This week on the Televised Revolution podcast, Dan, Simon, and Dennis discuss “Choppergate” as well as:

• Humphrey B Bear goes up for auction
• Optus move to protect TV Now
• ACMA announce the results of the Broken Concepts Report
• We interview Josh Schmidt from the new ABC2 series twentysomething
• Podcast contributor Lachlan Hibbert-Wells provides a report from the audience of the new Tony Martin / Ed Kavalee series Joy of Sets
• And much, much more.

As always, we look forward to receiving your mail and check us out on the Twitter / Facebook. You can also find the podcast on iTunes (please leave us a review, it helps people find the show).

This week on the show, the panel discuss:

• Channel 4 in the UK announce a panel show that sounds very similar to The Gruen Transfer.
• The ABC cutback on in-house Arts production.
• We mourn the loss of the original Fat Cat.
• Nine announce the cancellation of Special Rescue Ops.
• Nine announce Celebrity Apprentice Australia.
• The Onion staff go on strike.

As always, we look forward to receiving your mail and check us out on the Twitter / Facebook. You can also find the podcast on iTunes (please leave us a review, it helps people find the show).

On this weeks show Dan, Simon, and Dennis discuss:

• PBL Media announce a rebrand.
• Channel Nine unveil their 2011 lineup.
• A list of this weeks most downloaded shows.
• Zapruders Other Films and their impressive 2011 output.

As always, we look forward to receiving your mail and check us out on the Twitter / Facebook. You can also find the podcast on iTunes (please leave us a review, it helps people find the show).

And, as discussed on the podcast, the new Nine Entertainment logo:

*The partnership of ABC and Sony’s PS3
*Plus 7
*ACMA’s report into current affairs
*The head of Channel Nine’s Factual dept resigns.

Of course, there are TV highlights and a lengthy discussion on Triple Zeds Radiothon and why a community broadcaster is important in a city like Brisbane.

If you’re interested in subscribing to Triple Zed during its Radiothon, please check out details on the website, or give them a call – (07) 3252 1555.

For those of you who read Televised Revolution with any regularity, you’d be aware that we’ve gushed over Channel 10′s launch of One HD. While we at Televised Revolution are in no way sports guys, we are impressed that Ch 10 have chosen a subject that will serve the network well into the new digital future. Sports programming is one of the few television subjects that require the viewer to watch the program live. In the day of PVR’s, peer to peer, and direct downloading of content, it seems almost foolish to stake a long-term business plan on the idea viewers will still be watching broadcast television as their primary method to watch Two & A Half Men.

The fact Channel 9 have announced plans for a general entertainment station surprises very few people. For a network that has faced financial problems, diminishing viewers, and generally tries little in the way of innovation, a general entertainment channel is a relatively low-cost proposition that would hold great lure to the organization. Playing it safe, however, may simply cause the network to disappear with irrelevance.

Playing devils advocate for a second, however, is there any other real option for the Nine and Seven networks? Freeview have reportedly entertained notions of launching a Hulu-like content distribution service, which isn’t a bad idea. What could be a problem would be if US distribution companies decide they could maximise profits by simply launching an Australian version of Hulu, cutting out their reliance on third party vendors? For Seven and Nine, at this point, the only way to ensure their long-term viability is to offer content that demands immediacy. For the Nine Network, a 24-hour news channel would make perfect sense. Such a move, however, would require a massive investment of money and resources into a service that would cannibalise the viewership for their Sky News service.

Can a FTA network make the same profits by moving a service delivered on cable platforms to a FTA digital multi-channel? One could easily imagine SBS doing something similar with their World Movies station.

Other than news and sports, is there really any other programing genres that demand the same level of immediacy? Ultimately the Seven Network and the Nine Network need to be innovative in developing the foundations for their digital future. A General Entertainment digital multi-channel is not the answer to their future woes, but perhaps there simply is not another choice.

Channel Seven taking on Channel Nine’s current affairs staple 60 Minutes is essentially the final step in Seven completely usurping Nines dominance in television news.

Furthermore, it was always going to be worth noting exactly how producer Adam Boland would tackle the evening current affairs format. Boland had been successful in revamping Sunrise as a program intimately connected to the everyday lives of its viewers, eventually taking the same technique to the successful The Morning Show. Sure, his late night effort The Night Cap was a bit of a letdown, but his taking on an evening current affairs show seems like more of a natural fit. It was always assumed he’d take the same principles that belie Sunrise to the format, but how it would be executed was the question.

Sunday Night premieres this coming Sunday at 6:30pm and is cleverly launching with a complete humdinger of a launch story, they’re focusing on the death of Britt Lapthorne. Lapthorne was an Australian tourist visiting Croatia where she was soon found dead. It’s an emotive story that resonated highly with the Australian public. And now Sunday Night is showing the last video recording of Lapthorne prior to her death, along with the photo of the prime suspect in the murder investigation. It’s one heck of a story to launch with and kudos to Boland and the folk at Seven for working a story that will garner massive attention for the new show.

That said, footage in the show preview in which family and friends of Lapthorne are shown pictures of the prime suspect simply seems like a cheap way to score footage of angered and upset family members. It’s a technique used on bottom-feeding ‘current affairs’ shows like Today Tonight and its a shame Sunday Night isn’t raising the journalistic bar that little bit higher. Also, hearing Mike Munro decry state that “As a father, this is too close to home as it could happen to any of us” simply feels on the nose and too reminiscent of the low-grade journalism he presented on ACA. It’s certainly possible to talk to every day Australians without talking down to them.

Boland is also continuing the conversation through to the new 7HD show All In Call, an audience Q&A show in which they’ll discuss issues raised on Sunday Night. The show, to air directly after Sunday Night, is certainly an interesting approach to expanding the format. Hopefully Channel 7 actually come to the party and promote it properly with promos throughout the Sunday Night and a message to switch to 7HD to continue the ‘conversation’. It’s initiatives like this that will have audiences finding value in multi-channeling.

Sunday Night has an opportunity to define the Channel Seven brand in the same way that Sunrise has for the past few years. If they can strive to achieve the journalistic integrity that is oft-lacking in commercial television current affairs and utilise the possibilities that its counterpart program offers, Sunday Night can be more than a ratings success.