7two

7two is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 1 November 2009.[3]

7two
Launched1 November 2009 (1 November 2009)
NetworkSeven Network
Owned bySeven West Media
Picture format576i (SDTV) 16:9
Audience share3.7% nationally (2018 ratings year, [1])
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Broadcast areaSydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Regional QLD, Darwin, Tasmania, Regional VIC, Northern NSW, Southern NSW, ACT
Sister channel(s)Channel 7
7HD
7mate
7flix
Openshop
Racing.com
Website7plus.com.au/
Availability
Terrestrial
ATN Sydney (DVB-T)1314 @ 6 (177.5 MHz)[2]
HSV Melbourne (DVB-T)1330 @ 6 (177.5 MHz)
BTQ Brisbane/Gold Coast (DVB-T)1346 @ 6 (177.5 MHz)
SAS Adelaide (DVB-T)1362 @ 6 (177.5 MHz)
TVW Perth/Mandurah (DVB-T)1378 @ 6 (177.5 MHz)
Freeview Seven owned (virtual)72/62
Freeview Prime7/GWN7/SCTV (virtual)62
Freeview WIN Griffith NSW/Eastern SA (virtual)66
Satellite
Foxtel (virtual)137
VAST (virtual)72 or 62
Cable
Foxtel/Optus (virtual)137
Streaming media
7plus

The channel broadcasts a variety of programs, targeting a 25-and-over audience. 7two offers a broad selection of programs covering a variety of genres including lifestyle, drama, adventure, reality observational-documentaries and comedy[4].

History

The channel was officially announced by the Seven Network on its breakfast program, Sunrise, at 7:45 am AEDT 23 October 2009. Earlier, speculation suggested that Seven would launch its secondary channel around November 2009, with possible names including 7PLUS, PLUS7, Channel Mate and 7TWO. Seven's then-programming chief Tim Worner stated after the reveal that some of the potential names were red herrings to keep details of the channel a secret.[5] PLUS7 and Channel Mate (as 7mate) were later used for Seven's internet TV catch-up service and Seven's second digital multi-channel, respectively.

The channel launched with the airing of a promotional video called "It's Time", featuring Seven Network personalities and clips of shows and movies intended to be broadcast on the channel, followed by normal programming. This video was also launched on the multi-channel's website and received cross-promotion on the primary Seven channel. The Seven Network continues its policy of cross-promoting each channel's content across all three channels to this day. Seven presenters Tom Williams and Johanna Griggs initially served as the "face" of the channel and were seen presenting 7TWO's Friday and Sunday night lifestyle line-ups in early 2011.

The channel did not launch on the same day to many regional areas. 7TWO was launched for Southern Cross Television viewers in Tasmania and Darwin on 1 December 2009,[6] and for Prime Television viewers in Regional Victoria, Northern & Southern NSW and the ACT on 23 December 2009 from 9 am. From launch, Prime broadcast the channel as '7TWO on Prime'.[7]

In January 2011, regional broadcaster Prime Television changed the name of its primary channel to 'Prime7', to reflect its strong relationship with its metropolitan partner, Seven. This led to Prime's transmission of 7TWO being rebranded as simply 7TWO, like the metropolitan counterpart.

In July 2020, 7TWO underwent a major rebrand, its first since its inception. The logo applies the same orange 7 ribbon logo but with TWO in lower case and the channel now referred to as 7two.

Programming

From launch, premiere seasons of previous Seven shows including Lost, Ugly Betty, Heroes and 24 were broadcast, along with a mix of other new and classic programming along with movies sourced from Disney.[8]

Prime-time programs used to screen under themed nightly blocks such as 'Action Time' and 'Movie Time', however these disappeared as the focus of the channel changed in 2010. The revised channel included 'Best of British' content such as thrice-weekly British murder/mystery (Heartbeat and Jonathan Creek), British comedy (Are You Being Served? and Keeping Up Appearances), and British lifestyle (Escape to the Country and Bargain Hunt). The launch of male-skewing sister channel 7mate in September 2010 led to a number of programs moving across from Seven's already existing channels, including 7TWO, to the new channel. 7TWO's target audience was also refined to people 55-plus. Programs that made the move from 7TWO included Air Crash Investigations, Scrubs, NWA: On Fire, Whacked Out Sports, Lost, Last Comic Standing, That '70s Show, AFL Game Day, Gary Unmarried, Club Reps, Fifth Gear, Monster Garage, and The Sopranos.

