A 24-Hour sports channel to be launched next year on free-to-air television will revolutionise the Australian broadcasting landscape.
The Ten Network is set to next month lay down the gauntlet to Fox Sports and its free-to-air rivals when it unveils that its high-definition channel will televise Australian and international sport 24 hours a day.
While Ten executives remained tight-lipped last night, it is believed their subtle but systematic campaign of buying major sporting events continued last week in Monaco at Sportel — the international trade show of sporting rights.
Not only has Ten just outbid Nine to win the television rights to Australian swimming, but among the network's new trump cards are the US NBA basketball, the US Major League baseball. Ten also holds the rights to the US Open golf and tennis championships and the US Masters golf.
Ten also recently spent a reported $10-15 million buying the rights to India's IPL Twenty20 cricket for five years..
The 2009 AFL grand final will also be simulcast on Ten's HD channel, and Ten will extend its AFL coverage to include a Monday night review program to be hosted by Stephen Quartermain.
The program will feature football expert Robert Walls, who has quit the award-winning Fox Sports program On The Couch after seven years to help spearhead the new channel's football coverage.
The network has also bought the rights to the Trans-Tasman Netball League, with former AFL star Luke Darcy to host its netball coverage. Darcy will also have an expanded football role.
Although Ten has been devising its high-definition sporting strategy for at least 12 months, it has refused to divulge the extent of its sporting assault.
In a further blow to pay television, the free-to-air body Free TV is scheduled to later this week announce "Free View", a free-to-air electronic program guide showing all schedules on all five channels, including high-definition, in the manner of the Foxtel guide, which operates from a set-top box for pay TV subscribers.
Currently, the HD channels, with the exception of Channel Two, predominantly mirror what is being shown on the main channels but with superior picture quality.
An estimated 15% of Australian televisions can show HD. Most new televisions come with HD capacity, while set-top boxes can be purchased to convert other televisions.
Ten's coup has been the brainchild of its national sport supremo David White, who first master-minded the break-up of the AFL TV broadcast rights for the 2002-2006 period, and will see his network show eight of ten AFL grand finals over the decade ending in 2011.
White, who returned from his network's buying trip in Europe over the weekend, refused to comment last night.
The new channel is expected to start early in 2009, with a launch expected in mid-November.
Ten also owns the rights to Formula One Grand Prix events, the Nascar series including the Daytona 500, and has been televising the World Golf Championship events.
(Credit: The Age)
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