Since its launch yesterday many angry readers have been asking about the absence of 7TWO on Prime Television and asking about its arrival date.
The issue mirrors the same problem when ONE was not initially available in regional viewers in March. The television sector appears to have learned little from this experience. Unfortunately, regional playouts are usually a lot more involved than metro cities.
TV Tonight today asked Prime for clarity but the answer was decidedly brief:
“Prime will announce its plans regarding our Multi channels in the near future.”
A Seven spokesperson previously advised it would be added to Prime with 7TWO branding, but no start-up date was promised. That would seem to still hold true.
No doubt the network is more than aware of the viewer fury that has gathered in the last 24 hours. As to affording ‘fault’ for its lateness that’s anyone’s guess. Suffice to say that Seven’s master plan to keep everything under wraps has been a challenge for some affiliate partners.
Southern Cross Tasmania will add the channel from December 1st. It will also be added to Foxtel cable from November 24th on Ch 127.
When it does arrive to Prime, viewers will potentially have missed out on key episodes of Ugly Betty, Reaper, Heroes and more, though this too is yet to be clarified.
heroes and ugly betty are on the channel 7 website for download, that must be some small comfort until 7two is all across australia.
As far as I know Prime is a regional affiliate of 7 and as per most things rollouts of anything new are always forever before they reach regional areas because the population number is significantly less – yes its unfair but there’s nothing we can do about it.
“In August, it was announced that Prime was installing a Snell Morpheus automation and control system to upgrade their playout. Snell Group reported Lyndon Cox, network project manager with Prime TV as saying:
“Morpheus’ ability to handle live format scheduling changes, like those with sporting events, will reduce the load on our operators — and we also expect big improvements in asset management with the ability to manage media across different brands from a single system.”
Is the Morpheus installation completed? If not, that could explain the delay.”
Oh jesus no, from what I’ve heard Morpheus is taking months to install…
Let me get this straight. Customers with Foxtel satellite are discriminated against and people in regional areas are discriminated against. The people in TV land are only interested in the majority, the majority being people located in capital cities. It is 2009 for heaven’s sake, not 1964. Surely they can pull their collective fingers out of their collective backsides and give regional viewers the same service as those in capital cities. Those of us who live in regional areas are sick of being treated like second-class citizens.
Brad, re the Canberra facility broadcast feed, if its true that makes sense.
It would explain why in the areas where Southern Cross do Seven’s programming (Tasmania and Darwin) rather than Ten’s, Southern Cross can get the feed out before Prime on the rest of the eastern seaboard.
But as it took Southern Cross Ten on Canberra more than 12 months after the promised to date to actually roll out the facility to begin with, its no wonder Prime can’t give a date this time around. I don’t imagine SC Ten is in any hurry to assist their competition, when they weren’t in any hurry to assist themselves.
If that is true, don’t expect prime to have Seven 2 available any time before 2011.
I’m loving how the bit rate on 7TWO is actually equal with 10 SD, 7 and 9, and I wish GO! would step up and stop the youtube style quality we’re getting at the moment.
As for prime’s lack of 7TWo, maybe they are trying to negotiate with 7 to re-brand it to Prime 2, or Prime Time (seeing as Time seems to be important in 7two’s logo).
@John Bailey, Austar cannot provide the fta commercial networks because each network can only broadcast within a licence area. Austar’s licence covers many fta licence areas. if Austar was allowed to rebroadcast the 3 commercial networks from every licence area, there wouldn’t be any satellite room for the pay channels. If you don’t like it, get Mystar.
I think it’s a disgrace that Austar’s basic service doesn’t include free to air commercial channels.
Very inconvenient for older viewers who aren’t tech savvy and have to connect and disconnect cords etc
David can you look into this please ?
apparently that was the case but Adelaide and Perth are now missing out, both Cable and Satellite. WIN wont pay up
Jay Jay I was advised GO! comes to Foxtel cable from Nov 24.
just got word that GO! will not be available on Foxtel in Adelaide and Perth. WTF!?!
Completely agree with Russell. Pointless for Prime to differentiate given the lack of local content these days.
i emailed them got no reply so i went to the my local prime office studios *Coffs Harbour Jetty
and they pretty much said we are not going to comment but be rest assured we will
make a comment when we are ready
Prime should get brought out by the seven network
and have regional channel 7 like in QLD
Yet again the country folk miss out. Im a dead set heroes nut and was looking forward to new episodes as I’ve been watching it by other means. Its bad enough we have to endure infomercials day and night while the metros get decent programming. Thank god for GO
@Steve: “regionalism and local programming”? Apart from local news in some areas and more infomercials overnight, Prime is pretty much the same as Seven.
In the old days of having one commercial channel in regional areas, it would generally have the best of programming from the three city channels. If Prime are unable to deliver 7TWO now, then many of these complaints would be solved by at least showing key 7TWO drawcards like Heroes and Ugly Betty on the main Prime channel even if late at night so that viewers in Primes coverage area can at least keep up to date withthese shows.
