Ice Road Truckers

Sunday March 25th

TANGLE – showtime – Season 3
Season 3 of this revelatory drama will pull apart and look at just how the generations separate from one another and how the ties of family are stretched. Ally sheds some of love’s illusions and begins to see life possibilities beyond her family and Gabriel. Both Romeo and Gigi need her less than she’d imagined, but in different ways, as they build their own lives. When Max moves away, Christine flirts with a parallel life at odds with all previous certainties. Gabriel learns his love for Ally is founded in her unavailability and is finally set free. Nat’s chaos is the one constant. Ally has moved her family to a rambling old rental property by the sea. Her financial need to return to the workforce prompts a surprising offer from Joe, which brings to question what Ally wants from him and from Gabriel. Christine’s fear that her family is dissolving is confirmed when Max announces he’s moving in with Nat. Romeo shares Charlotte’s distressing secret and Gigi enjoys having a half-sister in Ophelia.
Starring Justine Clarke, Kat Stewart, Catherine McClements, Matt Day, Kick Gurry, Joel Tobeck, Jane Allsop, Lincoln Younes, Blake Davis, Eva Lazarro, Lucia Emmerichs, Georgia Flood and Dan Wyllie.

INSIDE THE WORLD OF HENRY VIII – HISTORY
7.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
Charles Dickens called him ‘a spot of blood and grease on the history of England’, a man who achieved worldwide infamy for his cruelty, girth and six suffering wives. But King Henry VIII was also a man of energy and education. He was a scholar, a gifted musician and a sportsman. He changed the course of history, and created a court of unrivalled magnificence.

Monday March 26th

ONE FALSE MOVE: ROAD TRAINS – A&E
9.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
The Outback is one of the World’s most treacherous and punishing stretches of land on the globe, and not just any truck is up to the task of moving precious cargo through it. We take you inside the world of Australia’s legendary road trains. It takes the biggest trucks in the world to keep the outback alive, and it takes the bravest men in the world to get behind the wheel of these monstrous machines.

EXTRAORDINARY 10 YEAR-OLDS – BIO
8.30pm – Subscription TV Premiere
Meet four incredible kids who are dealing with the kind of trauma that most adults can only hope they will never
experience in their lifetime. In this extraordinary film, see their stories and how they live, and learn their hopes,
dreams, fears and regrets in the face of adversity.

SECRETS OF THE PHARAOHS – HISTORY
7.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
Pharaohs and their families come to life in this special one hour documentary. The Egyptian dynasty of the royals of Thebes began with the death of Sekenenra Tao, and drew to an end more than 200 years later with the remarkable reign of the mysterious king Akhenaten and his successor, Tutankhamen. Did the Egyptians destroy themselves through intermarriage? When King Tutankhamen died, many mysteries were buried with him, until modern science found a way to unearth the Secrets of the Pharaohs.

Tuesday March 27

ISLAND AT THE END OF THE WORLD: SHACKLETON’S TRIUMPH – HISTORY
7.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
Explore the journey over and around the awesome sub-Antarctic Island of South eorgia, made famous by the legendary explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. Our modern-day expedition sets out to follow the same route over South Georgia, as taken by Shackleton after his ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic in 1915.

Wednesday March 28

WINK, MEET DELETE – BIO
10.00pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
With 16, 000 people in the UK adding a new profile to dating sites every day, perceptions have obviously shifted about this once-taboo subject. This film invites you to join those who’ve been seduced by the allure of on-line dating as they explain how it all works and what happened to them. From the euphoria of the first wink, to the expectations of a brief meet and the heartbreak of delete, we hear just how the dating revolution works and how it has transformed humanity’s oldest endeavour, courtship.

WIKISECRETS – HISTORY
8.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
It’s the biggest intelligence breach in U.S. history- the leaking of more than half-a-million classified documents on the WikiLeaks website in the spring of 2010. Behind it all, stand two very different men: Julian Assange, the Internet activist and hacker who published the documents, and an Army intelligence analyst named Bradley E. Manning, who’s currently charged with handing them over. Private Manning allegedly leaked the secret cablesalong with a controversial video- in the hope of inciting “worldwide discussion, debates and reforms.” Assange’s stated mission has been to force the U.S. and other governments into maximum transparency through his whistleblowing website. Through in-depth interviews with Manning’s father, Assange, and others close to the case, we see the full story behind the leaks.