The weekday daytime schedule has seen numerous changes since launch as channel executives tried to find the right mix with viewers. At launch, 'Kid's Time' broadcast a block of children's programs each morning such as Count Duckula, and Digimon Data Squad, soap operas aired in the early afternoon and 'Kitchen Time' featured in the late afternoons with Essence of Emeril and The Martha Stewart Show among the programs broadcast. In 2010, soap operas including Shortland Street, Coronation Street and, briefly, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks joined classic Australian soap Sons and Daughters and early years of Home and Away into its mid-morning schedule along with early episodes of quiz show Deal Or No Deal. In early afternoon, a mix of repeated fare such as Mistresses, Murphy Brown, Doctor Finlay, and movies from the Sony Pictures library are shown. Occasionally, shows which first aired the previous night on the main Seven channel are encored on 7TWO during the day. While initially, dramas such as Grey's Anatomy were encored, more recently this has remained true only for Seven's local reality shows such as The X Factor and My Kitchen Rules. An early morning weekly omnibus of the previous week's new episodes of Home and Away airs on Sundays.

In 2012, the Seven Network introduced new weekday morning blocks of children's programming to air both 7TWO and 7mate. Branded as Total Girl, the 7TWO block featured female-skewing Disney series such as Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, Sonny with a Chance and Good Luck Charlie, while the 7mate block aired male-skewing programs branded as K-Zone.[9] Saturday Disney aired on 7TWO from 2012 to 2016, for two hours of its weekly episode.[10] From 2013 onwards, local Australian children's programs from the Seven Network were moved to air weekdays on 7TWO. These titles included game shows such as Match It,[11] animated series such as The Deep, The Wild Adventures of Blinky Bill and Beat Bugs,[12][13][14] and programs for preschoolers including Pipsqueaks.[15]

A library of classic films are broadcast on 7TWO, sourced from Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Rank Arena and RKO Radio Pictures.

By the end of Summer 2010/11, 7TWO had proven itself to become the most watched multi-channel in the country dominating primetime slots with a total 6.4% audience share via the network across the 5 major cities and winning 9 weeks over 9Go!'s two weeks (one joint with 7TWO) which is largely attributed to the channel's increased broadcast of British-originated content across the week. In 2011, following 9Go!'s ratings share success (for digital channels) in 2010, 7TWO has stolen their crown as the number one multi-channel and the number one most-watched multichannel of the decade and century in Australia.

Current programming

Children's

Preschool

Documentary

Drama

Game shows

Lifestyle

Lottery
  • Monday Lotto
  • Oz Lotto Tuesday
  • Wednesday Lotto
  • Powerball Thursday
  • Saturday Lotto

News

Reality

Religious

Sport

Former programming

Adult animation

Children's

Preschool

Comedy

Documentary

Drama

Lifestyle

Game shows

Light entertainment

Reality

Religious
  • Leading the Way

Soap opera

Sport

Others

News

From launch until early 2013, 7two re-aired all daytime and prime-time national Seven News updates, no more than two commercial breaks after their original broadcast on the main Seven channel. These were all produced in Seven's Sydney news studio and presented by either Chris Bath or Mark Ferguson.

On 5 August 2013, a national news bulletin began airing on 7two, titled Seven News at 7, airing at 7:00 pm Monday to Friday. It was presented by Melissa Doyle, with David Brown on weather.[16] Many months after the Nine Network's rival 7 pm bulletin on 9Gem had ended, 7two aired their last Seven News At 7 bulletin on 2 May 2014.

Sport

7two televised live coverage of tennis tournament Wimbledon for the first time in 2011, first going to air at 8:30 pm AEST on 7two whilst the primary channel continued normal programming before switching over to Seven at around 10.30 pm. This practice has continued each year since.[17][18][19]

Between 2012 and 2018, 7two televised smaller tennis tournaments from Seven's Summer of Tennis, including the Brisbane International, Sydney International and AAMI Classic. This allowed Seven's main channel to continue with normal programming. Between 2015 and 2018, 7TWO started providing secondary coverage of the Australian Open for the first week.

Further sports coverage on 7two includes Horse Racing.

