January 23rd, 2010 12:45 am

EXCLUSIVE: Channel Ten coming to Regional WA

Regional Western Australia will finally get a third commercial television station from June 2010.

In a major exclusive I can reveal through eBroadcast TVAUSCAST that regional Western Australia will finally get a third commercial television station. Prime Television CEO, Doug Edwards talked to me about multi channeling in Western Australia, why 7TWO was delayed in some parts of Australia and dishes the dirt on that ugly watermark that is appearing on screen.

NAME: Ten West

AVAILABILITY: This will be a DIGITAL only channel so viewers will need the set top box to access this channel.

PROGRAMMING: The channel will be a direct feed of Channel Ten in Perth.

AIRDATE: June 2010

NOTE: This is a rollout. So in June 2010 only some parts of the state will get the new service until it is eventually rolled out. I will be able to release a full roll out schedule for each region when it becomes available next month.

OWNER: This is a joint venture between GWN (Prime) and WIN Television

At this time, regional West Australian viewers have access to two commercial stations; GWN (owned by Prime) which carries Seven Network programming and WIN, which carries mostly Channel Nine programming with some Ten programming as well. All that is about to change with a third commercial station starting soon.

Freeview has been running campaigns for quite some time. Metropolitan viewers have been enjoying the benefits for some time now. Regional areas in most parts of Australia are catching up with 7TWO, One, GO!, ABC2, ABC3 and SBS TWO becoming available. However, regional viewers in Western Australia seem to miss the boat on almost everything with none of the extra channels being made available in the area.

Doug Edwards, CEO of Prime Television explains, “There is currently no legislative requirement for multi channels in regional Western Australia, however the broadcasters are now working with government to develop a time line for their inclusion prior to the scheduled switch off of analogue in that state in 2013.”

Under media law, Western Australia is actually considered a ‘remote’ area instead of a ‘regional’ area and therefore has not come under the same regional guidelines as other states. Doug adds, “the timeline should be finalised within 6 months” which is a real bonus to WA viewers. Whether it takes 12 months or 2 years, WA viewers will be appreciative of the fact that television in the state will grow enormously in such a short time.

At one stage, WA viewers had the choice of one commercial station which was GWN and the two public broadcasters. That increased to two commercial broadcasters only a decade ago when WIN was introduced. With a current total of just four channels, that is set to increase to the full metropolitan suite of channels including the multi-channels in the coming year or so after a timeline is worked out by the networks, in conjunction with the government.

Viewers bombarded the Prime switchboard after hearing that 7TWO would be delayed in most regional areas which meant that viewers would miss certain programs including the new season of ‘Heroes’ and ‘Ugly Betty’. Viewers poured their outrage onto media websites across Australia including eBroadcast itself. Doug Edwards says on this matter, “The delay between Metro and Regional was due to the need for a substantial
rebuild at our Broadcast Centre in Canberra to enable Prime to injest and
distribute this new program stream”.

In thinking that Prime must have known in advance that a new channel was in the works, I asked Doug why the network was not more prepared, “We had no guidance from the Seven Network as to a switch on date until very 
close to their launch date. This delay was similar to the delay in regional
 areas with One HD where Southern Cross television also had to develop their
 playout facility in Canberra.”

This interview would not be complete without asking Doug about that hideous watermark that appears on 7TWO in regional areas and he did respond with “Prime are currently installing further software that will enable the 7TWO watermark to be transparent in line with 7TWO watermark on the Seven Network feed. Most likely this will happen in February.”

To get the channel up and running, Prime are using a ‘dirty feed’ which basically means they are playing out the Seven Network feed of the show with Seven Network commercials and just slapping on the watermark. By February, the network will have its playout done through Prime in Canberra which enables them to change the logo, insert local commercials and so on. So when presented with the choice of starting before Christmas and having this ‘dirty feed’ until February or just not launching until February, Prime made the decision to appease viewers and get the channel up and running the moment they could.

In reference to whether Prime will run ‘catch-up’ episodes for shows like ‘Heroes’, Doug had this to say, “Most probably not, to play catch up programs requires the displacement of other programs, it is most likely that with very few sequential programs being missed we will now follow the network lineup and schedule”. Most of the major programs have not started so regional viewers will get ‘24′ and ‘Lost’ at the same time as metropolitan viewers.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Prime CEO, Doug Edwards for talking with me about the new digital channel in Western Australia as well as answering those 7TWO questions that viewers have been asking me through our forums. After speaking with him via telephone you begin to see that the whole regional issue is not just about ‘flicking on a switch’ but rather a major process that involves the investment of millions of dollars in infrastructure and liaison between networks and the government on a regular basis.