CRACKHOUSE USA – CRIME & INVESTIGATION NETWORK
9.30pm – Subscription TV Premiere
Follow the shocking true stories of a gang of drug dealers, the feds who set them up, the wiretap that caught them and the devastated lives they left behind. Between 2001 and 2005, Darrell “Duck” Davis recruited a crew of young men to help him take over the drug trade in Rockford, Illinois. Operating a dozen crack and heroin houses, they sold a pound of heroin and almost the same amount of crack every week, making approximately $5,000 a day.

Thursday March 29

PAWN STARS – A&E – Season 5
Everyday at 7.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
Long before banks, ATMS and check-cashing services, there were pawn shops. Pawning was the leading form of consumer credit in the United States until the 1950s, and pawn shops are still helping everyday people make ends meet. Pawn Stars takes you inside the colorful world of the pawn business. At the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on the outskirts of Las Vegas, three generations of the Harrison family–grandfather Richard, son Rick and grandson Corey–jointly run the family business, and there’s clashing and camaraderie every step of the way.

ICE ROAD TRUCKERS – A&E – Season 3
Weekdays at 6.30pm – Channel Premiere
For two months out of every year, a group of exceptional men and women find their way to the Canadian tundra to undertake one of the most dangerous jobs on earth. In the thick of winter, truckers in giant eighteen wheelers carry vital equipment and supplies to miners hundreds of miles away. In blizzard conditions, these truckers travel over ice roads that often take them over frozen lakes. Each man is trained in self survival, from fixing his truck in sub zero conditions in seconds to escaping from a truck if the ice cracks.

Friday March 30

WEEDS – W – Season 7
Weekdays at 6.00pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
Widowed mother Nancy Botwin becomes a drug dealer to make money to support her family after her husband’s unexpected death. Nancy’s associates in her pot-growing business include accountant Doug and Andy, who is her late husband’s brother. Cast: Mary-Louise Parker, Hunter Parrish, Alexander Gould, Kevin Nealon, Justin Kirk

Saturday March 31

ROBERT E. LEE – HISTORY
6.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
He is celebrated by handsome equestrian statues in countless cities and towns across the American South, and by no less than five postage stamps issued by the government he fought against during the four bloodiest years in American history. Nearly a century and a half after his death, Robert E. Lee, the leading Confederate general of the American Civil War, remains a source of fascination and, for some, veneration.

THE QUEEN”S PALACES – BBC KNOWLEDGE – Season 2
7.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
It’s one of Britain’s smallest palaces, yet events at Holyrood have determined the fate of three countries. It was also the last place where a prince challenged the right of an king to sit the throne.

Behind The Force, SBS ONE, 8.30pm
With unprecedented access to Hampshire Constabulary, this three-part series follows the investigation of three major crimes, offering a rare and unique insight into the reality of modern policing. In the first episode, the discovery of a women’s body in a field, burned beyond all recognition, sets the police the task of first identifying her and then finding her killer.

Leigh Harts Mysterious Planet – The Roswell Incident, ABC2, 9pm
Did a flying saucer crash in the desert near Roswell in 1947? Was it covered up by the US government? The team heads to the actual crash site to search for wreckage.

Ice Road Truckers, ONE, 7.30pm
In the series final, spring is approaching and conditions on the road are at their most slippery and dangerous as sleet and potholes emerge. Rivals Alex and Hugh are neck and neck in their race to complete the most runs

NCIS: LA, Ten 9.30pm
Deeks is sent deep undercover in order to protect his best friend and primary informant from a dangerous group of arms traffickers.

The Wizard Of Oz, Gem, 7.30pm
Dorothy, who’s been swept away from her farm in Kansas to a wonderland of munchkins and flying monkeys, must follow the Yellow Brick Road to the all-knowing Wizard of Oz to find her way home in this classic masterpiece.

The competition between general entertainment channels will be fiercer in May.

Ten have now confirmed that ONE will relaunch in May with more entertainment. The channel will include a mix of entertainment and sports, aimed predominantly at males aged 25-54. In addition to sport, will a mix of dramas, movies and factuals – most will be in full HD.

First run content will include An Idiot Abroad (Ricky Gervais), Terriers, Lights Out, Breakout Kings, Everest, Sons of Anarchy, Airline, Long Way Round as well as shows already in the schedule Ice Road Truckers and Extreme Fishing.

The move has come after weeks of trial with general entertainment and movies that has seen shares for the channel increase dramatically on those nights. Last night (Wed April 6), ONE HD reached a prime time (6pm-midnight) share of 2.6%, thanks mostly to the movie Jarhad and Extreme Fishing and ranked higher than GEM in channel shares.

