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Regional viewers win on digital

GEM starts on time in Tasmania, and finally some news on 7mate.

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Tasmanians are expected to see 7mate after the Commonwealth Games end, in the second half of October.

The issue of delays for regional reviewers usually stems from different advertisement playouts required for different regions.

The Mercury reports Southern Cross’s broadcasting centre in Canberra requires an extensive and expensive upgrade to boost capacity.

The news follows Tassie viewers and polticians again pressuring regional networks to match metropolitan networks. 7mate starts broadcasting in Seven markets next Saturday.

TDT expects to have Eleven on air at the same time as the rest of the country early next year, according to The Mercury.

GEM will begin airing next week in Tasmania, via WIN TV.

Meanwhile NBN has now confirmed the channel for Newcastle.

Source: The Mercury

20 Responses

  2. @matty the TV Guru- depends on your equipment, I would do a rescan anyway.

    notice that the channel name has not gone to Gem yet but 90 is saying that the current program airing is “HD simulcast” and has the Gem programming listed from the 24th onwards. Surely there will be some ads for Gem with it being 4 days away.

  3. Andrew

    GO! and GEM will start beaming in Darwin on October 4. Not sure when 7Mate will start in Darwin although SC HD already exists in Darwin since 2005.

  10. @Tassie de√il: The regionals have known for months, even years, that the metros were going to do something with their 3rd channels. So you’re right, there’s no excuse.

    @Josh: Terrestrial transmissions from the ground aren’t the only way to get Freeview channels. If your local channels suck at delivering proper Freeview choice, then use satellite! Everything’s on there except HD.

  11. Phoenix – Yes.

    Now, would it have been so hard for Southern Cross to come out two weeks ago and say “we hope to launch 11 at the same time as metro, but we need to upgrade our playout facility” rather than saying squat and having a regional newspaper do the talking a few weeks later when people ask questions.

  12. Must say, win and channel nine are the best metro-regional affiliation, they managed to get both go and gem to launch at the same time all over the country, unlike the others.

  14. There’s really no excuse for TDT to not launch 11 on the same day as the metropolitan markets, because there’s still at least 4 months to go, which is more than enough time to sort everything out. It sounds like a really good channel so I’m glad Ten announced it early giving regional broadcasters notice, instead of two weeks before the launch like 7mate and GEM.

  17. TVT writes: Meanwhile NBN has now confirmed the channel for Newcastle.

    Not forgetting the Central Coast, Northern NSW and the Gold Coast and southern Queensland where NBN also broadcasts of course 😛

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