A myriad of questions will now abound about how this will affect WIN’s schedule:

Will episodes of Channel Ten programs flow onto the new channel or will the new channel jump ahead?

Ten West will start transmission in June of this year and will be a direct feed of Channel Ten in Perth. This is a very complicated issue for WIN and after hearing detailed discussions of programming there is no way that the network can avoid viewers being disadvantaged. WIN cannot simply ‘catch up’ for a number of reasons. Firstly, there is not enough airtime to air the regular 2010 line-up as well as this. Secondly, viewers must appreciate that this is a roll out. So if WIN did catch up viewers before June, only one part of the state will approve that transition.

Viewers in another part of the state that have to wait a further six months would now need to be ‘caught up’ again. There is just no way of appeasing all viewers in the state. The only way to look at this is positively and that is that viewers in regional WA will soon have access to every free to air program that the metropolitan programs have, be up to date with episodes with the metropolitan states and have access to every multi channel the same as the rest of Australia within time. Almost everything is positive. The only one negative thing is that during that transition it is possible that viewers will see a ‘jump’ in episodes of their favourite shows. It is a one off disappointment with a long term positive effect.

The digital only channel will not program individually based on what WIN is up to. That means that whatever Channel Ten in Perth is airing in June will go to air as is on Ten West.

Will WIN become Channel Nine only from June?

No. From June WIN will begin to phase into a fully Channel Nine affiliate and you will see less Ten programs on WIN. However, WIN does understand that not all regions will have access to Ten West first up and not all viewers will have switched to digital. That means all major sporting events such as Ten games of AFL will screen on WIN until Ten West is FULLY rolled out. WIN will also continue to ‘cherry pick’ some major Ten programs so it is possible that WIN will continue to show programs such as ‘MasterChef’, ‘NCIS’ and others. That means some regions will see more up to date episodes of a show like ‘NCIS’, while older episodes screen on WIN.

As a media writer it is not my position to defend WIN. In fact, if I choose I can argue against their plans. However, I have been privy to a lot of information about how all this will happen, legislation, cost and so forth and the job for WIN is very difficult in terms of programming. If Ten West was appearing in all regions of WA in June the transition would be simpler. Everyone could get a set top box, Ten West would be Ten, WIN would be Nine and that is it. But since this is a roll out over time, it will be an almost impossible job for the WIN WA programming manager to appease all viewers. The strategy they are taking by keeping sporting events on WIN so all viewers can access and still cherry picking certain shows over a period of time seems the most logical.

The agreement though runs out in June 2012. WIN will no longer be able to cherry pick and the network will run a full Nine schedule with local WIN programming as they wish.

So technically WIN can run their cherry picks until then but because the roll out of digital in WA with the multi channels will be the fastest of any part of the world, it is more likely you will see separate channels in full much earlier. When I see the roll out schedule it will become more apparent.

What programs can I see on Ten West?

You will be able to see the full range of Ten programming. Some will make the transition from WIN to Ten West such as ‘NCIS’, ‘Law and Order: SVU’, ‘House’, ‘Supernatural’, ‘Medium’, ‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent’, ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Rules of Engagement’, ‘Rush’, ‘Burn Notice’ and the return of the ‘Ten News’ service which will air at 5pm. All of the major franchises such as ‘MasterChef Australia’ will air in prime time and ‘Oprah’, ‘Dr. Phil’ and ‘Judge Judy’ will all come to daytime.

I would like to add that WIN, in particular Shirley Brown who took a lot of time out to speak with me about digital television. As mentioned above the rollout of digital in WA will be the fastest of anywhere in the world. Pre 2000, regional WA had access to GWN and the ABC with only some parts receiving SBS. The rollout of digital and HD services in metro areas has been a slow gradual process but regional WA will go from a small handful of channels including only two commercial channels to the full range of channels include all the multi channels and the new ones set to launch this year in a matter of around 18 months. It is a massive task costing tens of millions of dollars which requires close consultation with the government.

Author’s Note: I started this story whilst under contract with eBroadcast, hence the inclusion of the site in this article. However, I am now out of contract with eBroadcast and they have decided not to pick up this story and hence how it ended up on TVAUSCAST.