Some of you may be aware, some of you may be not, but I love good television. I'm not one to sit in front of the television all day watching any show that comes on, but I do enjoy watching good shows where you can just sit back and relax . I'm also 100% against pay-TV (I would never pay for television). So where is this going you ask. It's going to be half-blog, half editorial based on the state of Australian television.

In Australia there are what can broasly be called six networks, but before we go ahead, since television has gone digital changes have occured. Before 2000 the networks could only stream one channel. From 2000 they could stream a HD channel only relicating their SD one. However, from this year the commerical networks could set up an entirely seperate standard definition television channel. Some have done this, others have not. Government-owned networks can have as many "channels" as they please, however.

The ABC is a government-owned network which provides a lot of local news, documentaries and childrens programmes. As of 2005 ABC split into ABC1 and ABC2, ABC1 being the main channel and ABC2 being a secondary channel. ABC2 started off being mainly a kids channel and time-shift for ABC1 programmes, but as of late is is almost entirely seperate from ABC1 in its broadcasting. ABC1 has a lot of childrens programmes throughout the morning, with early afternoons being news/parliament time, mid-late afternoons being childrens and prime-time being Australian news, documentaries, reality shows and the occasional BBC show. ABC2 closes overnight, but has what can be called the best morning news shows until around 10 when it gets the childrens stuff until primetime when it offers an array of locally-made and imported "niche" shows like Good Game (video game show), Torchwood and Dr Who (sci-fi) and Scrapheap (reality). ABC2 is a really good channel for niche programmes which, hopefully, will be pushed even further. ABC3, whcih will be launched by the end of the year, is an childrens channel featuring shows specially for kids. This will hopefully pull some childrens shows from ABC2, allowing for different daytime programmes. There are also plans for ABC4 (news and documentaries), ABC5 (movies) and ABC6 (sport), but they will be some years off.

The second government-owned network is SBS, which focuses on foreign-language and international material. Around a month ago it split into SBSOne and SBSTwo. SBSOne has mornings of international, foreign-language news, whilst afternoons/evenings consist of documentaries and foreign-language dramas. SBSTwo has an expanded set of foreign-language news programmes running most of the day, with a few hours of english programming of the night. There are also plans to expand this into SBSThree, SBSFour, SBSFive and SBSSix, each specialising in selected languages and bringing programmes from that specific region in which they target.

The first of the three "commercials" is the Seven Network. Consisting of mainly general entertainment programmes it is the highest rating network this year. It also holds the sporting rights to the Rugby Union, AFL (in some states) and V8 Supercars, some of the most popular sports in Australia. Seven is simple because it is yet to announce what it will do with its extra allocated channel, though it is thought to be another channel of general entertainment. I am also putting forward a 24 hour news channel, as the Seven Network owns the rights to Sky News Australia and Sky News Business, both channels run on Foxtel, the pay-tv service.

The next commercial network is Ten Network. Ten is more of a crime and reality TV network, with main shows including Master Chef, The Biggest Looser, So You Think You Can Dance, Australian Idol, Good News Week, Talking Abour Your Generation, Law and Order and NCIS. It is constantly rating third out of the commercial networks, but it has grown this year to close the gap. At the start of this year Ten announced they would launch a 24 hour sports channel called One. One, the first stand-alone channel from the commercials, runs a lot of American sport which was previously only available on pay-TV Foxtel, including the NFL, NBL, MLB, Tennis, Golf, AFL, College Sports, Motorsports, IPL and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. A personal hope for me is that they get more European soccer on One, but I doubt they will.

The final commercial network is the Nine Network, which is owned by the company owning the pay-TV service Foxtel, however we'll consider it a seperate entity. Nine is the second-best network in terms of TV ratings, having an array of general entertainment, focusing heavily on dramas, both local and international. It also holds the sports rights for cricket and the NRL, and the 2012 Olympics (stole it from Seven), some of the most popular sports in Australia. A few weeks ago they announced a new channel called GO!99, a general entertainment channel which will show programmes solely from Nine's local drama library and Warner Brothers Television, in an exclusive $500 million deal. This, in my opinion, will be extremely good as it will give a wide variety of new and old shows which may or may not have made it to Australian TV's. Take, for example, Smallville, which had the first and second series aired on Nine, the fourth aired on Ten and then just dropped. It is now possible for the show to air fully on GO!99.

The final one which I'll talk about only briefly is Foxtel, which is the main pay-TV supplier in Australia. It has roughly 100 channels, and is owned by the company who owns the Nine Network.

Now that's done I can get on with it. Each network has the rights to their respective numbers. For example, Seven has the rights to use 7 and 70-79. This is well and good, but they can only use two of these under law. There is so much unused space out there that could be beneficial and add to the entertainment spectrum. What I would like to happen is for the government to allow the networks to do as they feel fit with these unused channels. If this was to occur then the networks could "rent" off the rights to these channels so that they could be used by other media companies.

What the networks could do, under my "wish", is "rent" the rights to broadcast on their unused channels for a fee. For example, if the Seven Network did not want to use their 74-79 channels, they might sell them to (say) the Movie Network, which would then broadcast their existing MovieOne, MovieTwo, MovieExtra and MovieGreat channels on 74, 75, 76 and 77 respectively. The Movie Network will benefit from getting increased market share (Foxtel is only installed in 30% of Australian homes, compared to free TV available to everyone), leading to increased advertising revenue. Seven will benefit from the increase in revenue which it will get from the continual rent of these broadcast frequencies. Audiences will win because they will have a larger variety of shows that were previously not available unless you paid for it.

This scenario would not be easy to be done, but it is only a slight turn on the way that Nine found how to support GO!99. It is an entirely possible and plausable way to improve the variety of television available through specialising in niche audiences. It will also be beneficial for advertisers, who will be able to target their audience more specifically then the "mass market" of the main commercial networks. I'm not saying it will necessarily happen, but there is always a chance, and it is based on sound platforms.

Anyways, if you did read through all that, thanks. You know when you get that "itch" to do something ... well I just had that itch. Also, if you didn't read it, I don't mind ... it's all good