The podcast returns for ‘Episode 26: The Digital TV Episode’.

It’s all about what’s happening on Freeview and how the government isn’t educating Australians.

We also talk about the ‘Good Game’ debacle, ‘Rove’ being delayed until April/May for ‘The 7PM Project’ and ‘Top Gear’ making the move to Nine.

Our show discussions include: ’Celebrity MasterChef’, ’Beauty and the Geek’, ’Packed to the Rafters’, ’All Saints’, ’Hey Hey It’s Saturday’, ’Australian Idol’, ’Outrageous Fortune’, ’Go Girls’, ’Glee’, ’Curb Your Enthusiasm’, ’How It Met Your Mother’, ’The Big Bang Theory’, ’Cougar Town’, ’Community’, ’Ugly Betty’, ’Greek’, ’10 Things I Hate About You’, ’The Vampire Diaries’, ’FlashForward’, ’Eastwick’ and ’Melrose Place’.

Download the podcast now.

Reports that Seven’s medical drama ‘All Saints’ will be going under the knife next season have been confirmed.

The series will be trimmed down to 22 – 28 episodes in 2010, down from the current 40 episodes per season.

Cast and crew will conclude production on the series three months earlier in August, instead of November.

Ratings on the long running drama have slumped against strong competition from competing networks. Ratings have been hovering around 1.1 million viewers in the new 8.30pm timeslot, compared to the 1.6 million peak in its post ‘Packed to the Rafters’ slot.

Seven have said that the savings they’ll reap from ‘All Saints’ will be put towards a new drama series.

‘All Saints’ airs 8.30pm Tuesdays on Seven.

'7 is Heaven' will be the new name for daytime programming on digital channel '72'. While bizarre, not entirely unbelievable from the network with "Mr. TV Man" as their main mascot.

The Seven Network have finally put their money where their mouth is, and have announced their multi-channelling plans for the Freeview platform.

The network will launch with three distinct channels from November, including their current SD digital channel ‘7′, a re-launched ’7 HD’ and an all new ‘7 Extra’.

While speaking at the “Get ready for digital TV” forum in Sydney this morning, Seven’s CEO David Leckie said “the current economic crisis has put a lot of things into perspective. Our multi-channelling plans will address these issues.”

First up is the new HD channel. The network will continue using the ‘Seven HD’ moniker for channel ‘70′, which will be dedicate to all Australian content.

It will screen new first run lifestyle programs, time-shifted news and re-runs of Australian drama including ‘City Homicide’, ‘Packed to the Rafters’, ‘All Saints’, ‘Home and Away’ and older series like ‘Last Man Standing’, “HeadLand” and ‘A Country Practice’.

The channel will also show a simulcast of Seven’s regular channel ‘7′ in HD for select content, i.e., movies and other “must-see TV.”

Seven will re-launch ‘The Great Outdoors’, which has been MIA for some time now. Naomi Robson (‘Today Tonight’) and Charlie Delaney (‘Hi:5′, ‘Battle of the Choirs’) will be joining the travel show as globe trotting presenters.

‘Out of the Red’, is a new first run lifestyle program that will screen on the new 7HD. It will feature ‘Sunrise’ hosts, Mel and Kochie, as they help people bogged down by the current economic crisis. The new series will see the duo help families with their debts and give them tips for getting”out of the red”.

The network announced that they have several other new lifestyle programs in development which will be announced at a later date.

“Lifestyle programs are much more cost effective for us to produce in this current economic climate. The smaller budgets mean we can experiment with various concepts and ideas without breaking the bank” said Leckie. “We’ll offset our new lifestyle programming on the new 7HD with our large back-catalogue of great Aussie drama,” he added.

The network’s plans for their second standard definition channel, ‘7 Extra’ (‘72′), is a little more interesting.

In a bold move for the commercial broadcaster, the new channel will outsource its programming blocks to various content producers.

Deals have been struck with Walt Disney, Bloomberg Television, the Australian Christian Channel and various community television stations from around the country.

“By outsourcing the programming to different content providers, we’ll be able to create a diverse programming line up,” Leckie added. ”We’ve established a new shared advertising revenue scheme with the content producers, which will see lower up front costs for content.”

Each programming block will be themed depending on the content producer. The four banner names will be: ‘7 is Finance’, ‘7 is Heaven’, ‘7 is Adventure’ and ‘7 is Community’.

‘7 is Finance’ will run during the morning programming block (6 am to 11 am) and will feature non-stop finance reports from Bloomberg Television.

“Keeping people up to date with the markets is just another way we’ll be helping people during these troubled times,” said Leckie.