In 2010, 7two broadcast classic AFL and Australian Open tennis matches from the Seven archives between midnight and dawn.

In August 2016, 7two broadcast the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics from Rio de Janeiro in September.

Availability

7two is available in standard definition digital in metropolitan areas and regional Queensland through Seven Network owned-and-operated stations including ATN Sydney, HSV Melbourne, BTQ Brisbane, SAS Adelaide, TVW Perth and STQ Queensland. As well as this, Southern Cross Television rebroadcast the service through TNT Tasmania[20] and TND Darwin.[21] Regional affiliate Prime7 (Regional NSW/ACT and VIC) also broadcasts 7TWO, launching on 23 December 2009.[22] WIN Television Griffith launched 7Two on 5 June 2012, the day of the analogue switch off. Southern Cross Television (Regional SA, Central) began broadcasting in January 2012 and GWN7 (Regional WA) soon followed.

Logo and identity history

7TWO began transmission on 1 November 2009. Following the launch, the logo uses the generic Seven logo in an orange colour scheme, with the word "TWO" being added next to it. Despite the main logo being slightly changed in 2016, this logo is still in use as a secondary logo. On 24 January 2016, to coincide with new on-air presentation, 7TWO modified their 2009 logo slightly by downsizing the Seven logo.

On 24 July 2020, just days after 7mate's rebrand, 7TWO unveiled their new logo for the first time since its launch in 2009. The word "TWO" is now in a different font with the letters becoming lowercase to be now known as 7two. It was part of the Seven Network’s major rebrand of their multichannels.

  • 1 November 2009 – 23 July 2020
  • 24 July 2020 – present

Slogans
  • 2009-10: It's Time
  • 2010-12: To Inspire, To Solve, To Laugh
  • 2012-13: You Belong
  • 2013-16: You Belong on 7Two
  • 2016-2020: Can Do
gollark: And I'm saying this because I still dislike it in this case.
gollark: I mean, I generally dislike identity-politics-y complaining like that.
gollark: I do wonder why we have a dramatic gender split like that, though.
gollark: About us, I mean.
gollark: Don't actually link that directly because it's indirectly identifying information or something.

References
  1. Knox, David (15 December 2018). "2018 ratings: multichannel top 20". tvtonight.com.
  2. "Australian Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting Service Information Register" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 January 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  3. Jackson, Sally (23 October 2009). "Stock Quotes". The Australian. Archived from the original on 25 October 2009. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
  4. http://www.inside7.com.au/our-brands/#sec1
  5. Knox, David (27 October 2009). "7TWO: TV's "best kept secret"". tvtonight.com.au.
  6. Knox, David (1 December 2009). "7TWO for Tassie / Darwin, ONE for Mildura". tvtonight.com.au.
  7. Knox, David (22 December 2009). "7TWO to launch on Prime". tvtonight.com.au.
  8. Knox, David (23 October 2009). "7TWO to launch November 1st". tvtonight.com.au.
  9. Knox, David (23 February 2012). "New Kids line-up coming to 7TWO and 7mate". TV Tonight. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  10. Knox, David (23 March 2012). "Saturday Disney moving to 7TWO". TV Tonight. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  11. Knox, David (25 May 2012). "Airdate: Match It". TV Tonight. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  12. Knox, David (11 November 2015). "Airdate: The Deep". TV Tonight. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  13. Knox, David (29 November 2016). "Airdate: The Wild Adventures of Blinky Bill". TV Tonight. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  14. Knox, David (12 July 2016). "Airdate: Beat Bugs". TV Tonight. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  15. Knox, David (8 August 2013). "Pipsqueaks set to play for Seven". TV Tonight. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  16. Seven launches 7TWO News bulletin tonight, TV Tonight, 5 August 2013
  17. Wimbledon 2012: guide, TV Tonight, 19 June 2012
  18. Wimbledon 2013: guide, TV Tonight, 13 June 2013
  19. Airdate: Wimbledon 2014, TV Tonight, 6 June 2014
  20. "Tassie and OZTAM ready for 7TWO". The Spy Report. 26 October 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
  21. "7two to roll out to Darwin". The Spy Report. 30 October 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
  22. "7Two on Prime to launch on Wednesday". The Spy Report. 21 December 2009. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
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