Jane Schulze
THE Ten Network will launch an advertising-light 24/7 sports digital multi-channel next year.
Under the plans, revealed in The Australian in July, Ten's existing high definition (HD) channel will be renamed ONE and simulcast on Ten's new standard definition channel to be launched in January.
The service is expected to begin in the second quarter of the 2009 calendar year.
Ten's chief executive Grant Blackley said ONE would appeal to a broader audience than Ten's traditional demographic of 18 to 49-year-olds.
The digital-only channel would also feature less advertising than seen on Ten, he said.
Ten recently won the broadcast rights for Swimming Australia, netball and the Indian Premier League. It also jointly owns the rights to AFL games and the Commonwealth Games.
Ten's head of sport David White said the channel would "showcase sports loved by Australians". "Live and exclusive will be a hallmark of the channel," Mr White said.
Ten must show all sports on the Government's anti-siphoning list on Ten before they are shown on ONE, or show them simultaneously.
The free-to-air TV industry wants the list to be changed so sports on the list can be run first on the multi-channels.
That has been vigorously opposed by the pay-TV sector and major sporting bodies who rely on broadcast rights for the majority of their funds.
Mr Blackley said he would welcome that change to the anti-siphoning regime, which he said would aid the federal Government's plan to switch off all analogue TV signals by 2013.
He said the fact ONE would be shown on HD and SD channels meant "we will have no less than 50 per cent reach in the Australian market on day one".
ONE will compete against pay-TV sports channels Fox Sports and ESPN -- and will also be available through Foxtel -- but a Foxtel spokesperson said it welcomed the competition.
Fox Sports chief operating officer Jon Marquard was unperturbed. "I don't think there's much new there if you look at the content," he said.
Opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin recently criticised the Government in Senate estimates for ending the broadcasting regulator's monitoring of the anti-siphoning list. But he said yesterday he had yet to decide if the list should be changed.
"As a sports lover myself I welcome increased availability of sport on TV, but respect the significant importance to the sports themselves in terms of their access to funds and the competitive bidding process and the continuing viability of pay-TV," Senator Minchin said.
ESPN's Asia-Pacific vice-president Mike Morrison had no comment on Ten's plan, but said: "ESPN is the leading high-quality sports channel showing over 60 different sports".
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