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Seven turns up HD for AFL fans

AFL is now in HD in all 5 cities -and there is even better news for viewers in Melbourne & Adelaide.

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seven7Seven has made some changes to its channel alignment with more High Definition availability.

In Melbourne and Adelaide, Seven now has a High Definition simulcast of its primary channel on Ch. 70.

In Sydney, Brisbane and Perth it now has 7mate in HD on Ch 70 and in SD on Ch 73.

A spokesperson told TV Tonight, Seven had heard AFL fans asking for HD coverage.

Of course the move also means viewers in Melbourne and Adelaide will also see other programming in High Definition.

While the move favours AFL fans it could well be part of a bigger plan coming for the Olympics in August.

  • Tagged with AFL

43 Responses

  1. I feel like there was no fanfair for this.

    I just noticed 7HD on my recorder and I blinked a couple times. It’s true I am not really a channel 7 watcher, but I thought I would have at least heard about it. Maybe they’re waiting for the national rollout, I am in Melbourne myself so maybe I am part of the test-bed.

    I only really noticed it as I was watching Mythbusters on 7Mate and thought that it looked bad, of course meaning that Mate went to SD.

  2. Sydney 11/5/2016 recorded between 12 – 1 pm.
    7 7 SD MPEG-2 576i 2754Kbps
    70 7Mate HD MPEG-2 1080i 7891Kbps
    71 7 same stream as 7
    72 7TWO SD MPEG-2 576i 3258Kbps
    73 7Mate SD MPEG-2 576i 3553Kbps
    74 TV4ME SD MPEG-4 576 1764Kbps
    76 7Flix SD MPEG-4 576 2135Kbps
    78 Racing.COM SD MPEG-4 576 3244Kbps
    All video bitrates are variable according to content. Change 7Mate HD (70) to 7 HD (70) and it’s all done.

  4. I wondered what the hell was going on last night when I noticed one of the ch 7 channels was now 7mate or 7Two or whatever in HD. I had to double check Quantico which I had programmed earlier to tape on ch 7 that I had set it on the right ch 7. Had to change all my shows I had programmed on ch 7. Talk about a mess, they could have at least warned us.

    1. Yesterday I went to change my series tags for 7 to the hd channel and realised I’m not watching anything on 7 at the moment so there was nothing to fix. The last thing I was watching on 7 was greys anatomy but since 7flix is ahead of 7 for greys, I’m now watching greys on plus7 since recordings on the fetch box don’t work properly for 7flix.

  5. Long overdue, but still very welcome nonetheless. Particularly so given most/all AFL and Olympics would be filmed in HD anyway. And not that I have any inside info, but I would be frankly amazed if the reasonably long-term plan had been to have HD fully in place in time for the Rio Olympics.
    Someone made the point it must be time very soon for Foxtel to drop the extra charge for HD channels – that is so, so right. In fact, the campaign starts here!!

  8. I rescanned our TVs this morning and the state of play in our area is as follows:-
    7Queensland (Regional) No Change,Main channel on 6, 60, 61 in SD; 7Two on 62 (SD), 7mate on 63 (HD) and 7flix on 66 (SD).
    The Brisbane situation is different:-
    7 & 71 Primary Channel (SD), 70 is branded as 7Brisbane HD but carries the 7Mate program, 72 is still 7TWO, 73 is 7mate in SD and 76 is 7flix (SD).
    I would assume that because 70 is branded 7HD they are planning to put the main channel on it later, possibly for the Olympics.
    Its weird that 7Qld (Sunshine Coast) carries the primary signal on three channels. Come Rio they may give us a primary channel in high definition. We can only hope.

  11. Seven must have selective hearing. They obviously haven’t heard the non AFL viewers in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth who couldn’t care less about AFL being in HD and would much prefer a HD simulcast of the main channel.

    1. Exactly, couldn’t give a stuff about football. Would rather have the primary channel so can watch dramas like the Blacklist in HD.

  12. On my TIVO in Sydney it shows as 70 being called 7HD yet is is now 7mate in HD while 7mate is also still on 73 in SD – had to move my recording of Outback Truckers from 73 to 70 to get in HD.

    This move is weird as two markets get 7HD while the rest don’t. Very messy.

    To me the solution would be simple – considering Sydney for example – put the Swans and GWS games in HD on 70 when they are on (as well as on mate as it is promoted every game live on 7mate) while leaving the rest of 70 as 7HD main channel HD. The other AFL games mate airs (as in the Melbourne games) remain on 73 in SD as noone really watches them in Sydney!

    Given that we now have both HD feeds for 7mate and Seven, its just a matter of switching between the two in Sydney etc on 70…

  13. Here is Adelaide, 7HD is on IQ3 terrestrial feed on 207, and 7mate has moved to 188 in SD.
    Oddly, Foxel EPG for HD channels still lists 7mate and Gem in there. Time to fix that up.
    Now, all we need is for Seven to start airing some decent content. The only thing I watch across all their channels is H&A Early Years. Not interested in watching bogans cook or renovate in SD, let alone HD!

  16. I think in this case Seven has misread their audience. Of course this is a win for Melbourne and Adelaide viewers because their main primary channel will finally be broadcast in HD for all shows with a by product of that decision being that the AFL in those markets will be in HD as the AFL is shown on the primary channel. So wins all round there.
    However, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth viewers will see no change – 7mate and therefore the AFL is already shown in HD and the primary channel will still be in SD. The question would be – do those three markets want AFL in HD or the primary channel in HD but not both? Ratings would suggest that keeping 7mate at HD for the extremely small amount of people that watch AFL in those markets versus the very popular primary channel is not a popular or wise move.

    1. 100% agree. I find it hard to fathom that 7 would keep 7Mate HD for the few people that watch AFL in Sydney relative to the number of people that watch the main 7 channel.

  21. Seems a bit daft for Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. I would have thought they could have shown the main channel in HD, and breakaway for AFLcoverage on Mate. Like they did in the naughties with the HD channels back then.

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