7TWO: TV’s “best kept secret”
"How well do you reckon the details of 7TWO have been kept secret?" Seven programmer Tim Worner asks TV Tonight. Seven finally unwraps its present to "heartland Australia."
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When the Seven Network finally unveiled its new digital channel, 7TWO, last week, it sent a clear message to its rivals. It was not going niche.
Unlike the sports-mad ONE and the youth-skewed GO!, 7TWO is a defiantly broad entertainment channel.
As Programming chief Tim Worner told TV Tonight, he is happy to embrace anybody with ‘a set of eyeballs and a digital telly.’
“We’ve gone for a strategy that uses our main channel to sell our digital channel. We lead in the main channel stakes. Our aim is to grow the number of people watching Seven product over two channels and eventually over a portfolio of channels,” he said.
“I don’t tend to pay too much attention to what’s going on elsewhere. We set our course and sail to that.”
With its mix of largely British and US titles, 7TWO’s feature attractions are the promise of prime slots for favourite titles including Lost, 24, Ugly Betty and Heroes.
“The counterprogramming strategy is pretty simple. In its most obvious execution you’d have Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters on Channel Seven and then over on 7TWO you might have, for argument’s sake, Ultimate Cage Fighting and Family Guy. That’s our thinking.
“We’re not steering away from our digital on the main channel. On the contrary you’ll see the digital channel promoted on Seven and you’ll see a heap of promotion for Seven on 7TWO.”
Already the channel has enjoyed promotions on Seven ahead of its launch this Sunday at 12pm with its politically-inspired “It’s Time” campaign song.
“One thing that’s annoyed us is this speculation that ‘they don’t know what they’re doing… they don’t have a plan!’ In fact we’ve known exactly what we’re doing for a very long time and it’s been like having a present under the tree, and not being able to unwrap it.”
In order to keep the industry guessing, Worner hints at some crafty manouvering.
“How well do you reckon the details of 7TWO have been kept secret?” he asks. “I’ve never known a better kept secret in Australian television. There were all sorts of moves to make sure things rolled that way.”
Channel Mate, 7PLUS and PLUS7 were amongst some names which appear to be red herrings.
“What about those bloody logos? I did them myself on the gestetner machine,” he laughs.
“When we sat down to work out the name of the channel 12 months ago, we were considering all these names. Red, Ruby, Bill, Dave, Tom, Dick, Harry,” he teases. “In the end we kept coming back to the power of that big, red 7 and the trust that’s been built in that brand over the last five years. And I know you bloggo people don’t like to admit it, but you know something? Heartland Australia sees that 7 and they trust it. They know that is going to have some good shows on it.”
7TWO is set up in such a way that it has the ability to include a number of genres, a particularly strategic move given the Anti-Siphoning list is under review.
“We wanted a brand that’s got utility,” he says.
“We want to be able to run sport, comfortably on the channel. We want to be able to run live breaking news on the channel, comfortably.”
While he hasn’t locked anything in, Worner expects that some titles, including the Heroes, Lost, 24 and Ugly Betty brands, may yet have a life on Seven, but on 7TWO they will run at 7:30 or 8:30. There are also reruns of HBO brands including The Sopranos and Six Feet Under, but Worner denies this is an indication of a 7-HBO distribution deal.
“No Free to Air has a deal with HBO. The Pacific is something we bought a long time ago. It’s extremely powerful. I’ve now seen 3 episodes of that show. You don’t watch that show, you feel that show. It is the last of the great miniseries because of the economic model in the US. There will never be another miniseries like that where they spend over $200m making it. It just won’t happen. And that’s why HBO have delayed and delayed the premiere until 2010. It is truly riveting television.”
From the LA screenings Worner also picked up the HBO drama, Hung, which it will air in Australia following its Showtime premiere.
“Essentially it’s a show about a bloke with a whopping schlonger and you think ‘That is going to be a ribald comedy.’ But when you see the show it is anything but that. It’s a very warm show with a real heart and it’s got a couple of great characters out in front that you identify with, you barrack for, it’s a great show.”
So where does the arrival of 7TWO leave 7HD? Worner says it will remain a simulcast of Seven for the time being.
“But our aim is very clear. We want to grow the number of viewers of Seven product. We make a lot of product ourselves, and we want to grow the number of people watching that product across two channels, and eventually, hopefully, all things going the way we’d like, across a portfolio of channels.
“Everything about our channel is broad. From the name, right through to the schedule, right through to the thinking. That is absolutely the way we’re going, and that’s different to the way the others have played their cards.”
When it launches on Sunday, 7TWO will be the final commecial channel to be added to the Freeview suite. It represents a growing confidence in the television sector and for Programmer Tim Worner, it’s a present to viewers and advertisers.
It may have taken some time to unwrap, but he points to a confluence of events that indicated 7TWO was ready to roll.
“There are big sporting events with a lot of eyeballs on the main channel. Possibly improving economic conditions, a bunch of things. A confluence of things. The timing is right. ‘It’s Time.'”
7TWO launches 12pm Sunday on Ch 72 and is accessible via a digital television or digital set top box.
