*** Updated ***
ONE HD the 24 hour sports channel will be seen on Southern Cross Ten (SC10) – 10′s eastern state affiliate – in the eastern states of Australia from 7pm July 2. The service will be seen on digital channel 50. A ticker on ch 50 also is announcing the news. This will bring all of eastern Australia into line with their capital city counterparts and will end months of frustration from regional viewers.
Tasmanian viewers will see ONE HD from July 2 as well. As for the rest of Australia, there are still negotiations pending (that is Western Australia, South Australia and Northen Territory). At this stage, there is no mention of if SC10′s second SD channel will carry an SD version of ONE HD. There was a rumour that they may use their second SD channel for alternative programming to Ten and ONE, but that has not been confirmed.
*** Original Article ***
That will finally bring those viewers served by SC10 in line with the 5 major capital cities. Until now, though, there has been plenty of confusion resulting from the launch of ONE in regional Australia. There are stories of customers buying an HD enabled TV or set box just for the sole purpose of being able to watch ONE HD in areas where it is not even broadcast. This situation is compounded by the fact that SC10 in NSW carries Sydney’s Ten news bulletins that make constant reference to ONE whenever they talk about sport. While it is unrealistic to expect the Sydney news team to make mention of where ONE is available, SC10 should at least show a disclaimer stating the service is not yet available. Not to mention retailers in regional areas either not knowing about ONE HD’s availability or simply not caring in order to get a sale.
Prior to the message on SC10’s HD channel – a channel that shows country scenery 24 hours a day – there was no mention of ONE HD by SC10. Even on the day of the launch, 10 news were telling their viewers how they could receive ONE but with no mention of its availability in regional areas.
On the subject of digital TV in regional areas, NBN (9’s northern NSW affiliate) has indicated it has no plans in the near future to offer any of the increased 9HD offerings, which places a question mark over whether they will offer 9’s 2nd standard definition channel tipped to be called GO99. Some areas served by 9’s other regional affiliate – WIN – are already seeing the HD break away service. Prime (7’s affiliate) currently shows all the 7HD break aways seen in the cities.
*** Updated ***
Channel 50 now displays a message indicating that ONE HD wil commence from 7pm on July 2.
*** Original ***
Southern Cross Tens’ (SC10) scenery HD channel is now displaying a message bar stating: “We are excited to announce that the 24 hours sports service ONE HD will be broadcast on this channel in coming months”. No indication of a date.
Coming months puts the launch of ONE HD on SC10 in line with what we hope to be a July start. Hopefully soon they will be able to tell us the date, and then to promote accordingly so that regional viewers can finally join their capital city counterparts in having the option to view the 24 hour sports channel.