Hi Steve,
you live in lala land. Prime would never start their own channel. They only care about money and money. Look what rubbish they serve here in Canberra. No real local news and the whole night this info-mercials….. \
get rid of them. ….
hopefully prime looses its licence.
Unacceptable Prime! GO! showed us it can happen, why do we regional viewers always have to miss out
When I was told over the weekend that 7Two was going to come out of Sth Cross Canberra the look of surprise on my face so I’m told was priceless!!
I cant comprehend how a so called modern facility like BCM that was built for Digital Television has to rely on a Non affiliated Regional Network to play out their second channel.
Seven really were caught out with this and were not planning to launch the 2nd channel until next year.
But as I’m informed it was the big Media buyers in the country that forced there hand and demanded to know what format the channel would take before they would start negotiation for next year!
To all those people demanding that Prime carry 7TWO – Prime are under no obligation whatsoever to carry it, and in fact, for all we know, they might have plans for their own channel and never carry 7TWO at all. Or perhaps they’re preferring to wait until they can have it run with their own brand. Either way, just because the cities get it doesn’t mean that you should automatically have it.
And as for the people saying that Seven should take over Prime: have a read of the media ownership laws. They are there to protect regionalism and local programming.
Notes to Prime:
1. Dump your ugly ass logo and colour scheme
2. Take on Seven branding, but localise it for each region (Seven Canberra, Seven North Coast, Seven Newcastle)
3. Launch local news services
4. Launch 7TWO
Hey Brad, re Sthn Cross doing playout for 7TWO.
And to only think that Sthn Cross in only over the back fence at Prime. You can see the Sthn Cross building form the Prime Building in Canberra.
I am sure Prime have their reasons, but I am guessing it caught them out by surprise, as Seven have had to contract out to Sthn Cross at what looks like very short notice as well. The success of GO! had sort of seemingly forced Seven’s hand. Nine is using what was the separate HD suite down the hall from the main Network PC suite at Willougby to playout GO!, which is why there are no more HD breakaways on Nine, and I am guessing WIN is using their formerly WIN HD suite to run GO! as well, hence why the WIN HD Service has shut down for the time being. Seven would have had no spare playout capacity at Docklands BCM, let alone Prime who seeminlgy have none, as Prime simply relayed the Seven HD feed with Seven breaks (minus 7 logo) for HD breakaways, which means PRIME would seemingly have not had a separate HD suite, hence why they are unable to run a separate Pres Suite for 7TWO at the moment? One would think that Prime would simply relay the dirty 7TWO feeds until they had the had their new Morpheus system to take over when ready for local Pres control of 7TWO? Who knows, time will tell.
ct
Hate 7two. Go! Rocks go Go!
+1 at disappointment with the situation.
It seems an odd situation that Prime is in, in that it is unable to deliver the content the regional viewers would have been anticipating. That is, the continuance of shows they had been loyally following (e.g. Lost, Heroes, 24, Ugly Betty).
Don’t know who is to blame for the screw up, but as viewers it’s not as though we don’t have options. If a supplier can’t be relied upon, then it’s only reasonable to look for alternatives. Specifically, DVD releases (bought/rented/shared)) or downloads.
It would seem the networks are signing their own death warrant if they persist with shoddy treatment of viewers – rescheduling programs, on-and-off-again nature of shows.
I look forward to the day when production houses can sell (e.g. via subscription) their shows direct to the masses. Actually, I guess they already do with DVD releases but some sort of download version would cut out some costs as far as middle men / manufacturing / distribution / packaging and hopefully make it much more affordable.
After a little investigation, I’ve discovered that Presentation for 7two isn’t actually being done by 7 at BCM, but actually by Southern Cross from their digital facility in Canberra for the next 6-12 months..
As Seven are unable to do it themselves, perhaps this is why Prime were un-prepared!!
Leave it to the regional networks to boost the level of bit torrent traffic and kill thier potential revenue base. Poeple will and have gotten ticked off with waiting and be bypassing the network altogether. Serves them right.
Why isn’t GWN listed on the Freeview website? It has as much claim as any other regional channel.
Hi everyone. It’s quite sad to read about Prime not offering 7two. In regional Qld it’s available via 7Qld. I think I’ll be watching this station on a regular basis.
Its not the fact we don’t have it; its the fact prime refuse to give us an answer! If they’d just open up and tell people what is going on then I’m sure that will satisfy some fans.
They are so pathetic. Nothing they can say will excuse their in-action and the only thing they can do to redeem themselves is put the darn channel to air!!
They’ve given the same line over and over, and people arn’t getting any happier. They are only getting madder!!!
This sux for the regional viewers – I’m sure it’s not as simple as many think [flicking on a switch], but surely planning a wide-spread rollout in sequence with the capitals is not entirely impossible to achieve.
