From the ad I saw for the AFL on 7mate just then, I’ve come to the conclusion that 7HD in Brisbane is dead and buried.
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When the Olympic Games are on, will 7mate in 70 in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth become 7 HD?
Once again it’s all speculation. It would be surprising if Perth or any other locale wouldn’t have a HD Olympic channel. 7’s plans are probably evolving. I’d be surprised if what would have now is permanent forever and a day. As per the old adage the only constant is change.
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Of course Sydney, Brisbane and Perth will have a HD channel for the Olympics…but it will most likely be 7mate HD! 
Anyone who has watched either Seven, 7TWO or 7mate in recent times will have seen the addition of the Olympic rings underneath the usual logo because shock horror, all three of those channels will be airing coverage of the Rio Olympics!
Got no idea why they can’t just move the AFL to the main 7 channel in Perth. Friday night football usually starts at 5pm so just run Seven News at 4:30pm and then just have the AFL LIVE and run Better Homes and Gardens afterwards or just run the news afterwards. Saves stuffing around with the local games being stuck on SD aswell.
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Agree, Adstv, the challenge is the 2-3 time difference. E.g, tennis/sport is always a challenge. The 6pm news in Perth on 7 is sacrosanct because they dont want to meddle with it. Things like Wimbledon, AFL are tricky to schedule because they want to serve sport & non sport audiences. Two HD channels would be great but whether any network believes it would justify the cost versus the ad revenue via extra ratings remains to be seen. That also predisposes that a commercial network would embrace mpeg4 or other technology to allow them to have 2 channels. Hopefully they will because utlimately change will happen regardless. First mover advantage might well pay off. The relatively small people that dont have mpeg4 will either choose to upgrade or accept sd.
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Becasue 7HD is MPEG4, there will be quite a large group in Syd/Bri/Per who used to watch 7Mate in HD with a MPEG 2 only capable TV. Now they will only get the channel in SD (and a very low bitrate SD at that). If enough complain or even better stop watching the channel, that might be the only thing that could influence Seven to change this setup.
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Yeah, I completely agree that the main/only reason that live AFL coverage airs on 7mate in Perth is because of the time difference. Not so much of an issue for afternoon games, but with night games from over East starting around 5pm-6pm (or thereabouts) local time it’s an issue because it would mean interrupting the usual early evening schedule of news and so on.
Thinking about things broadly for a moment. This certainly does not make me any less annoyed about how we have 7mate HD rather than 7HD here in Sydney for now, but I’m digressing…
Regarding the prospect of possibly having two HD MPEG4 channels, personally I think that the main things preventing that would be bandwidth (I think that two HD channels are certainly quite possible under MPEG4, and would make for reasonable enough quality if they both averaged around 3.5-4mbps each) and equipment/playout capability. I’d say that equipment/playout capability would be more of an issue, although it is certainly possible that Seven are also waiting for the eventual closure of 4ME before making more permanent plans for HD.
The fact that there’s logos for both 7HD and 7mate HD as well as the continued “7HD” LCN name for current 7mate HD markets would possibly indicate that they may eventually run both 7HD and 7mate HD in all markets. But at the same time, perhaps Seven may persist with the current strategy of only one HD channel at a higher bitrate to provide a better quality picture (remembering that high motion sport like AFL is a good test of the picture quality!) for that HD coverage of AFL on Seven/7mate in all markets.
Especially for Olympics coverage, two broadcast channels in HD plus however many online streams would be unprecedented for Australian TV. Realistically I do think Seven want to be seen as a leading Olympics broadcaster (as they have been in the past by winning awards and such for Olympics coverage, as we all know) even if that means being last behind SBS, Nine, Ten and possibly (in some markets at least anyway) the ABC in broadcasting their main channel in HD.
But of course, only time will tell exactly what will happen for sure. I suppose we should come back in about August-September for more conclusive opinions on Seven’s handling of HD broadcasting, but those are just a few of my thoughts on the current situation after a few days of digestion and I’d certainly be interested to hear the opinions of others! 
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If Seven’s intention in Perth/Brisbane/Sydney was to have 7mate in HD - they could have done absolutely nothing and spared themselves some expense. That’s why I struggle to believe that their long or even medium term plan is a Mate simulcast.
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I agree, surely Seven HD could’ve been implemented in all capital cities.
By the way, does anyone have a good picture of the 7HD logo?
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Yes, the fact that, for Sydney viewers at least, the LCN name on 70 is “7HD” (and not 7mateHD) gives me hope that this is only a temporary situation (though an odd one at that!).
Aside from that, 7mate on 70 in MPEG4 HD is a better quality picture than it was in MPEG2 (and probably at a lower bit rate too). The bits of the Crows vs Cats AFL game I saw last night looked very good - less blocky than it looked before.
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Regional Qld - Nothing changed with HD ?
My assumption is that 7 are waiting to finalise whatever they’re doing in the metro areas before rolling it out to us here in Regional QLD
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Seven don’t want to deal with those who are upset in the Ayr near Townsville region.
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I agree. Considering that Brisbane is currently getting 7mate HD (and a dodgy SD MPEG2 version, although that’s hardly a major loss), Regional Queensland can be assured that they aren’t missing out on much for now!
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I’ll pass that along to the GPO at Ayr, near Townsville.
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Fox Footy simulcast is still SD. What a joke
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As I’m sure we’ve gone through many times before, Fox Footy probably only provide Seven with an SD feed of their games so people will subscribe to Foxtel for the HD coverage on Fox Footy.
I completely agree that it’s a joke, of course.
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It makes no sense. Why hasn’t the AFL forced Fox Footy to provide Seven with HD. Instead they force Seven to simulcast a multichannel in HD which can’t show some matches in HD anyway. The AFL has royally screwed Sydney/Brisbane/Perth for nothing.
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