The Seven Network has announced a new digital channel, 7mate, to launch on September 25, aimed at men 16-49.
It will launch with high definition coverage of the AFL Grand Final.
Seven’s CEO, David Leckie said, “Seven is Australia’s most-watched network and our suite of multi-channels delivers more viewers than anyone else,.
“7mate is the next step in building on our leadership in broadcast television. 7mate is going to be great.
“The launch of 7mate delivers us a tremendous platform of channels targeting specific audience demographics – leveraging our primary channel’s success with women and 7TWO’s targeting of a 25+ adult audience.
“We’re delighted to be the first commercial network to move to three channels. With 7HD we were first into multi-channelling for the commercial networks and this is another significant step for our television business,” Mr Leckie said.
Programming Chief Tim Worner, said “We’re using the biggest sports event to launch 7mate but this new channel will be so much more than sport. We are after the most elusive demographic in media and we think we’ve got the offering to get them.”
New episodes of Family Guy, American Dad, Parks And Recreation and Last Comic Standing will lead the primetime comedy schedule. 3o Rock, How I Met Your Mother, That 70’s Show, Scrubs and Crank Yankers round out the laughs. New drama will include the sci-fi series Caprica and the adventure series Warehouse 13 and Stargate Atlantis. The reality slate will feature US ratings hits Jersey Shore and Pawn Stars, along with popular MTV series Punk’d and Gene Simmons Family Jewels, featuring the controversial KISS guitarist and his LA-based family, and Monster Garage with Jesse G. James. Factual on 7mate will see series such as Fifth Gear, The Universe, Life After People, The Boneyard, Ax Men, Jacked: Auto Theft Taskforce, Mega Movers, Mega Structures, Air Crash Investigations and Shockwave in primetime. 7mate will also be the home for first-run big movies for the blokes, including The Ringer, Strangers and Primeval.
Mr Worner said: “The channel is not designed to alienate female viewers. On the contrary we will be launching several initiatives that will see the female audience watching 7mate as well.”
To receive 7mate from 25 September, viewers will need to tune into channel 73 on an HD capable Digital TV, PVR or set top box. If you have an analogue television you will need to connect your old TV to an HD capable Digital set top box, PVR, or Digital recorder and tune in to channel 73.
A new website is online at yahoo7.com.au/tv
A spokesperson from Seven told TV Tonight: “7mate replaces 7HD, as this is all we can fit in our spectrum until 2013 or the end of Analog.
“It will be Broadcast as per 7HD currently is but will appear on channel 73.
“On Grand Final day 7mate will simulcast with Seven and then commence life as its own full time HD channel.”
This post updates.
Perhaps it should have been called 7USA (hey we have a FiveUSA here in the UK).
Perhaps 7America would be a more suitable title…
As for the 20 hours per week of HD, when you take into account Sunrise and the Morning show (both in HD I believe) and the news at different times of the day then they easily beat the 3 hours a day.
@Kuttsywood – good news American Dad is now in HD in the US
Is it April Fool’s Day?
Worst name of all time.
@ Jason D. — Yes, I would also agree with 7TWO being the best of the current multichannels.
Coming soon….10BFF, ABComrade, 9Buddy and SBSAmigo
@belinda, yeah you could hear them laughing (after Chris called Tony mate) as they went to the ad break. Even Sarah Groen had trouble keeping a straight face. Funny.
Interesting question, generally new channels don’t get added to the ratings for a wee while (like ABC News 24 was added last week). Considering the number of people likely to view the AFL Grand Final on 7mate (since it is HD), does it mean that those viewers won’t be counted?
Well this is doesn’t look good for the Family Guy and American Dad fans in Regional WA because our two commerical tv networks (GWN & WIN) don’t broadcast the digital only channels. So i’m going to miss out on new episodes of Family Guy and American Dad. Thanks for nothing GWN.
It’s a good idea, considering that men spend a lot of time in front of the TV. I hope the channel doesn’t try to stereotype the male, they may also need to be heedful of alienating their target audience too, as well as women. I do think that 7Two is the best multi-channel, and I do give them considerable credit for initiating even more digital services.
Chris Bath and Tony Squires were kind of mocking the name on this evening’s news.
great…would be better though if the Stargate offerings included SG-1 repeats (since 7 has them), and Stargate Universe (although unlikely since TEN has them)
7Mate…wow that’s dumb but whilst 7Three is boring it’s still better than what they worked up. Nevertheless there isn’t a whole lot other than Caprica that interest me, especially if you have Pay TV as most of those shows have been shown months or years ago.
