Back in October last year, there were reports flying around that Seven would name their second digital “Channel Mate”. Today, the network officially launched their third digital channel, “7mate”. I weep for free-to-air TV.
Stupid name aside, the channel itself sounds pretty good. Targeted towards males aged 16-49, 7mate will go live on September 25 with an HD broadcast of the AFL Grand Final. Among the programming headed to 7mate is Family Guy, Scrubs, American Dad, 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Crank Yankers, That ’70s Show, Caprica, Stargate Atlantis and a heap of others you can read here.
What’s not clear is whether or not this third channel for the Seven network will replace their current HD channel – the announcement claims that you’ll need to tune into channel 73 on September 25 on a HD capable device, as well as confirming the AFL final will be broadcast in HD. From memory the current licensing arrangements only allow one HD channel per network, which means 7HD will disappear into the ether come September 25.
UPDATE: Seven has confirmed to PC Authority that 7HD is going the way of the dodo.
[7mate]
Chris
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 11:47 AMsounds good to me
Ross Moir
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 11:57 AM+1
Neil Way
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 11:52 AMThis is the end of Seven HD as we currently know it. 7mate will replace this channel, with the HD feed moving onto Channel 73.
Expect the loss of more HD content when Nine launches it’s third channel within the next few months.
Labrat
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 11:54 AMhehe… blokes get an HD channel. Girls get an SD channel. whoop whooop. I always thought regular channel7 was crap, now that they’ve come out and said its targetted at women, I know why.
James
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 11:55 AMIt seems pretty pointless having this channel in HD considering the content they plan on showing on it?
hugh
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 11:58 AMso will this be hd or another sd channel? if they kill of the main hd feed for this ill be upset. infact if i cant watch mel and kichie in hd i will be angrier than a rat on a stick
Jarrard
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 12:00 PMwhy the hell is each network only allowed 1 hd channel each.
seems stupid
deee
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 1:42 PMIt’s not that they aren’t allowed a 2nd HD channel, it’s just not physically possible to squeeze two 12 Mbps HD channels and one ~4 Mbps SD channel into a digital multiplex with a maximum capacity of 23 Mbps.
1HD+2SD is the best available option but 1HD+3SD can also be done by sacrificing quality (which the ABC has opted for).
dan
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 12:06 PMStupid name aside the more channels the better!
Now we only need channel ten to pick up their game and create a channel that a lot of people will actually watch *cough* Channel One *cough*, one’s great but using two channels to show the same thing while ten lags behind with only one mainstream to show channel is really annoying
Bigmac
Friday, August 20, 2010 at 7:58 AMThe problem with OneHD at the moment is that, due to the current laws, some sports (anything on the anti-siphoning list) may not be shown on a digital only channel before shown on an analogue channel.
Once this law is changed, Ten will no longer have to show any sport on Channel 10, giving more room for other programming. Sports lovers and haters should both love OneHD for the same reason; it moves the sport off other channels to its own dedicated channel.
J
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 12:27 PMI love being a male aged 16-49
Rod
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 1:09 PMThey can call it Channel Justin Bieber for all I care, just so long as they stick to their plans and don’t turn out like Go and its infinite airings of Big Bang Theory and Seinfeld…
matt
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 1:31 PMlame… want more HD channels!!!
why can’t they make more HD channels?
Nads
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 1:43 PM“7mate”?…. jesus
Edward Luck
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 2:09 PMYet another reason to bring on the NBN and the subsequent unlimited choice of streaming video providers that will come with it.
Goodbye FTA TV – you blew it, suckers.
attila
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 2:37 PMBugger HD – I want confirmation the Grand Final will be in 3D.
Nick Broughall
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 2:41 PMDefinitely won’t be – the limited special license used for the World Cup and the State of Origin has expired, and it’s unlikely we’ll see it again any time soon…
attila
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 5:20 PMChannel 7 said in May they were trying to do it in 3D, is it definite that this is dead in the water?
Bob
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 7:25 PMDon’t be surprised if they re-open the channel for one-off events like the AFL Grand Final, Bathurst or the Melbourne Cup. It only needs someone willing to foot the bill and the cameras to do it.
Colin Richardson
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 2:55 PMI don’t have a problem with the name, “Mate” is as Aussie as Saturday at the Footy. Does the writer of this piece suffer some sort of cultural cringe?
Most of the content sounds like it will all be recycled (mostly) American trash and of course than there are the jabbering inane adds to put up with. I think I’ll watched the boxed set of Stargate thanks and then go to The ABC for my news and other entertainment.
James Carson
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 9:57 PMyay! now on saturday night, there will be 6 channels showing nothing but footy (sarcasm). f***ing footy
G
Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 11:22 AMcouldnt agree more… its a joke… got a beautiful big screen tv but never get to use it!
Hmmm
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 10:12 PMNo more HD channels. S’poze I will have to watch channel BT instead. Oh bugger. I will miss those endless ad breaks though.
Haydo
Friday, August 20, 2010 at 2:41 AMThis is why I have Foxtel and watch everything else on the internet.
Sybex
Friday, August 20, 2010 at 4:31 AMwhat a laugh, they cant even start their programs on time now, and they want another channel? more the fool them
Robert
Friday, August 20, 2010 at 6:35 PMSo given 7 is now to have a service named 7mate should the affiliate service I use for 7 content pick it up I can only assume they will call it Primate.
Anthony Tam
Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 12:26 PMIsnt ‘seven’ called ‘prime’ in regional cities? Then the Primate naming convention would work wonders!
TV_Watch
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 12:23 AMTo earlier comment….
The writer is not suffering from cultural cringe. It is just a simple fact that not all Australian males are Yobbos who call each other mate at every opportunity to show how ‘aussie’ they are. So the name is embarrassing since we live in a multicultural country and we aren’t all yobbos. Funny how people use the term ‘aussie culture’ anyway when that would surely mean Aboriginal culture, since everyone else’s came from somewhere else.
Anonymous
Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 2:29 AMI can’t believe they air the over-recycled Wagon Train and The Virginian at least every day.
Like seriously, who still watches this?
rick
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 3:21 PMGuy’s I just love the series on JAIL, and Lockup. Please keep showing these programs Regards Rick