David Mott, now in charge if programming for ONE as David White departs says that the broader, male skewed content offering for ONE will complement the network’s youthful ELEVEN and the broad appeal of Ten itself.

Entertainment content will be predominantly weekdays, with sport on weekends – an idea I put forward as well in a story a few months back about how Ten could improve its network shares by changing ONE programming. Click here to read the story.

Today’s announcement that Ten Holdings’ half year revenue had fallen significantly year on year to the tune of around 10% would have only hastened the move. Interim CEO Lachlan Murdoch described the outcome as “Unacceptable” and went on to say that measures had already been put in place to help overcome that situation.

With the launch of Masterchef on May 1, the new look ONE HD in May, and the ongoing success of ELEVEN, Ten could very well topple Nine off in regular second place in ratings.

Source: TV Tonight.

 

The ratings battle and falling revenue will see ONE HD shift it focus away from sport and into more general entertainment appealing to a male audience, the very audience that Seven’s third channel 7mate is aimed for.

ONE HD has recently added more and more non-sports programming into its prime time line up. Initially, it was sports based movies once a week, now there are movies on two or even three nights – and they are definitely not sport related.

On top of that, documentaries like Black Gold, Ice Road Truckers and Ax Men air on Tuesday and Wednesday nights billed as “One Adventure”. This move has seen an increase in average prime time ratings for ONE.

But now, as head of sports programming for Ten Network Holdings, David White is set to leave the network after 14 years of service, and once the 2012-2016 AFL broadcast rights are finalised, the former 24 hour sports channel could take a new direction, with less focus on sport.

Originally promised as a title for sister network Ten digital channel ELEVEN, Sons of Anarchy may end up on ONE in prime time on weeknights. The aim is to broaden ONE’s audience beyond 1-2% it achieves now, and therefore increase revenue as a result.

The Ten network have had a very soft first quarter. Ten’s revamp of early evening news did not draw the audience the network had hoped for. 6pm With George Negus moves to 6.30pm from tonight (April 4)., while the Evening News is gone altogether. Ten’s First at Five news has been extended to 90 minutes, now airing from 5-6.30pm.

Ten’s prime time line up has changed a number of times in the first 8 weeks of 2011 ratings. The list of prime time shows that have moved timeslots in the last weeks includes House, NCIS: LA, Undercover Boss (US), Blue Bloods and Lie to Me – 5 shows in total.

Ten is regularly third, and sometime fourth in main channel ratings. Masterchef in May will give the network a lift while George Negus at 6.30 may also help. ELEVEN is doing well, now often amongst the top 3 most watched digital channels each night.

Only ONE drags the chain. While Seven and Nine see ratings for GEM and 7mate around 3% or so, 7TWO and GO at 4% and beyond, and ELEVEN close to 4%, ONE sits around the 1% mark – amongst the lowest rating digital channels.

A new direction for ONE could see the channel’s ratings shares increase and help put the Ten network back into the ratings race and generate more revenue for the corporation.

The departure of David White means that ONE programming will be taken over by David Mott, responsible for overseeing programming for Ten and ELEVEN.

 Source: The Australian.

 

Late 2008, the Ten Network announced that they would be launching ONE HD in March 2009. Ten were the first commercial network to announce and launch a secondary digital channel, and the first to sacrifice their main channel HD simulcast in favour for a secondary channel. Each of the commercial free to air networks currently are allowed just one HD channel and 2 standard definition channels. The main channel also has to be in standard definition.

ONE HD, a 24 hour sports channel would mean that main channel content from Ten would no longer be seen in HD. Until ONE HD launched Ten in fact had the most hours of HD breakaway programming at the time, including Sci Fi on Thursday nights, Neighbours catch up on the weekends, and time shifted news on weeknights.

ONE HD promised to deliver sport – the way it should be – in high definition – including HD coverage of the AFL games that Ten airs. Other sports on ONE include coverage of Australian Netball, Formula One, surfing, swimming, the IPL cricket from India as well as American Football and basketball. ONE also has soccer with Liverpool TV and Arsenal TV. Sports Tonight updates us with sports news, while a number of live panel shows like ONE Week at a Time and the Game Plan provide discussion on AFL, NRL and other subjects.

Due to low ratings during weeknight prime time hours, ONE has recently introduced ONE at the Movies and ONE Adventure to help lift the channels’ shares. Initially ONE at the movies features sports based movies, while ONE Adventure is documentaries aimed predominantly at “blokes” with shows like Ax Men, Ice Road Truckers and Black Gold.

