Actually, that’s not entirely true. The first TV transmission in Australia reportedly happened in 1934, but it wasn’t axactly something people could tune into.

Of course, there was a little thing called World War II in the 1940s, which put a bit of a dampener on officially launching television in this country. But on September 16, 1956, TCN (now Channel 9) began regular broadcasting in Sydney. The broadcast was introduced by Bruce Gyngall’s immortal words, “This is television”.

Since then, both the content broadcast on TV and the TVs we actually used have changed radically. But that’s a post for another day…

History of TV is Giz AU’s month-long look back at the development of the world-changing medium and its influence on our daily lives.

[Pic from Wikipedia]

The move is to try and drive people who don’t want to watch the regular content to the new Go! channel.

On the (albeit small) upside, Ellen, The View, Entertainment Tonight, Nine’s Late News, Gilmore Girls, NRL Footy Show and Today Weekend Edition will all be broadcast in HD now. Joy!

[TV Tonight]

The channel – named Go! – will include shows like Gossip Girl, Weeds, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fringe, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Dog the Bounty Hunter, among others.

Excited? No, me neither. It’ll be interesting to see how it performs (although the TV ratings system in this country is so fundamentally flawed it wouldn’t matter) but ultimately I think I’ll stick to getting my TV online or on DVD…

[MediaSpy via Lifehacker]

The question is – is this really what Channel 9 thinks of HD? As much as I Dream of Jeannie was a classic in its day, it doesn’t quite stack up to 1080p HD quality. Or are Channel 9 just testing the waters for their second SD channel which is set to launch later this year? Considering the lack of fanfare about this change of programming, the answer to that question looks to be a resounding yes.

Now we just need someone – anyone – to start giving us good quality TV shows in true HD, rather than just sport or (admittedly brilliant) nature documentaries.

[TV Tonight]

It’s been a long and bloody battle, but we’re happy to see that in the end, the winner should be the TV-watching consumer. Because unlike Freeview’s EPG, IceTV will let you skip ads and program anything you want using their (now completely legal) EPG. Of course, I reckon the Freeview camp (and Channel 9) will be less than impressed with this verdict, so we’ll see what the fallout from this decision is in the coming weeks.

[IceTV]

If that doesn’t sound that appealing to you, then your shit out of luck, because this second digital channel isn’t about you, the viewer. It’s about the advertisers. The Australian quotes Chief Executive David Gyngell: “You don’t want to flood the market with inventory. Delivering to our advertisers — that’s our primary focus.”

The rest of the article then goes on to explain how Nine’s in a world of hurt because the advertisers are leaving TV, and the network needs to shave costs and freeze pay.

I’m not sure if it’s just the timing of the great financiapocalypse, the FUD campaign from Freeview or something different altogether, but these new digital channels from the free-to-air networks all seem stagnant. If I worked in TV, I’d be building myself an online service like Hulu and doing my best to launch within the next 6 months. Because unless you’re really into sport, getting programs online (legally or not) is looking more and more appealing for the general viewer.

[The Australian via Lifehacker]

Wow – who would have thought that offering content for free online would have been successful? Not only that, but the show smashed its competitors in its Monday night timeslot as well. It just goes to show that a multi-platform distribution of entertainment (and media, for that matter) is the only way to succeed in the digital age. Kudos, Channel 9. Now let’s just speed up the transition to digital, shall we?

Underbelly breaks online download record
ninemsn.com.au/underbelly

Sydney, Australia, Thursday 12 February 2009: Underbelly, A Tale of Two Cities continues to smash records by being ninemsn’s most downloaded television program ever. Episodes one and two have been downloaded more than 6000 times in less than 60 hours of being available since the program went to air on Monday.

The official Underbelly, A Tale of Two Cities website ninemsn.com.au/underbelly launched this week, with each episode available exclusively for free and legal download through ninemsn’s Catch Up TV service after they air on Channel Nine.

Carolyn Managh, Marketing Director at ninemsn said: “We are thrilled to be able to offer people the option to download Underbelly A Tale of Two Cities, and the past few days have really shown the high demand for services like ninemsn’s Catch Up TV. The launch episode has been the most downloaded video in the short time since it has been available. We also anticipate that Underbelly, A Tale of Two Cities will break the record for the most downloaded program on ninemsn.”

ninemsn began using Hiro technology to offer free and legal downloads in its Catch Up TV service 12 months ago. Hiro technology allows people to download uninterrupted, complete episodes of popular programs and also allows them to be shared.

In 2008, Catch Up TV was the only place to watch McLeod’s Daughters for free after it was taken off air, while programs like Sea Patrol and Canal Road were made available on Catch Up TV before they were aired on television. Also available on ninemsn’s Catch Up TV is Underbelly, A Tale of Two Cities, Farmer Wants a Wife, Mad Men and Chandon Pictures. Ladette to Lady premieres next week on Channel Nine and will be available on ninemsn’s after it airs.
-ENDS-

And to think, we actually applauded Channel 9 this morning for actually doing something positive for its audience. Looks like we spoke a bit too soon (like five months too soon)…

[Lifehacker AU]

Apparently it is, with Channel 9 letting viewers not only download free episodes of the second series to last year’s hit show Underbelly, but also letting viewers distribute it online through file sharing portals like Bittorrent. If you don’t believe me, check out the text from NineMSN’s CatchUp TV section:

You can also copy and share each episode or even distribute the files via file-sharing applications, such as Bit Torrent. Each file is available from the date the episode was broadcast on TV and remains active until the end of the series.

But don’t confuse this approach from Channel 9 as a lovey-dovey open to everyone decision – to watch the show online for free you’ll need to download their Hiro video player from NineMSN, and each episode is only available from when it airs until the end of the season. At this stage we’re unsure as to whether they’ll stop letting you download the show at the end of the season, or if the files are programmed to stop playing back, but I guess we’ll all find that out soon enough. And fans outside Australia – you’ll need to look elsewhere – this is only available to people in Australia.

Alternatively, of course, the show is also available to download on iTunes for the usual $2.99 an episode, or $32.99 for the full season.

This is a pretty big change from last year’s story where the show was being pirated left right and centre. Here’s hoping more TV shows head online…

The Oz quotes Foxtel’s Adam Suckling, Director of policy and corporate affairs: “Seven, Nine and Ten have had more than two years to plan and launch one new digital channel each on January 1, 2009… But they have chosen not to do so.” And while this is just another barb in the war of words between FTA and Pay TV in this country, there is a very important point being made here: why haven’t we got extra channels today?

The answer is mostly economics, but if you go back a couple of years to the launch of the FTA HD channels, you’ll also see that there’s sure to be some unhealthy competition between the networks at play here. When HD launched, Ten announced its plans first, then Channel 7 launched their channel a few days before 10’s channel went live so they could claim to be “first”. Channel 9, meanwhile, refused to offer any comment about their plans for fear of letting the other networks know what they were doing. So far, only 10 has announced anything – they’ll be launching a dedicated HD sports channel in April. But expect Seven and Nine to try and pip them at the post.

Of course all of this wouldn’t matter, but for the fact that the networks are “trying” to work together for the FreeView market. Considering they’re already marketing FreeView to have 15 channels, yet that figure includes the new multichannel stations, the networks should really be working together, pro-actively, to try and launch and promote FTA TV. From personal experience, the new FreeView campaign is causing nothing but confusion in the marketplace, judging by the influx of questions I’ve been getting from non-techy friends and family.

Meanwhile, according to the Australian’s article, Foxtel are planning on launching another 20 digital channels this year. Hopefully the majority of them are in HD…

[The Australian]