Network Ten have just announced that it will launch its third digital terrestrial channel next year, via a joint venture (Elevenco) with CBS Studios International.
Yes, US juggernaut CBS, which has apparently made over 70,000 hours of its programming available to 11, including The Simpsons, The Good Wife, Futurama, The Cleveland Show, Supernatural, Stargate, Dexter, Smallville, The Office, Nurse Jackie, and 90210 (pleasepleasepleaseplease let it be the old 90210, not the recent rehash - although I note the presser also mentions an "upcoming" Hawaii Five-O so I'm trying to keep my expectations low).
After the re-affirmation of the Government's commitment to imposing local content quotas on Australian channels (remember Conroy's free-to-air licence fee rebate specifically for this purpose? And his announcement that Foxtel's local content "holiday" was drawing to a close?), it is kind of odd that multichannels are, so far, exempt from similar schemes.
Perhaps that's because Free TV has been telling anyone who'll listen that multi-channels will not survive if the government imposed a local content quota on them. Just like Foxtel (unsuccessfully) argued, once upon a time.