‘7 is Heaven’ will run during the daytime programming block (11 am to 5 pm) and will feature a schedule developed by the Australian Christian Channel. The ACC have several new programs in development including a new music program produced in conjunction with the Hillsong Church. It will be hosted by ‘Australian Idol’ winner and renowned Hillsong member Guy Sebastian.

Classic TV dramas including ‘Touched by an Angel’, ‘Joan of Arcadia’ and ‘7th Heaven’ will run throughout the week, while Sunday’s will feature live sermons from around the country.

“All of our daytime programming will be aimed at spreading hope and optimism to our viewers,” said Leckie.

“But the ‘adventure’ really begins on ‘7 Extra’ during prime-time,” he announced.

‘7 is Adventure’ will run between 5 pm and 1 am. It’ll feature content from the network’s output deal with Disney/ABC Studios. It will screen all of Disney’s classic animations like ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘The Lion King’, as well as more mature content from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films. Titles will include film franchises ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’,'The Chronicles of Narnia’ and ‘Kill Bill’, as well as box office hits like ‘Pearl Harbour’ and ‘Gangs of New York’.

TV series from ABC Studios will join the ‘7 is Adventure’ block, with ‘Desperate Housewives’, ‘Lost’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘Brothers and Sister’, ‘Ugly Betty’, ’Scrubs’, ‘Commander in Chief’ and ‘Alias’ will all be getting a re-run on the new channel. ‘Night Stalker’, ‘Dirt’, ‘Kyle XY’ and ‘Greek’ will also make the move to free-to-air under the new ‘7 is Adventure’ block.

Disney channel movies and TV series like ‘High School Musical’, ‘Camp Rock’ and ‘Hannah Montana’ will air Saturday nights under the new ‘adventure’ banner.

From 1 am to 6 am, ‘7 is Community’ will screen, with original programming from Sydney’s TVS, Melbourne’s C31 and other community stations from around the country.

“We really want to embrace the community as a source of great entertainment,” said Leckie. “The new shared revenue scheme will really benefit independent content makers and allow them to create more ambitious programs.”

‘7 Extra’ will be broadcast on digital channel ‘72′.

“As the leaders in television, our mission is to bring viewers diverse and entertaining programs.”

“We believe that we’ve come up with a great strategy for our multi-channelling line up, which will provide both variety and quality,” Leckie concluded.

So after several long months, Seven’s digital TV plans have finally been unveiled and the all-Aussie channel and the outsourced programming channel are both pretty bold ideas for the network. It’s definitely the most comprehensive and unique plan we’ve seen from a free-to-air broadcaster so far.

Too bad we’ll have to wait until November.

Oh, and by the way…April fools!

The podcast returns with the first episode of 2009. We discuss all the new and returning series, including Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, Sunday Night, Life On Mars, Bondi Vet, Guerilla Gardeners, So You Think You Can Dance, LOST, Kyle XY, Packed to the Rafters and Ugly Betty. We also delve into the issues surrounding Freeview and make our predictions for the 2009 television season.

Battleground 4: Tuesdays: All Saints: Medical Response Unit vs Lie to Me

Analysis: Long running Aussie drama All Saints has undergone a revamp, instead of just dealing with scenarios inside the hospital they are now a medical response unit, operating on patients at the site of the accident. It promises to show ‘more action’ and ‘adrenalin-filled’ scenes. Fresh from the states is freshman drama, Lie to Me, starring Britain’s Tim Roth who plays a scientist specializing in decoding facial expression and body language. The show’s success will be judged on how viewers warm to Tim Roth’s character, in the pilot he is charismatic but definitely doesn’t outwit Damian Lewis in Life.

Likely Winner: Going by last year’s results, All Saints: Medical Response Unit should win it comfortably, Lie to Me has promise, but how long will this one dimensional premise last? But hey, procedurals have been working for more than 20 years, so it may last.

Battleground 3: Mondays: Ladette to Lady vs Dexter vs Brothers and Sisters

All Saints is getting an overhaul in 2009. Check out the first promo from the new high-octane All Saints dubbed,  ’Medical Response Unit’.

All Saints returns in February 2009 on the Seven Network.

The landscape of television isn’t what it was fifty years ago, so why hasn’t Australian television really evolved?

In case you weren’t aware, the internet has arrived! And yes, that means television content is no longer restricted to the tube. So why haven’t the networks here embraced the internet like many others have overseas? If you find out the answer, let me know.