What might be a good idea is if someone asks prime how the propose to allow us to catch up on programs we’ll’ve missed. Not to mention suggesting that prime use it’s hd channel temporarily to allow at least some regional viewers to access 7two.
I wouldn’t want to be a Prime television receptionist for quids. Regional viewers would feel differently about the matter if there was a reason provided for the delay. Were they so in the dark about Seven’s plans that they could do nothing to prepare for the arrival of a new channel? Viewers have been expecting a new channel for months. All I can say is how appropriate it is that the old Prime logo still appears on the side of garbage bins throughout regional NSW.
How about a bit of candor, Prime?
‘Typical’ used the “d word”…
Massive fail, Prime. NBN and WIN managed to launch GO! at the same time as Nine. I’ll be getting my Ugly Betty and Reaper elsewhere.
Watching the Derby Day coverage on GWN and seeing constant promos for 7TWO – well, I laughed.
Regional WA is still yet to get any love from the commercial stations in regards to digital TV.
There supposed to be closing analogue in Regional WA in 2013 – best of luck with that. We’ll be lucky to have anything by then!
Prime had month to preper for this and Prime is part of Freeview.
It’s time for 7 to take over Prime and make it 7 canberra.
Look at their Local News. 6 times a day we get 1 min updates and the whole night they have Infomercial.
We had enough and this is our town and the public should decide who gets a TV Licence.
My question is about those in the GWN coverage area. In WA, digital TV doesn’t need to be completed (and isn’t on schedule) until 2013.
Family and friends in that region have been wondering if GWN will be able to play shows from 7TWO. Otherwise missing out on 24, Heroes, Lost etc….
No response as yet from GWN.
So TV’s second biggest secret is the launch date of 7TWO on Prime.
What a pathetic response.
Well put, HC Stewie!
I’ve just got one thing to say to Prime… For once, won’t you think of the children!
I am really dissapointed with televison networks, I live in Tasmania and sometimes I feel like we are not even a part of Australia along with many other regional viewers im sure the thing is Hobart is a capitol city we are still classed as regional. The other thing is when Tasmania does get it most shows will have started so we will not be able to catch up on the things we have missed. Im afraid 7TWO cared more about not letting any one know about Televison’s so called best kept secret, A lot of Australia still doesn’t know about it.
Problem with using other methods to catch shows like Heroes is the areas affected don’t have the best Internet connections or are limited to wireless or satellite at higher cost.
ITA this sucks and it’s a problem for new eps of shows like Heroes, lets hope they do some encore screening late night on Seven in 2010?
And why do people download??
They probably have Prime Possum working in PR/Multichannels. Hence the short response.
When I grew up in country victoria, there was only two channels available.
If missing out on a secondary channel is such a big issue for everyone, then maybe they should cast their minds back to the old days, and be thankful for what they have.
So much hate on this page in the last few days.
There is a fair chance that the big wigs at Prime were kept out of the loop on the 2nd channel – it has been one of the best kept secrets in Aussie TV for ages.
Even David here (who seems to be able to sniff out most stories) did not have anything (aside from the rumors) until the press release hit.
Give Prime a break people….it is free after all.
Great update David.
What with this and no HD channel on WIN, we really are being treated as 2nd class citizens.
Southern Cross will also be extending 7TWO to Darwin from 1 December so seemingly Darwin will get it before Canberra and larger regional centres like Newcastle, Wollongong and Ballarat
Are they at least going to make the new episodes of Heroes, Ugly Betty etc. available on yahoo7? I am so glad I moved out of a Prime area.
“Prime will announce its plans regarding our Multi channels in the near future.”
Oh that reply? I got that one a couple of days ago
well its obvious what to do – just dont watch the station but of course we are a country of apathetics aren we
This is Prime saying yes to channel BT
In August, it was announced that Prime was installing a Snell Morpheus automation and control system to upgrade their playout. Snell Group reported Lyndon Cox, network project manager with Prime TV as saying:
“Morpheus’ ability to handle live format scheduling changes, like those with sporting events, will reduce the load on our operators — and we also expect big improvements in asset management with the ability to manage media across different brands from a single system.”
Is the Morpheus installation completed? If not, that could explain the delay.
and their logo is Prime lives here, obviously not where I live, otherwise they would know how pi**ed people are……..
Try living in the Riverland in S.A., only this month we finally have received ch9′s main channel with no hope of receiving any of the multi channels, ie One Ten, 7Two and Nines Go…
It feels good to be treated like second class citizens, so much for modern technology…Thanks Win
Oh, and they should change their slogan from “Bringing it home”, to “We may or may not be bringing it home at some unspecified time in the future but we don’t have any announcements to make at this stage”.
I got almost the exact same response when I emailed them.
October 27 – “Thank you for your enquiry. Prime hopes to make an announcement on its multi-channels in the near future.”