ONE for the country – Television.AU

For digital viewers in regional eastern Australia, the wait is almost over for the new sports channel One HD.

Macquarie Southern Cross Media (MSCM), the owner of Southern Cross Ten, has announced that it will start to relay One through its existing high-definition service on digital channel 50 from 2 July at 7.00pm.

Southern Cross Ten, which operates in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT, has bore the brunt of complaints from regional viewers angry that they were left out of the picture when Network Ten launched One, Australia’s first free-to-air dedicated sports channel, back in March.

An announcement is also due soon from Tasmanian Digital Television, a Network Ten affiliate owned jointly between MSCM and WIN Television, but it is expected to also carry One from 2 July.

Even though MSCM operates TV outlets in regional South Australia, Northern Territory and the remote areas of the eastern states, they are not obliged to carry high-definition programming to those areas and at this point are not planned to carry One.

For viewers in Darwin, the outlook is still uncertain as the local Ten outlet, Darwin Digital Television (DDT), is yet to settle on carrying One to the Top End capital. DDT is owned between MSCM and the Nine Network.