If only they could buy The Office & Outrageous Fortune off Ten
Hope they show It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia & Archer too!
When I first saw the name of this station on this page I thought it might have been an Aussie shows channel with all the old classic Australian show, too bad.
That can’t be the real channel name and logo, seriously? Maaaaaate, that’s a terrible decision.
Is 7 trying to compete with channel GO!’s 200% bogan voiceovers or something?
I don’t know why people are complaining about the name i reckon “7mates” is better then “7three” if they called it 7three it would sound boring. Great line-up, i can’t wait for Caprica, Warehouse 13, Stargate Atlantis, Fifth Gear, The Universe, Life After People. It would be good if they had repeats of some shows as well such as Farscape, Stargate SG1, Xena, Hercules, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Prison Break, Heroes, Bionic Woman, Flashforward and they should get Supernatural, Smallville, Stargate Universe off ten and it would also be good to have Legend of the Seeker in HD.
Hopefully Seven still broadcast shows like PTTR and City Homicide on this channel during the day or late at night so we can still view them in HD.
afl can be repeated 7two style on mate ao maybe it will be in hd.
As for the name, who cares? Sbs hardly defined cutting edge, its the content that counts. As long as old sd content ends up on 7two then no a bad result. Wish ten would start tje third channel
Great idea, great concept, and I’m sure it will work, but in terms of the promo ad, one word – Crap. What’s with all the “maaaaaaaaaaaaaaate” – bogan much?
Anyway 7HD is useless, less hope 7mate is’nt that
Any ideas what they will run in the timeslot other than prime time… eg what will be on at 10 am in the morning ?
@ Secret Squirrel
Yes that is only 20 hrs per week, but it states “native” HD and it’s confusing at this stage as to whether there will be native HD apart from the AFL Grand Final.
Anyway as others say, there are better ways of getting higher quality HD shows that you want to see, and many of them are starting to appear on Blu-ray eg Tudors, Mad Men.
I’d rather have an HD channel with its own brand and schedule than one which just simulcasts another channel. TV is TV, it doesn’t matter whether a show is on the main channel or not. Besides, some of those shows *are* being shown on the main channel in HD. And I actually think the name’s good. It says one thing: Bogan. It’s a perfect fit for Australia and 7.
@ daqua_99,@ southpatt both your comments are Spot on.
@ Michael you need Foxtel.
sounds good to me. Im glad 7 have aimed it at a specific target audience instead of 7TWO’s anybody and everybody target. Said that 7HD will be lost but hopefully once the country is digital the government will allow for HD simulcasts of the main channels (ABC, SBS, 7, 9, and 10…aswell as any future networks).
Wow, makes me feel like I should get a new couch, grab a beer and put my hand down the front of my trackies !!
Ten are taking way way too long to bring their new channel, they are taking so long we’re going to expect it to be flawless since they have had so much time getting it together, and it bloody better be!!
This is great breaking news David,i’ve been waiting a long time for this announcement & after watching that promo clip i think this new station will be a winner for 7 .
As for the name 7mate ,at first i didn’t like it,but after a while i think its quite a good pick (mate being a iconic word here in Australia).I was expecting this to be 7′s new SD channel,so i was a little surprised to read it will be HD,(not that that matters much to me)
So does everybody out there in FTA TVland agree with me that this new station is something to look forward to?
@Brenton – the digital channel numbers are not actually the “channels” themselves – they are just logical pointers so, right now, 7, 71, and 73 all point to the same stream; ie Seven’s main channel in SD. 70 points to the HD stream which currently has the same programming as the main channel. From Sep 25, 73 will point to this HD stream and it will have different programming. Don’t know whether 70 will continue to exist after Sep 25 or to which stream it will point.
@Pietro – if what you say is true (haven’t bothered to check), 1080 hours per annum is less than 3 hours per day so I’ll think they’ll probably manage. (“1080″ – coincidence or someone’s little tech-joke?).
So it will it just be available on HD like ABC News 24?
Of course this decision will upset people. Losing high definition simulcasts of the #1 network in the country will only drive people away, not to the main channel, but to downloads, of their favorite O/S native HD content, lost to make way for upscaled Family Guy, American Dad and others.
Wasn’t abc the first to have 3 channels? and didn’t one hd start before 72??
i reckon they should call it ’7 Bogan’ :p
Hideous name. Full stop.