              

But just how much of this content is in HD? The answer is – unfortunately, not that much.

Both the NBA and NFL (basket ball and American football) from the US air in HD. The NFL in particular looks superb – well worth watching just to enjoy some high def TV even if most of us have no idea what is going on! Also supposedly in HD is One Week at a Time and new NRL discussion program, The Game Plan. Other programming in HD includes The Pro Shop on Monday nights, WWE on Thursdays, RPM on Tuesdays and drag racing. Some of the movies aired on ONE are in HD.

Shows not in HD on ONE include Sports Tonight, and both our local netball (ANZ Championship) and basketball leagues. None of the ONE Adventure documentaries are in HD, nor is Escape with ET which airs most weeknights at 6pm. Liverpool TV is not in HD, and other regular programs like Omnisport are not either.

Looking at the next week of programming, there is less than an average of an hour and a half of actual HD programming on ONE HD during the prime time hours of 6pm – midnight. Some nights have none at all, while Thursdays, Saturdays and Mondays have the most HD content – two and a half hours on Saturday night, two hours on the other two nights.

To be exact, and based on the internet TV guide for ONE HD from their own web site, ONE HD has just 11 hours of HD content during prime time in a 7 day period*. If both the week’s movies were in HD in the coming week, that number would have risen to 15 or 16 hours. This is out of a possible 42 weekly prime time hours.

Most TV guides will not tell you if a show is in HD or not. Printed guides these days give no hint, and not all internet guides tell you either. Two that do – but only when you click on each show to look – is www.youtv.com.au and tv-guide.onehd.com.au.

But just because a guide indicates a show as being in HD – doesn’t necessarily mean it is. Looking at The Game Plan (NRL) from last Thursday night (March 17), it certainly did not look to be in HD to me. The clarity was no different than a standard definition program.

Like I stated earlier, I have seen NFL in HD on ONE – and you can really tell the difference between what is HD and what isn’t – regardless of what the guide tells you. Perhaps it was just that one broadcast of The Game Plan that was not in HD? That being said, the result is even less HD programming on ONE – once you start including shows that say they will be in HD but actually are not.

It is not known whether Ten actually procures any of their main channel content in HD – given they have not have an HD channel to air them on for two years now, they probably don’t to save on the expense. But shows like Glee, NCIS, House, The Good Wife, Law & Order, Hawaii Five-O to name a few, as well as Neighbours (yes – even Neighbours), Dexter and All New Simpsons are all made in HD.

Subscription TV channel FOX8 used this fact to promote Glee as being an exclusive in HD – as the series had never been seen in HD in Australia before it was being aired on FOX8. Looking forward to season 22 of the Simpsons in HD on FOX8 HD once the Ten network are done with the new episodes, currently airing on digital channel ELEVEN.

Next Part: Part 3: ABC news 24.

* 7 day period for ONE HD was based on Sydney programming from Wed Mar 16 – Tue Mar 22.

Read part 1 here.

Wednesday, September 29 at 8.30pm on FOX8

Ice Road Truckers is a classic story of adventure, perseverance, human ingenuity and, most importantly, danger. Every day the truckers are taking their lives into their hands. One miscalculation of the road, bad weather or an unseen road hazard can mean the difference between life and death. Ep 12.

Wednesday, September 22 at 8.30pm on FOX8

Ice Road Truckers is a classic story of adventure, perseverance, human ingenuity and, most importantly, danger. Every day the truckers are taking their lives into their hands. One miscalculation of the road, bad weather or an unseen road hazard can mean the difference between life and death.

Ep 11.

Wednesday, September 8 at 8.30pm on FOX8

Ice Road Truckers is a classic story of adventure, perseverance, human ingenuity and, most importantly, danger. Every day the truckers are taking their lives into their hands. One miscalculation of the road, bad weather or an unseen road hazard can mean the difference between life and death.

Ep 9.

Wednesday, August 25 at 8.30pm on FOX8

Ice Road Truckers is a classic story of adventure, perseverance, human ingenuity and, most importantly, danger. Every day the truckers are taking their lives into their hands. One miscalculation of the road, bad weather or an unseen road hazard can mean the difference between life and death.

Ep 7.

Wednesday, August 18 at 8.30pm on FOX8

Ice Road Truckers is a classic story of adventure, perseverance, human ingenuity and, most importantly, danger. Every day the truckers are taking their lives into their hands. One miscalculation of the road, bad weather or an unseen road hazard can mean the difference between life and death.

Ep 6.