Missing channels is a step backwards for sure. TEN is also talking to Bruce this week so I wonder if Bruce tries to do a quick deal with TEN so he isn’t left out of the loop.
Yes, with SCA becoming a dual affiliate of NINE and TEN in WIN areas. I have stated before this could happen, thereby shutting WIN completely out of the picture. Bruce would then be forced to action his own bluff and program himself as he has threatened to do in the past when trying to extract favourable deals with NEC. Am sure no-one at Willoughby has ever forgotten that stunt, not to mention the current streaming rights legal action. Nothing legally to stop this, there is no law which restricts a regional station to only one metro affiliation. And as there is no legal requirement for HD anymore, SCA could go all SD and carry say up to 8 SD services, NINE, Go!, GEM, Life, TEN, ONE, Eleven, TVSN. Seems no-one wants to deal with the Bermuda based soon to be (if not already) former billionaire, who could blame them?
What a backwards step that would be. That’s real second class treatment for regional viewers
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This proposal does seems like a backward step and defies the wishes of the Federal Government that people should be able to see the full suite of TV channels no matter where they live, that’s what VAST scheme is for.
Does SCA has enough spectrum to carry all eight SD channels at once without sacrificing picture quality?
It would look like garbage, but yes.
Quite possible if they use MPEG-4 only. They could even have 2 HD and 6 SD at decent quality.
SCA are deep in debt & have to do something fast. Macquarie Bank dumped their SCA shareholding after the market closed at the end of last week, Nine Entertainment picked up most of the shares (start of merger?).
I’m pretty sure as soon as the new media laws 75% rule, get through parliament, NEC & SCA will merge, getting SCA out of the debt.
While this will screw WIN, & in the interim SCA may dual affiliate in the WIN markets, there’s no way Nine will do anything in the Northern NSW market to damage what they’ve got with 9NBN.
After the merger’s complete 9NBN will continue as Nine (likely finish the re-brand), & SCA Ten Northern, will be sold off to probably WIN, unless Network TEN decides to take it on themselves.
SCA TEN Northern will probably go at a bargain basement price from a fire sale.
WIN will have no option but to merge/affiliate with TEN.
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NEC could build the playout capacity for carrying NINE, Go!, GEM, Life into SCA dual NINE/TEN areas at their National Playout Centre (NPC) in Frenchs Forest by combining it with already existing TEN, ONE, Eleven playout capacity SCA has at CTC in Dickson ACT. The capital expense would be needed anyway for when NEC closes down Dickson playout post merger/takeover anyway and moves playout to NPC. So in effect would not be money wasted as Dickson playout is at the end of economic life and well overdue for replacement.
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Reading the article it says Nine, Ten and Southern Cross would likely all share in the efficiencies of having one set of regional overhead costs. and would not have to deal Gordon who is a hard negotiator. SC could have a 60% share which might have some competition issues.
CH9 stopped at under 10% so a potential affiliate deal between the two would not be requiring shareholder approval So that sounds pretty smart by Nine.
Nine and Ten may be reluctant to sacrifice some of their multi-channels in regional areas it goes onto say.
Also says SC could take more than two channels from each network using new spectrum compression technology.
Sounds like at the very least SC and Nine will sort out a affiliate deal from June or July onwards.
Which is why the current Reach Rule and Aggregation has been a disaster. The only way regional viewers will get to be treated the same as metro viewers is when the metro station takes over the regional station. Like how SEVEN owns Seven QLD which are the only regional areas to have 7flix and how NINE owns NBN and NTD.
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So what exactly would this mean for WIN? Or more importantly Ten?
Yeah I agree I have given up on 7flix or Ten HD or anything new in the future. Plus the picture quality in regional areas are a joke this day in age. Lucky we have other options like Foxtel , Netflix, and others. As good as WIN HD looks when comparing it to FOX Sports watching the NRL. Fox is still way better.
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Not that metro ownership gets viewers metro grade services any sooner. Took Nine just as long as WIN to get HD and 9Life launched in NNSW and as far as I know their viewers in Darwin are still waiting for HD. If say Seven owned Prime, would we see 7flix launch same day as metro? Probably not.
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AFAIK Darwin is still waiting for 9Life but had 9HD from day one with the other cities.
Ahh, I knew it was one of them. Cheers.
Dual affiliation will only be a short term thing (if it even happens), Nine would let it go as it would be beneficial for future merger plans, It wouldn’t benefit Ten long term, I think they’d stop it & look elsewhere.
If the reach rule’s scrapped & Bruce is backed into a corner, he’ll likely buy up & take control of Network TEN. TEN wouldn’t need to do any deals or work with WIN, because they’d effectively own TEN.
I think what you’ll find happens should the reach rule be scrapped, is this:
SCA don’t want the TV assets, there’s no money in it, they only want the radio assets.
NEC will payoff SCA’s debt & be given the TV assets (then sell off Ten Northern NSW).
There will be an on paper merger, probably short-medium term, SCA will go in their direction with the radio assets & NEC will go in their direction with the TV assets rebranded to Nine (like 9NBN is currently going through).
They will probably then split the merger & continue on as separate companies, SCA a radio company & NEC as a TV company.
If the rules change before end June, all good. If not, there’ll be some last minute panicked affiliation deals done & short term dual affiliation may happen, (until rules are changed or thrown out of parliament, & everybody has to unravel their plans & go back to as it was).
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WIN signing an agreement with TEN for post-July affiliation would undo this Nine/Ten dual affiliation scenario in a second.
Indeed, and make the merger/takeover of SCA by NEC more elegant for a July 1 affiliation switch. Post merger/takeover, NEC/SCA would have 6 months to divest NRN and TND, possibly selling directly to TEN for NRN and SEVEN for TND.
Tasmania would be interesting, as SEVEN may seek to revoke TNT affiliation if a combined NEC/SCA owned it. Could possibly see TNT change to NINE affiliation with the TDT SCA/WIN JV change to SEVEN affiliation? Or agreement might be reached with the JV for TDT be dissolved with WIN/TEN affiliation to takeover TDT in its own right and sell TVT to Seven directly and allow TNT to become the NINE affiliate? All pure speculation.
So is Win not in as much debt as Southern Cross is ?
So SC10HD will not be here until after the reach rule is dropped.
Not sure why NTD still has to start transmisson for Life, but for NBN the reason is more technical. NBN is still played out from Newcastle and is yet to be moved into NINE’s NPC in Frenchs Forest. NEC had to spend some money for upgrades at NBN so as to re-introduce a main channel HD service and Life. It would have been a reluctant spend as no doubt NEC is waiting to see what happens post the abolition of the Reach Rule as to what to do with NBN which is most likely why NBN playout has yet to be moved. Unlike all other NINE markets, including NTD, which all come out of NPC. Running a single playout centre for all the stations you own makes more sense. Which is why SEVEN was able to start 7flix transmission for all the markets it owns from day 1, including Seven QLD via the Seven Melbourne National Broadcast Centre.
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