel moves into regional Queensland, NSW, ACT and Victoria from July 2nd. And TV Tonight confirms Tasmania will join them.

oneid1Regional viewers of Southern Cross 10 will finally see ONE HD in Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT and Victoria from 7pm July 2nd, it was announced today.

The addition of the channel follows months of complaints that that regional viewers could not access the 24 hour sports channel at the same time as metropolitan viewers, who have been accessing it since March.

Macquarie Southern Cross Media (MSCM) says it will launch ONE HD on Channel 50 to viewers who receive its HD service in three states, subject to digital coverage. Viewers will require a HD set top box or television to receive ONE HD.

TV Tonight can also confirm that Tasmanian viewers will also receive the channel from July 2nd.

Macquarie Southern Cross Media’s Chief Executive Officer, Rhys Holleran, said “We are thrilled to be able to bring ONE HD to our regional viewers who currently receive our HD service in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the ACT.

“The launch of this channel follows the significant investment program which was required to enable the broadcasting of HD television across 25 markets we have in these regions in Eastern Australia ranging from Far North Queensland down to Southern Victoria.”

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy said: “Digital television means better pictures, improved sound quality and new content. I welcome the continued
rollout of additional digital television services and congratulate Macquarie Southern Cross Media for the further expansion of ONE HD.”

TV Tonight has previously made available maps of the four key regional markets, which will all receive ONE HD: in Queensland (Aggregate market A), Northern NSW (Aggregate market B), Southern NSW (Aggregate market C) and Victoria (Aggregate market D).

An official statement is expected on the Tasmanian market imminently following a board meeting today.

Greg Dodgson, Chief Operating Officer for Macquarie Southern Cross Media, told TV Tonight: “A Press Release will be coming out on Tasmania as soon as possible.

“It will come in at the same time:  2nd of July at 7:00,” he confirmed.

Darwin, Central Australia and regional South Australia, which are digital areas, will still miss out on receiving ONE HD.

“There’s no requirement for high definition broadcast in Central Australia and South Australia. Our Darwin component, because it’s a joint venture company with the Nine Network, hasn’t come to any landing yet on providing it into that area. We’re still working with our joint venture company, the Nine Network,” Dodgson said.

SC 10 indicates sport highlights will include:

AFL – the 2009 NAB Cup, home and away season, and finals including the Grand Final returning to the network in 2009
Netball – ANZ Championship Competition and all Test matches featuring the Australian Netball Diamonds,
exclusively for the next five years
Commonwealth Games – 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games
Formula 1 – every round of the F1 World Championship scope
Moto GP – extensive coverage of every round of the World Championship
NASCAR – live coverage of the Daytona 500 and other major Sprint Cup races, live coverage of the Nationwide Series, as well as Sprint Cup qualifying
Australian Rally Championship – exclusive coverage of every round
National Football League (NFL) – three games per week live, including the flagship Sunday and Monday night games, as well as live coverage of play-offs and the Super Bowl
Major League Baseball (MLB) – five games per week live, including prime time coverage of play-offs and
World Series National Basketball Association (NBA) – three games per week live
Golf – US Masters, US Open, World Golf Championships including the Accenture MatchPlay Championship, the CA Championship, the Bridgestone Invitational and the World Cup, Australian PGA, Ladies Masters, 2010 Ryder Cup, and 15 additional international and domestic events including the Johnnie Walker Classic, and the Asian tour’s flagship event the Singapore Open and the tour’s season ending Volvo Masters of Asia.
U.S. College sports – American football and basketball
Tennis – ATP and WTA tennis, details to be confirmed, approximately 11 tournaments during 2009.
Swimming – HD ONE is the exclusive broadcaster for Swimming Australia. This includes coverage of the
Australian Swimming Championships, Pan Pacific Championships, Australian Short Course Championships, FINA World Short Course, Swimmer of the Year – a minimum 109 hours per year for the next eight years.

For additional information on ONE HD please refer to the Network TEN website: http://ten.com.au/one-hd.htm

85 Responses

  1. In response to some areas getting ONE HD tomorrow will Darwin get ONE HD eventually or never? Is Darwin likely to miss out altogether never to get the channel?

  2. So, does Tassie get One HD on July 2nd 2009 or not?. I guess its wait and see. I certainly know that I am looking forward to it. I never purchased a 50″ Plasma to watch any other station. I guess someone could compensate me on my expences getting ready to receive this 24/7 sports channel if it does not arrive here very shortly. Cheers & Good Luck to All …..

  3. Here it is only 3 days one hour till One HD supposedly starts in Tasmania but as yet TDT have not made a decision as to the start date.