@Brenton 7/71/73 are LCNs (logical channel numbers) which all point to a single SD stream (7) not three separate streams, so no, there aren’t two “spare” channels that can be used as such.
All FTA commercial channels are required by law to broadcast 1080 hrs. of HD programming per year, so how does this work?
I guess it’s too soon to know about regional access… so far the second channels have been national, but will the same hold true for the HD channel? Things could get complicated if the affiliates want to hold onto their HD bandwidth.
I noticed recently that Southern Cross HD in Tas finally includes guide info; it’s still a simulcast, but before was pretty useless for PVRs (can’t schedule without the guide!)
I wonder if this is in preparation for 7mate…?
@daqua_99 – yeah, but where’s the fun in not complaining about the name?
Whenever something new is announced it always raises more questions than it answers. So I am currently pursing info re Foxtel and other regions.
My understanding is that aside from any simulcast programming (ie AFL) that yes this means shows on Seven will no longer be available in HD before 2013.
Sounds good to me, onya 7. Come on 10 you need a 2nd sd channel really soon.
OK now I’m pi**ed… Here I was thinking good on 7 for picking up The X Factor, cos now we’ll be able to watch it in HD… now what? They go and do a 10/ABC and turn their HD channel into a load of crap which = no mainstream HD programming…. I can’t believe this!!
David – can you confirm whether the launch of this channel means that all HD programs on 7 will be lost? Having just spent a fair bit of money to get set up for full HD, it is a little annoying that the only channel that will have HD content is Channel 9, which I don’t watch.
Please explain!
@ Billy – yes Cop Shop would be awesome. I’m hoping with the extra chs that all the classic oz dramas/soaps will be repeated. Shows like The Restless Years on a 10 ch or The Sullivans & The Young Doctors on a 9 one.
If there’s one thing I see on this site all the time is the anti bogan posts I never knew there were so many elitists watching Oz TV.
So no more 7HD for the Rafters or any other show on the main channel.
With new content only in HD it might be time to update the PVR to HD, I guess Nine will so the same for it’s 3rd channel and ONE digital will probably vanish as well when TEN launches their new one.
If & when PRiME does get 7mate it could go on Channel 63.
Do the five capital cities all have 7,70,71,72 and 73?
I live in Mackay QLD with the channel 7 signal, and we have five 7 network channels.
Channel 7, 71 and 73 all currently air the channel 7 signal with 70 in HD
with 72 as 7Two. Seven say there is no spectrum left until 2013 but surely the 71 is taking up spectrum not needed as this channel just stimulates 7.
So from Sept 25 can’t 7 be stimulated on 70HD, have 7TWO, have 7mate on 73 as in SD channel and ditch 71 to free up sprectum?
Does that make sense or am I off track with how sprectum works? Or a better idea turn off the anlalog signal tomorrow and have digital only.
Standby for 7sheila comming to a digital channel near you! 24hours a day of soapies and Hallmark made-for-tv movies…
Hang on. Does this mean that Seven will actually broadcast an AFL game in proper HD?
Wow, I think this is going to be my favourite channel.
I’m a female and the lineup sounds good to me, I’d watch lots of those shows.
Though I do think the name is pretty silly, imagine saying “what’s on mate?” ha!
I think hubby and me will just end up calling it “73″ at home.
People complaining about the name, get a life. Seriously, everyone here has just criticised the name without offering any good suggestions. If they called it “7three” it would have been labeled as “boring”, if it was a genre-based name it would not have fit the style of programing that seven wants. People complaining about the name, come up with a better one.
This is a good move from Seven IMO. Seeing as the “battle” between Seven and Nine is often determined by digital figures this could potentially give Seven the extra 1-2% boost they need to win the ratings war. Also, it’s more variety and it doesn’t cost you a single cent? Compare where we are now, in terms of choice and variety, to 5 years ago and you will see we have so much more on offer. We have a Free 24 hour news service, we have a Free 24 hours sports broadcaster, we have 8 Free general entertainment channels (7,9,10, ABC, ABC2, Go, 7Two, 7Mate), we have two Freeinternational channels (SBS1, SBS2), and a Free children’s channel (ABC3), plus the chance of another two Free channels being launched in the next year.
So does this mean that everything broadcast in HD on 70 will now be broadcast on a digital channel? meaning no HD on channel 7? ( I think i just confused myself!)
Just what a guy needs, can’t wait for it. But there is 1 question will Prime be getting it as well?
So what about PRIME viewers, do we get the channel at the same time or will it be another delay?
