As far as I’m aware, it’s NBN who runs the one “Mid North Coast” feed while Prime7 and SC10 split them up into to separate feeds (one for Forster/Tuncurry/Taree/Port and surrounds, the other for Kempsey/Coffs/Grafton and surrounds) for advertising purposes. 
I stand corrected then. 
I think GWN7 is the only commercial TV network in Regional WA to have separate advertising feeds in various parts of the state, whilst WIN & Ten West each have the 1 feed for the whole state.
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That’s correct. Prime also does two separate 7mate feeds, one is HD for SSW & VEW combined and the other is SD for WAW (the only 7mate SD service in existence I think)
It’s March 2016 and one week to go before the season starts. Still no word on when 7HD will launch. This was a rumour from late last year on Decider TV. 9HD has been operating since last November and 10HD for nearly two weeks.
It’s complete speculation on my part.
But I often wonder whether 7’s delay in launching 7HD may be because they’re looking for a way to keep 7mate in HD while also adding 7HD in.
7 typically like to be ahead of the competition and the only thing I can think of that would be causing the delay is them looking for a way to be ahead of the other channels in HD.
Which is my reasoning for thinking maybe they’re exploring having 2 HD streams.
Just my thoughts (most likely wrong), but something to think about
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If Seven wanted two or more HD channels, I think they’d most likely have to switch 7TWO and 7mate to MPEG4 and I certainly can’t see that happening anytime soon.
Personally, I think that Seven will most likely be running a primary HD channel by the end of the year. It would be a very bad look for the network if we had SBS HD, Nine HD, Ten HD and possibly ABC HD (that’s supposedly launching around mid-year) while the network who prides themselves on being “Australia’s #1” stuck with SD. But the question is when? That’s something that only Seven themselves can answer.
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With the bitrates that they’re running the 576i 7flix service at (similar bitrates to what 9HD is broadcasting at in 1080i), they might as well just switch it to broadcasting in 1080i and there’s your second HD channel.
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The reality is that while we are all screaming out for HD, Seven continue to smash it in the ratings night in night out with only SD. It clearly doesnt turn the viewers off. That is reason enough for any delay.
Sport, however, is a different beast. I wouldnt be surprised if AFL was just simulcast on 7mate in all AFL states to satisfy that need.
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I don’t think they’d necessarily need to change either to MPEG4.
Based on bit rate samples from I found on the forum from 7 Brisbane, they could potentially squeeze 7 HD in while keeping 7mate as is like this:
7 Digital: 4.0mbps (MPEG2 SD)
7TWO: 3.0mbps (MPEG2 SD)
7mate: 7.0mbps (MPEG2 HD)
7flix: 1.5mbps (MPEG4 SD)
TV4ME: 1.0mbps (MPEG4 SD)
Racing.com: 1.0mbps (MPEG4 SD)
7 HD: 3.5mbps (MPEG4 HD)
Reducing 7flix and racing.com down by about 1mbps from where they currently are and keeping the other services close to the same as they currently are, they could theoretically add 7HD in in MPEG4 as above.
Again though, purely just my ideas
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7 already have 2 MPEG4 channels 7flix and RACING.COM
Reducing RACING.COM to MPEG2 will pave the way for 7HD
Err… how?
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Interesting – 7flix is at about 4.5 Mbps here in Sydney right now. I wonder why it’s so much higher in Sydney.
9 HD is about 3.5 Mbps at this moment, so clearly, 7flix could be in HD (at least in Sydney) without changing the bitrate and affecting the other channels. Any MPEG-4 compatible receiver would be able to decode HD anyway, so I’m not sure why they’re keeping it at 576i.
Wow! That’s amazingly high!
The post I got the figures off showed Brisbane has 7flix at about 2.6mbps (which is why I said it could go down by 1 to 1.5mbps).
Interestingly, in Townsville 7flix is only running at about 1.2mbps as it is now.
SC has 2 feeds for its regional SA area. Broken Hill/Port Lincoln on 1 and the rest on another (Pt Pirie, Pt AUgusta and Whyalla)
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Yep, like I said, 2 feeds for both SA and Central.
Is Nine and SC Ten also split this way or is it just SCTV?
If they are stat-muxing then the bitrates will go up and down depending on content. These figures would widely vary all the time…
Won’t that have the opposite effect? Mpeg2 uses up more bandwidth than mpeg4 which is why new hd and sd channels are using mpeg4
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No network can convert MPEG 4 channel to MPEG 2 channel. That would be decompressing data.
I think the fact 7HD has not been announced yet means Seven is brewing something a bit bigger.
Either something to do with the fact there will be two HD channels (7HD and 7mateHD) or something to do with the fact 7, 7TWO, 7mate and 7flix will ALL be in HD online for the Rio Games.
Or all local 7News will be HD at launch.
Something other than just flicking on 7HD is taking them this long…
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Or, 7HD was planned to take the slot 7flix is now taking - with the decision to do another channel made late and now Seven need more equipment to roll out HD…
If the intention from the outset was doing both 7flix and 7HD, they’d have done it like Nine and launched both the same day.
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