    A phone call this afternoon to TDT’s General Manager Stephen Giles said that he was working towards the 2nd of July but would not speculate. When questioned regarding Greg Dodgson comments to say it would be happening on the 2nd Mr Giles said he may have been misquoted “You know what the media is like”

    Is that how you see it David?

  4. @ Russell – yes everyone should have the same and equal access no matter what their location.

    The only thing stopping this from happening is incompetence.

    Commercial reality check – why is the FTA audience leaving in droves to the internet and other services – because content is not being provided to them.

  5. Guys this is a free sports TV network, not a national public health system. I don;t see why i limited appeal private commercial TV network should be made avail to people outside the major TV markets.

    In a few weeks One will be avail to about 90% of Australians. That is 90% of all Australians in one of the world’s most thinly populated countries in the space of 3 months. What more do you want?

    Should people in smaller cities and towns in WA, A and NT also demand access to world class theatre, high end luxury retail brands and international sports events too?

    In the commercial reality of the world, certain things come with larger populations.
    A limited appeal niche sports channel may be just one of those things.

  6. be nice if digital tv roll out could be finished before all this extra crap is advertised.. our local xmitter has had the commercial stations “due” for abotu 6 years now… im totally disinterested (and tbh, slightly pi**ed off) everytime i see the one HD and ‘freeview’ bs ads come on telly..
    just as a point of reference, we’re 2.5hrs drive west of sydney, and a major center in our area… funily enough, the outlying areas have full coverage, yet our own township, fed from a fart-powered xmitter who’s uplike comes from the major (digital transmitting) xmitter, is not…

    figure that out…

  7. Regional SA, WA, NT, and Darwin should all be able to get HD, OneHD or whatever HD. Full stop.

    This is utter crap and inexcusable in 2009. I live in metro Melbourne, and I think that Australians slogging it hard in regional Australia should have the same access to Freeview as the rest of us.

  8. i like 9HD its the only HD exclusive programming i watch right now, the old bewitched and i dream of jeanie eps are good. 10HD disappeared and i used to watch it heaps, no interest in ONE, 7HD has nothing worth watching anymore and 9HD only has the occasional show of interest, but it is still more than any of the others right now, in fact i don’t watch 9 at all so 9HD is even beating 9 for me. it was a very different story this time last year though.

  9. lol at current SC10 HD service……….nothing but pictures of barns with ONE HD logo blazing across the base 24/7.

    That’s one hell of a service!!!!!!!!

  10. Andrew B

    NBN is not a priority at channel 9 since the main network is slowly sliding down the ratings in an advertising downturn and the parent CVC has alot of debt to deal with. That’s why you see alot of cheap programming because they are tightening costs. The purpose was to do that and sell it off in a strong advertising market.

    NBN is just a blip although 9HD is hardly providing extensive / quality alternate viewing for 9 viewers

  11. thanks for the update David.
    Any word whether Southern Cross’ 7 affiliates will launch 7HD on channel 60 at the same time as OneHD is launched?

  12. Now they can include the ONE HD logo on the regional version of the FreeView ad (nth NSW) as it currently is a little light on with the channels. And they can use the statement “there’s even a 24 hour sports channel” like they do on the overplayed capital city ad.

    And suggest they put in Prime HD logo as well (as they already do the same HD break aways as 7). That may pressure NBN to start offering the 9HD break aways. NBN will from July 2 be the only channel left in Nth NSW area that has no HD break away or secondary channel.

  13. David: Ok, so MSCM/SC10 clearly have it wrong. For the record, and for the benefit of readers, Central Australia does not have commercial digital SD services. Just like regional WA.

  14. “Viewers will require a HD set top box or television to receive ONE HD.”

    You can also buy an HD TV Tuner card for your PC and watch it that way. Makes it nice if you are running a media center PC.

  15. Why do people in the country areas get such a shocking tv deal why dont they get metropolitan feeds from each state capital with there own regional ads inserted for each state ie adelaide – the rest of sa melbourne – the rest of victoria and so on or is this just way to simplistic ?

  16. TVFan: TEN dropped TEN HD for ONE HD which it saw as a better revenue driver.

    SMacca: Regional SA and Central Aus are digital SD areas, not high def areas. The info is as per SC10 advice.

  17. Great news for the country viewers finally.

    I’m still confused, what happened to 10HD ?
    I don’t understand why they had to rename 10HD to OneHD, how is this an extra channel ? Isn’t this a scam, am i the only one who feels cheated that Channel 10 is not broadcasting an extra channel.

    I’m just a normal viewer, I’m not an expert in this, so perhaps someone can tell me why channel 10 is allowed to do this.

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