Seven Announces 7TWO: It's About Time

After close to a year of speculation, Channel 7 have announced their digital multi-channel. With so many rumours and speculation on what they will offer, the end result is a little underwhelming, if only because it is exactly what one would expect from a Channel 7 general-entertainment channel. As expected, the schedule is not that far removed from what they had been offering on 7HD.

7TWO has clearly been designed to extend the existing Channel 7 brand. It complements their primary channel in maintaining the same design ethos to its idents and branding, while being nicely counter-programmed against their primary offerings.

Sevens Tim Worner described 7Two as “a broad entertainment channel” which would offer drama, lifestyle, reality, comedy and movies.

“I am pleased to announce that 7Two will be the new home for premiere episodes of our international hits including J.J Abrams’ Lost, Ugly Betty, Heroes and 24,” Worner said.

“We’ve been strategic in putting together a program schedule for 7Two that allows us to grow our audience between our two channels, without sacrificing one for the other. It is a complementary relationship that will go from strength to strength maximising the opportunities for our audience and clients.”

The daytime schedule is a mixture of drama series and lifestyle programing. Murder She Wrote, Magnum PI, Brothers & Sisters, and the first-run In Justice all get a go during the day. Interesting is Seven’s attempt to run soaps during their afternoons, with the imports Coronation Street, Shortland Street, and Emmerdale.

The primetime lineup has a few very interesting additions.

The 6pm timeslot will strip The Jay Leno Show mon-fri. While it’s a shame they won’t be running the much funnier Tonight Show w/ Conan O’Brien, one can appreciate that Leno is a much tighter fit with the tone of the channel. Of course, it will be interesting to see whether NBC continue to produce Leno’s show, considering the ratings problems it is causing with the majority of their affiliate stations.

7pm is a strange choice indeed with the decision to run That 70′s Show. One would think the show would eat into the ratings for Home & Away, with both shows targeting a fairly similar demographic.

7TWO seem to be avoiding Go!’s weakly conceived idea for theme nights with first-run series like Ugly Betty, American Gladiators, and Fifth Gear being run at 7:30. 8:30 seems to be skewing largely male with Reaper, Heroes, and Stargate: Atlantis.

Friday nights, 7TWO is very cleverly programmed. Scrubs is on for an hour from 7:30pm, run against Better Homes & Garden on their primary channel. 7TWO then runs with lifestyle programs from 8:30, likely catching the Better Homes & Garden audience who may be switching away from the football at 8:30 on Seven. Better Homes & Gardens is a ratings powerhouse for them on Fridays, so this should work well for them.

Worthy of note is their Family movie on Sunday nights at 7:30pm. The first week they are screening Kate & Leopold. While this may cannibalise their audience for Border Security and The Force: Behind The Line, it will put an equally large dent in 60 Minutes’ audience. With the strength of Sevens Sunday Night program, which has been eating into 60 Minutes ratings, could this move serve as a potential 60 Minutes killer? It’s unlikely, but it will no doubt hurt the show. A lot.

The surprising omission from the schedule is that there is very little Disney content available. With the strong focus on weekends to airing Disney programming on 7HD, one would have expected this to continue onto the new channel. Also, with Seven reportedly signing a deal recently with E!, one would have expected to see some of that content get a run.

Pleasant additions to the schedule are re-runs of What About Brian to Wednesday nights, as well as Count Duckula and Dangermouse on the weekends. Hardly drawcards, but they’ll certainly get some time on the Televised Revolution HQ PVR.

The 7TWO website is live and has a promo video that is undoubtedly getting an airing at presentations for media buyers and other interested parties today. Unfortunately, it can’t be embedded elsewhere online, but no doubt it will start getting looped on Channel 72 very soon.