In the US and UK not only can you stream all your favourite shows online the day after they air, even in HD for some networks. You can also buy them online for as little as $US1.99 or as a season pass for $US29.99 on iTunes. There are services like BBC’s iPlayer which utilises P2P technology to share video content among users. And NBC/FOX’s Hulu.com which hosts shows from multiple networks that can even be streamed straight to your television with devices like the Slingbox. Yet here in Australia, like most things, we’re left behind scratching our head wondering “what does the internet do?”

Sure some of the networks have dipped their toes in the “new-media” pond, but most of their attempts have been pretty half baked. So let’s take a look at the five free to air broadcasters and see how much or how little they’ve embraced the internet.

Starting off with the worst offender, the Seven Network. Sure they’re winning the ratings race, but their internet presence is almost negligible. The only two shows they offer free streaming episodes of are Heroes and Make Me a Supermodel, and the image quality is terrible. You’re restricted to a small video window on their website and navigating to other shows is poorly implemented. Also, where are the free streaming episodes of Packed to the Rafters, City Homicide and All Saints? You know, the Australian shows that people actually want to watch (sorry Supermodel fans)!

Seven Network online presence: 2/10

Next up is Network Ten. They were the first network to jump onto the internet tv bandwagon a few years ago, with free episodes of Supernatural on their Windows-only DRM supported video player. It was a good start, but had limited potential.

Today they’ve more or less gone all streaming video. Almost all their Australian shows are available for streaming, even a couple of US imports. Unfortunately episodes are only up for a limited time, around two weeks. It’s also let down by the poor image quality and the lack of a streamlined video infrastructure. Meaning video content is spread all over their site, rather than in one place. Launching catch-up TV for one show could be on one page in a certain video player, while another show is on a different page in a different player. It’s messy and not very user friendly. You’re also restricted to watching content on your computer.

Network Ten online presence: 4/10

The Nine Network could have been one of the best, but unfortunately at the same time are one of the worst offenders. There’s no streaming video, but they provide every single episode of their current Australian dramas for free on their website through ad supported downloads, which are even legally allowed to be shared via torrents and other P2P services (which gives them huge brownie points). The image quality is great and the inserted ads are so minimal that it’s hardly an inconvenience to sit through them.

But it’s their paid content let’s them down. They were the first and only Australian commercial broadcaster to jump onto the iTunes store with episodes of Sea Patrol, Canal Road and McLeod’s Daughters, but it’s been nearly five months since TV shows hit iTunes in Australia and still Nine have only put less than seven episodes of each of these shows on the store, leaving purchasers in the lurch for the remainder of each series. It’s almost like they’ve forgotten that they even have shows on iTunes. It’s a real shame because the iTunes buying experience is so good, its easy to use and just works. Plus you have access to all your shows on your computer, iPod and even TV with Apple TV.

Nine Network online presence: 6/10

Now we’re left with the two public broadcasters ABC and SBS. Both have made huge strides to embrace television content via the internet. They seem to be the only two broadcasters that really understand where television is heading, they both have well designed online video players and have been providing free podcasts and downloads of their shows for years. Meaning content was free to played back on iPods and other devices for viewing on your television or on the go.

The ABC iView streaming video player is probably the best internet television service in Australia. It has a well designed, streamline interface in which you have access to almost all of the ABC catalogue. No need to search around for links to other shows. It’s all there in the iView player. Plus iView is quota free if you’re with iiNet, so it wont chew through your internet bandwidth. The ABC also have a reasonable selection of shows on the iTunes store, including: Summer Heights High, We Can Be Heroes, The Chaser’s War On Everything and Enough Rope. Like is said before, iTunes is so easy to use and it just works. Buying shows for playback on your iPod or TV couldn’t be simpler.

SBS online presence: 8/10
ABC online presence: 9/10

There is no doubt that tradition television view-ship is falling, but with such popular (not necessarily legal) alternatives available, the networks really don’t have an excuse for playing the “no one is watching tv anymore” card. The answer is sitting there in front of them. They just need to start embracing it, because clearly the internet is the future.

What it comes down to really is having the options available. Providing legal alternatives that hopefully over time audiences will embrace equally. We need to be given the option to decided on the way we consume our content, we can’t be forced into watching shows at a certain time or in a certain place. It needs to be flexible so suit our timetables – to suit our lives. Television is only one in a number of sources of entertainment these days, so it has to adjust with the times.

We need to see more online video content that is built on well designed and easy to use infrastructure. We need to see more online video content available for purchase from places like iTunes, so that we can take our shows with us and watch tv shows on our televisions. It even wouldn’t hurt to see an online web presence which hosts content from multiple broadcasters like Hulu.com, so that people know the one place where they can easily find content.

