Break-away programming ceases on Nine HD with the launch of GO!

With Freeview, we were supposed to be getting 15 digital free-to-air channels. What they forgot to mention was that five of these channels would be simply simulcasting content from one of the other channels.

It happened when Network Ten launched One.

Ten HD had great break-away programming like ‘Smallvile’, ‘Battlestar Galactica’, ‘Friday Night Lights’, ‘Psych’ and ‘Veronica Mars’. But when One launched, Ten HD vanished along with all of those shows. Instead of two separate channels, we got One and One HD. With the former being a standard definition simulcast of the latter.

Now the the same thing is set to happen with Nine HD and the launch of GO!, except Nine’s regular channel will be getting the high def lovin’.

Not that Nine HD ever really had great break-away programming, but it’d be nice to have the option.

Recently Nine HD had been broadcasting an extensive line up of daytime programming with ‘Seinfeld’, ‘Just Shoot Me’, ‘Bewitched’ and ‘I Dream of Jennie’. While these shows are set to make the transition to GO!, it begs the question, is GO! really a new channel or is it just what Nine HD should have been all along?

Simulcast television seems like such a waste in this day and age. Sure it’s great to watch something in high definition, but what benefit does it really have when the program is only standard definition or is something as unstimulating as the news. Hence why break-away television was introduced in the first place.

Why not continue broadcasting break-away programs on Nine HD? It’s not like there’s a lack of content available. Nine have been squatting on Warner Bros. output deal for over a decade, with a majority of content never even seeing the light of day. Surely there’s enough content to go around on all three channels?

I think people would much rather take choice over a constant high definition simulcast, especially considering how flakey our television schedules are these days. If a show doesn’t work on Nine, fine…bump it to Nine HD or GO!, so that the people who invested their time in the show can continue watching it uninterrupted.

People want choice. Its the reason why piracy has become so rampant. They don’t want to be dictated to as to what they have to watch and when to watch it. Give us options and commitment and bizarrely we’ll return the favour by tuning in.

End rant.