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- Tagged with 24, Brothers and Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Family Guy, Heroes, Hung, Lost, Six Feet Under, The Pacific, The Sopranos, Ugly Betty, Ultimate Cage Fighting
89 Responses
Arrogant…….
i have to say the picture quality on 7TWO is worse than go! now thats funny!!
its GO for me!!
“Everything about our channel is broad” – no s**t, Tim. Even your alternative channel is as middle-of-the-road as they come. Did you ever toss the name Bland around at all…?
yep, TW is a complete tool. i think we all agree. and how clumsy is the channel name? if an 8 year old presented that to his school teacher, he would be told that it doesn’t make sense. 72 (seventy two) or 7.2 are logical. it pains me that someone got paid to come up with that. nevertheless, it looks ok,and we’re all getting more choice, which is fundamentally what these digi channels are all about.
I don’t get it doesnt Kerry Stokes own 15% of Prime, you think he would have a little push in th subject. (15% of a push anyway)
“… And I know you bloggo people don’t like to admit it, but you know something? Heartland Australia sees that ‘7’ and they trust it. They know that is going to have some good shows on it.”
Pass me the bucket!
They just did a story on 7 news that the Brisbane launch was today (including worner saying that quote about cage fighting). They also said that 7TWO will have half the ads which I don’t think has been mentioned on here before. But I did see a link to an article posted on dtvforum where they said that there will be 6 mins of ads per hour. Lets hope this gets them to run on time hey.
There is so much negativity here so I will be positive, I’m really looking forward to this there are quite a few big name shows on in primetime that do well on dvd and have the potential to get a lot of viewers. If there is one thing that 7 does well it is advertising, I’ve always thought digital channels would do much better if they just advertised them on the main channel so that the general public actually has some awareness. I think this channel will do very well thanks to the cross promotion on both channels if nothing else. And don’t forget how many people on here were bagging out everything about GO! when it was first announced too, but it is still doing well in the ratings and is now being hailed as awesome.
More mind-numbing shows for a resource-rich country
Will be interesting to see what happens if Prime don’t launch simultaneously with 7.
Are they going to air catchup episodes of Heroes,Lost etc
It’s quite clear from the “deadly silence” emitting from Prime that regional viewers are facing another SC / 10 debacle.
At this point in time you would have to say Prime = fail.
There’s a story on the back of the front section of today’s Canberra Times that states a January launch for 7TWO on Prime.
Best thing about Tim Worner is that he consistently pi**es off the Ten and Nine fankids!
That snowboarding show on Go is from New Zealand, so that would count as local content. There’s also Shortland Street on Seven ‘s new channel. That is the kind of thing we would end up with if they introduced content rules for these multi-channels.
I have Foxtel, can I get these new stations? I can’t get GO! or the others 🙁
“the power of that big, red 7” is that why it’s white and orange background now?
7TWO have started a promotional loop
@ Andrew
Well even if it’s not Australian, per say, it’s the closest thing to an Australian show on GO. I’m sure you understand where i’m coming from.
“I don’t tend to pay too much attention to what’s going on elsewhere” – Is that why you waited for TEN, Nine and SBS to launch their secondary channels first?
“In the end we kept coming back to the power of that big, red 7 and the trust that’s been built in that brand over the last five years. And I know you bloggo people don’t like to admit it, but you know something? Heartland Australia sees that 7 and they trust it.”
What an arrogant tool you are, Tim Worner. Seven is my least favourite and least watched commercial channel (excluding SBS) and believe it or not, I don’t happen to identify any “power” in two red trapezia, or even two white ones on an orange background for that matter, nor do I find them trustworthy. Not even when a moron expects me to believe his ludicrous rhetoric, which nobody is stupid enough to think is convincing anyone.
Local content rules must be applied to the new channels as without them there will be little incentive for networks to invest in local production. If a network is running three channels in a couple of years, two of which have no local content requirements, then they could make cheap low-grade programmes to fulfil the quota on one channel, whilst showing more expensive and popular foreign (almost certainly US) stuff on the other two channels. Now, they cannot afford to make rubbish as most watch their original analogue channel and this would drive viewers to other channels, by 2013 when everyone is watching digital this won’t be the case.
Yeah, it’s kinda hard to leak information that doesn’t exist yet. What a tool. Looks like Channel 7 is still the one…
You know what would be delight for free tv? The free tv premiere of True Blood on 7TWO…They say they don’t have a deal but if 7TWO like it already has with other series ‘fast tracks’ Season 3 of True Blood straight after playing Season 1 and 2, I think it might be a larger hit in Australia. The only audience for True Blood in Australia is either foxtel followers or by other means, It would be a ratings winner for 7…sorta like the channel 7’s dexter
@Peter, some STB/digital tv need to be re-scanned to pick new channels/EPG data up, but some don’t as well so it all depends.
“No Free to Air has a deal with HBO.”
im fair sure that the ABC has a deal with HBO to produce Chris Lilley’s new show ‘Angry Boys’!
In his defence, Mr. Worner was answering a question on disitribution deals not production.
@ vinnie – actually TV Week is an ACP mag, owned PBL who also own Nine.
ive never rescanned my stb since i got it over a year ago. the names ONE and GO! just appeared instead of TEN HD and Nine Guide one morrning, same with the EPG’s. i guess 7TWO will be the same. The EPG for sunday/monday next week is just blank for now, so i suppose that and the name will change over the next few days.