There’s nothing worse than clearing your schedule so that you don’t miss an episode of your favourite show, only to find out that the network had bumped the show to another night. Or going online to the shows website to catch up on the episode you missed, only to discover that the episode you wanted to watch has been taken down.

When the network’s are so unreliable, not only on air, but with their “new-media” services also, it’s no wonder people just go back to their illegal downloads, at least it’s reliable and it’s not going anywhere.

All Saints General Western Hospital is about to get a whole lot more summery.

Next month, ex-Home and Away actors, Ella Scott-Lynch and Kip Gamblin who played Hayley Smith and Scott Hunter on the long running Seven soap, will be joining the networks other long running drama All Saints. 

Both actors are keen to be joining television veterans John Howard and John Waters on the medical drama. Gamblin will play Dr Adam Rossi, and Scott-Lynch will play nurse Claire Anderson.

A network spokesman denied that they were brought in to cover the tragic death of actor Mark Priestley. Producers are yet to decide how they show will deal with the character’s sudden exit.

It’s a new season of television! And boy is there a lot to talk about. In our first post-olympics podcast, we discuss Packed the Rafters, All Saints, Idol, Make Me a Supermodel, ABC Family, and plenty of Aussie Drama. The return of Cult Show of the Week and our new segment So You Think Concepts.  We wrap up by discussing the new season of Dancing with the Stars.

All Saint’s actor Mark Priestley, 32, was found dead yesterday in the Sydney CBD. The actor who has been suffering from depression, is believed to have taken his own life. His body was found and confirmed by police around 1:30pm yesterday.

The cast of All Saints were devastated with the news, who only recently learned about fellow cast mate Virginia Gay’s violent attack in Sydney’s inner-west. The set was closed today as cast come to terms with their tragic loss.

The actor’s character Dan Goldman on Seven’s All Saints recently married on the show’s big ratings return on Tuesday since the Olympics, which drew over 1.28 million viewers.

Seven has had a little bit of fun revising with their post-Olympics schedule. They’ve moved their big ratings winner Dancing with the Stars to an all new night.

All Saints finally gets to start on time on Tuesday nights taking the lead-out from the new Aussie drama series Packed to the Rafters. While Dancing with the Stars becomes Seven’s new Sunday night tent-pole between The Outdoor Room and Criminal Minds.

See Seven’s full line up after the break.

UPDATE All Saints has always been on Tuesday nights. Thanks to Stuart for the correction.

Monday

7:30 Border Security
8:00 The Force
8:30 City Homicide
9:30 Bones
10:30 Boston Legal

Tuesday

7:30 RSPCA Animal Rescue
8:00 Find My Family
8:30 Packed to the Rafters
9:30 All Saints

Wednesday

7:30 Crash Investigation Unit
8:00 Medical Emergency
8:30 Criminal Minds
9:30 The Apprentice UK

Thursday

7:30 Make Me A Supermodel
8:30 Ghost Whisperer
9:30 Ugly Betty

Sunday

6:30 The Outdoor Room
7:30 Dancing with the Stars
9:45 Criminal Minds (Repeat)

Remember the days when you would switch on the tube and find yourself desperately searching for an Australian alternative to escape the onslaught of American shows.  Well, now a whole lot of decision making will be required when you switch on the television come September, with networks pitting their Aussies dramas against each other. Something we haven’t seen in just about forever.

What decisions will you be making this September? Well, Network Ten has daringly pitted their new police drama  Rush against the Seven Network’s long running medical drama All Saints. So which will you be watching? Are you a sucker for sex, guns and fast cars? Or is blood, guts and the annual hostage situation more your style?

Hit us up know in the comments.

The Nine Network’s Scorched is Australia’s first cross-platform drama project. The upcoming political tele-movie is set in a climate change ravaged Sydney.  After 240 days without rain, the city has only two weeks water left. When the city is then ringed by severe bushfires, the question becomes, how do you fight fire when you have no water?

Check out the trailer for the tele-movie below.

While it won’t hit our screens for a few weeks, the drama is already making waves on the web in the form of a collection of webisodes and fictional online news reports. Several websites have been created that are linked to the events of the tele-movie.

• scorched.tv
• argon-energy.com
• h20transport.com
• angelaboardman.com
• rawt.org.au

Scorched stars Georgie Parker (All Saints, The Falls), Rachael Carpani (McLeod’s Daughers, Cane), Vince Colosimo (Underbelly, The Falls), Cameron Daddo (Pirate Master) and Libby Tanner (headLand). The tele-movie is directed by Tony Tilse (Underbelly).  The online webisodes star Kate Bell (Blue Water High) and Zachary Garred (Home and Away).

Scorched premieres 8:30pm Sunday, August 1, on Nine.