The Olympics on 7 app will launch next Monday (August 1) in time for the early rounds of the Olympic soccer tournament.
Remember Jessica Mauboy’s song Where I’ll Stay which was used to promote Seven’s coverage? Well it has been trumped by Katy Perry’s new track Rise which debuted at No.1 on this week’s ARIA charts. Rise is the theme of NBC’s Olympic broadcast.
There is a discussion thread for the Commonwealth Games too: 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games - #21 by LeighF
I’m personally not so sure. If the current 7HD/7mateHD split was only temporary, then why are they bothering to do add a “HD” watermark addition on 7mateHD? Not to mention that there was a press release last week saying that The EJ Whitten Legends Game would air on the HD channel in all metro markets (including those which get their AFL coverage on 7mateHD) on September 2.
It must also be said that if Seven were to do a HD simulcast of their main channel in all metro markets, they’d now have to do separate feeds for Brisbane and the Gold Coast (to accommodate for the slight programing changes in the latter region, due to their recently launched 5.30pm local news service) while it’s easy enough to just run the same feed of 7mateHD in both Brisbane & the Gold Coast because I’m pretty sure there’s no separate localised feeds for the multichannels. Then there’s also regional Queensland to consider, which I believe still only has access to 7mate only in MPEG2 HD rather than 7mate in MPEG4 HD + MPEG2 SD like what Brisbane/Gold Coast (and Sydney…and Perth) gets.
With all of that in mind, I’m willing to predict that the current 7mateHD markets will most likely either continue to get 7mateHD during the Rio Olympics or something similar to what Nine did with GEM during London 2012 with main channel coverage of the Olympics, but 7mate programing (including AFL) at other times. Although I certainly hope to be proven wrong with those predictions!
What about that Twitter post saying more details soon and mentioning the other markets…
hey guys yes you’ll be able to see Ch 7 Olympic coverage in HD in Syd Bris and Perth. Details soon.
According to TV Week, 7mate will show all the group matches of Olympic football tournament at 1.50am AEST on both August 4 and 5. It will also have a full replay of the Matildas’ group match against Canada at 4.30pm on August 4.
Womens soccer getting a boost on commercial TV before the Opening Ceremony
The Olympics start on 6 August so the official schedule is already released. At the moment in Sydney and Brisbane, 7HD is still showing as a simulcast on 7Mate - so for example the Opening Ceremony is not scheduled (at the moment) on 7HD.
So Sydney Brisbane and Perth viewers miss out on HD coverage of the opening ceremony? An event that would lend itself to HD coverage to see all the vibrancy etc.
Well what a complete fuck up this is from seven. I can’t say I’m not surprise. It seems that yeh executives at every network lack common sense.
This network has the most fucked up HD policy known to man.
Imagine 9 pulling off a similar stunt in Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide so they could show NRL in HD in these markets and leave 9 in SD in Southern States. NRL airs on 9Gem in the Southern States apart from the Grand Final
The main channel must be in HD. Nine and Ten did it right
It is possible that the schedule might be altered before then but the Opening Ceremony and the replay that night are not listed on the 7HD program stream in Sydney and Brisbane.
Currently the 9am spot on Saturday morning (live ceremony) is filled with shows such as Harley Davidson TV. At 7.30pm when the ceremony replay is scheduled, The Big Bang Theory is listed for 7HD in Sydney while Brisbane has AFL coverage. In Melbourne AFL is being shown on 7Mate that is not in HD.
Seven broadcast the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2004 Athens games in 16:9 HD (the rest of the games was produced in 4:3 SD), and their entire 2008 coverage was in HD. If the main channel isn’t simulcast in HD in ALL the mainland capitals it will be a travesty.
To be optimistic for a moment, here’s something to keep in mind: Didn’t Seven announce only about a week in advance (and from memory, it was a little less than a week in advance for Nine’s announcement of a GEM HD simulcast for last year’s NRL Grand Final) that it was going to show last year’s AFL Grand Final in HD on 7mate in all markets?
Now while I can’t say for sure exactly what’s going to happen of course, surely that’s a sign that Seven just might have a surprise announcement up it’s sleeve within the next 12 days? 
Although aside from that, I still stand by my earlier predictions of the 7HD/7mateHD split possibly continuing (or Seven doing something similar to what Nine did with GEM for London 2012 in the current 7mateHD markets) during Rio.
If live coverage of the AFL has been relegated to 7mate for a replay of the Opening Ceremony in Melbourne, that’s pathetic!
Don’t forget regional Qld ! Unless there is an announcement coming soon like “Seven and Prime announce HD in time for the Olympics”
Maybe that is why Nine HD was up so quickly with SC instantly so the techs could then work on 7 HD ? I dunno…if that makes sense. Not sure what work would be carried out if any to enable playout.
Sorry…
Ch 7 are showing the AFL ON A MULTI-CHANNEL IN MELBOURNE 
Said no one ever.
(Is that even contractually allowed!?)
Not sure what you mean?
Also not sure if this means anything. They have been wrong before.
Key points
*Seven’s Chief Digital Officer Clive Dickens’ confirming to DeciderTV that the network has “no current plans” to launch Seven’s main channel in HD
*Rio Olympics will likely only be broadcast in standard definition,
*Came to the mindset that providing HD and SD versions of it’s main channel was an inefficient use of spectrum.
*Wants to launch more SD channels.
The AFL won’t be happy. Surely Seven can’t do this?
[quote=“TV_Addict, post:209, topic:627”]
Also not sure if this means anything. They have been wrong before.
[/quote]Anything that Decider TV posts needs to be taken with more than a few grains of salt.
The launch of 70 HD alone goes against what that article says anyway, and they were launched only 1-2 months after the article was published. While I wouldn’t be hopeful about getting the Olympics in HD in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, this article has already been proven wrong. Seven clearly have some form of HD strategy that they are working on - to change 7mate to SD, and then add another version in HD in 3 cities hardly seems like a long term strategy.
I disagree, there will be more eyes watching the opening ceremony than an AFL game. Its 2 weeks once every four years, I feel like we will survive.