Sux that shows like Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, Grey’s and Packed to the Rafters won’t be screened in HD anymore. Surely 7mate could have gone on an SD channel. Too late I guess for them to change their minds.
PS, what will happen when they run out of Will Ferrel and Ben Stiller movies?
David, I know it’s early but any word on Foxtel? Will they just be turning the 7HD channel into this one?
I agree with everyone else, the name is horrible and despite the fantastic line-up I cant help but think that this will turn off a lot of people! I just now question what 7Two will turn into?
@ Billy yeah bring on Cop Shop!
@Secret Squirrel – it may be rating just fine but GO! is still a stupid name.
I thought Seven’s head once said they were all about appeasing most people most of the time. With the blokiness skew to it together with the bogan element this new channel will sure as hell alienate 90% of the population. They are just not giving what people want. They should have gone with something that would appeal to most. Much like ONE I hope it sinks.
@tomothy – it only takes a few minutes to register a web site name.
Will be interesting though to see if Nine reacts or if they wait and see how 7mate goes and what Ten’s plans are when released next month before finalising on their 3rd channel.
Wonder if Seven lodged with OzTam in time for ratings to count separately from day 1.
Sounds interesting . but I just want to see a complete rerun of Cop Shop , Skirts ,
Acropolis Now and The (Australian) Weakest Link !!
“7mate will also be the home for first-run big movies for the blokes, including The Ringer, Strangers and Primeval.”
wasn’t The Ringer shown on the first few days on 7TWO?
Who gives a rat’s what it’s called as long as the programming is good
More program choice is what it’s all about.
I will open myself to public ridicule once again though and say I still think all broadcasts should be SD – HD quality is not all that better.
7mate, not sure but eh. Some great shows there, and as a Female I’m more likely to watch this than some of that dribble they have on the other channel. As it’s probably been said before, being in regional – like the Prime-mate – hillarious!
gemchannel.com.au has not been registered, so I think it is a while off before Nine launch their rumoured copy of TV1, or GEM was just a decoy name.
It has a lot of overseas shows, so they should’ve called it “7seas.”
If it’s going to eventually be full of repeats, they should’ve called it “7again.”
Their target market seems to be very specific, so they should’ve called it “7gen-X.”
Instead they’ve called it something that, because of the “n-m” letter combination, is impossible to say without tripping.
It’s a shame “7-11″ and “7up” are both trademarked.
It’s got everyone talking…. so it can’t be all that bad. 7mate will grown on you.
I hate that the broadcasting landscape takes a backward step in terms of having locally produced content broadcast in HD. We have the technology, put it to use.
I was not a fan of Channel 10 canceling out their HD service for local and international shows… in order to make ONE/ONEHD a reality. I don’t want to see Channel 9 go down the same path.
Taking away HD, would be like removing all traces of broadband and forcing everyone back to dialup internet.
Also Channel 7 can’t even get their lineup right on 7Two (although GO! is far worse), i dread to think of what shows will end up on which night.
“7mate will also be the home for first-run big movies for the blokes, including The Ringer, Strangers and Primeval.”
I’m obviously not much of a bloke because I can’t say I have ever heard of them..
They should fast track How I Met Your Mother and 30 Rock. Although I am not sure why they are stuck on a bogan male channel. Maybe they can show It’s always Sunny in Philadelphia too?
7 should remain on 70HD and 7MATE should be in SD on 73.
I never say a bad thing about channel 7 but this is a stupid idea because all the shows that were once broadcast in HD on 70 can now only be viewed on channel 7.
Who really wants to see American shows in HD?
Sunrise, The Morning Show, Seven News, Home And Away, Packed To The Rafters even Larry The Lawnmover lol are broadcast in 7HD and all over shows are made to have a better quaility picture.
I never watch 7 on 7SD the quaility is 100% better on 70
@ johnson – would love to see the entire 4 hours of NBC Today. It’s now been whittled down to a paltry 45 min on the main ch.
Will this new channel be available in Canberra in when launches?
@wamdue it’s called Dave’s Syndrome.
David Leckie
David Gyngell
David Mott
and that blogger….
Everybody knows a bloke called Dave
the reasoning behind the UK TV channel Dave
now watch I morphed that into 7mate
Everybody has a mate called Dave
7mate
Looks like the same thought went into the branding, howeer the two chanels are differnt, the only show they have in common being Fifth Gear, and Dave has alot more local content than “mate”
Why are we allowing the current incumbent commercial TV networks to add more channels but not allowing other companies?