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Australia's Seven network has launched a new digital multichannel named 7TWO. The station is aimed at a general audience, unlike its competitor's second channels GO (from the Nine network, aimed at a youth audience) and ONE-HD (24 hour sport, from the Ten network).

The station is now on air in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Australia's Nine network has finally announced details of its new digital channel, which is to be launched on August 9th, 2009. The station will be named "GO!" and will be pitched at people aged 14-39 years old, a direct attack on the rival Ten network, which targets a youthful audience.

The station will be available on digital only, on channel 99 in metropolitan areas. In regional areas in Australia's eastern states, the new station is expected to be carried by the WIN and NBN networks on channel 80.

Earlier this year, the Ten network commenced broadcast of its ONE-HD sports channel. The third Australian network, Seven, has not yet provided any details of what it plans to do on its second standard definition digital channel.

Australia's Ten network has announced that it will launch a 24-hour free-to-air sports station across metropolitan cities in 2009. The station, to be named "ONE", will be available on the network's HD channel 1, replacing the current Ten-HD programming, as well as the network's new standard-definition channel 12.

This is somewhat at odds with the network's committment earlier this year that it would continue to broadcast movies in high-definition, as this will no longer be possible once the new station begins.

From January 1st, 2009, all commercial television stations in Australia will be allowed to broadcast one extra standard-definition digital channel.

Link: Australian Stock Exchange announcement.

The east coast stations of Australia's Nine network have started streaming their 6pm news bulletins on the internet.

The Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane stations broadcast half an hour of news at 6pm (0800 UTC) and it is now available worldwide, although unfortunately only in Windows Media Player and Silverlight formats, at this point in time.

The Australian government has put on hold the auction of new digital television licences, which were intended for providing new channels and mobile DVB-H television, according to a report in Melbourne's Age newspaper.

Known as channels A and B, one channel was going to be allocated to so-called datacasting and community television, with possible broadcasters including the indiginous broadcaster NITV, and the other was earmarked as a pay-TV service for mobile phones.

The new government plans for a technical and policy review before committing to an auction of the spectrum.

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that it is unlikely that Australia's commercial television operators will launch any new digital standard-definition multichannels as soon as they are legally allowed to do so. From January 1st, 2009, the previous government's restrictions on such channels will lapse. All three major commercial networks are currently allowed to broadcast separate programming streams on their high-definition channels, but in currently tend to limit multichannelling to afternoons and late evenings.

The Australian Financial Review newspaper is reporting today that the Nine Network's High Definition service will begin multichannel programming on Monday March 17th.

Nine's rivals, the Seven and Ten networks, started their own HD multichannel services at the end of 2007, but Nine has been going through a number of difficulties with management and poorly-rating programs in recent times, has been slow to follow suit.

When launched, the service will consist of time shifted programming from its main channel, in addition to new programming. It remains to be seen how much the HD channel will differ from the existing standard definition broadcasts; Seven and Ten's HD services have been somewhat disappointing, with separate programming confined mostly to late nights.

The article also mentions that all three networks are planning for their second standard definition services, which will be allowed to air from January 2009, under current Australian broadcasting legislation.

Previously: Ten HD launches in Australia and Seven Network Commences multichannelling

As reported here earlier, the rumours of Australia's ABC-TV being rebadged as ABC1 have become reality, and the station's new format will begin on Friday February 8th at midday.

There will also be changes to ABC2, which will be getting a new logo, and considerably altered programming. In the past, ABC2 has mostly been used for timeshifted programming and repeats, but it will now be showing increased amounts of new programs, including arts and culture.

Australia's new government is planning on using sport to drive digital television uptake, as reported in Melbourne's Age newspaper today. The government is considering allowing free-to-air stations to broadcast sporting events on their extra digital channels (which are not simulcast on the analogue broadcasts), so as to allow sport to stay free without compromising the stations' ratings on their main channels.

The previous government made a quite a mess of digital television policy, first banning commercial stations from multichannelling, and severely limiting the types of programming allowed to be broadcast on the second channels of the two publically funded broadcasters; they later removed some of these restrictions, but we're still stuck with the silly situation that the only commercial multichannelling allowed is on the high-definition channels.

Hopefully the new government's changes are the first step towards fixing the last government's rat's nest of problems.

Rumours abound today that Australia's ABC-TV could be shortly renamed "ABC1", based upon a short promo that has been posted at TV Tonight. If so, this would be one of the most significant changes to ABC-TV in its 51-year history.

The video seems to suggest that the well-known ABC logo (see left) may disappear, which may well result in much irate correspondence to newspapers and the ABC...

After months of promotion, Australia's Ten network has finally launched their new high-definition multichannel, named Ten-HD. The station promises up to 50-hours of different content to the regular, standard definition Ten service, although most of this will be outside peak viewing hours. The Channel Ten evening news, broadcast at 5pm for many years now, will be repeated half an hour later on the high-definition channel, and already a number of low-rating programs have been moved off the SD channel onto the HD service.

Unfortunately, there isn't much prime-time multichannelling, and most printed television guides haven't yet listed the new station, so it remains to be seen whether it will gather much of an audience.

This is the second HD multichannel service to start operation in Australia; back in October, the Seven network commenced separate programming on their 7-HD channel.

This leaves the Nine network as the only metropolitan commercial network without a multichannel service, although they have claimed it will begin in 2008.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation will launch its third domestic television station, ABC3, in April 2008, if government funding goes ahead. Australia is currently in the middle of a federal election, and the governing conservative coalition has promised $80 million to the ABC for the station, dedicated towards commercial-free children's programming, if re-elected.

The ABC currently broadcasts two domestic channels, ABC-TV (analog and digital) and ABC2 (digital only). ABC2 currently carries a large amount of childrens programming during daylight hours, and it is unknown if this programming will continue after the launch of the new channel.

Australia's Seven network has got the jump on the other commercial stations by commencing separate programming on their high-definition stream, named 7HD. Programs start at 10.30pm on weeknights and all day on weekends, and currently run without any advertising.

The station plans to show first-run movies on weeknights, and children's and family programming on weekends.

It is expected that a full launch of the station will happen in a few weeks' time.

Press release.

Since the beginning of 2007, commercial TV stations in Australia have been allowed to carry separate programming on their high-definition channel, but until now, none of them have made use of this to any great extent.

That will change in December, when the Ten Network launches significant departures from their regular programming, on the HD stream.

Billed as a new commercial free-to-air station, Ten HD will carry 50 hours of programs not seen on the main channel, and 10 hours of timeshifted programs, including the 5pm news.

This is likely to spur a greater uptake of digital TV in Australia, as until now, the only new stations on digital available to most of Australia have been the ABC's ABC2 station, which carries mostly timeshifted material, and SBS's foreign language news service. In the regioons that gained genuinely new stations, such as Tasmania and Mildura, the uptake of digital television was much greater than in metropolitan areas.

Ten's choice of "Ten HD" as the name for their new station may prove confusing to viewers, however. In most other countries where one company operates multiple stations, the stations have clearly separate names and identities.

A few weeks ago we reported that DW-TV had appeared on Intelsat 8. Now, as rapidly as it appeared, it has now gone. This leaves Asiasat 3S as the only satellite through which DW-TV can be received in Australia and New Zealand.