Coco on GEM, ABC on Plus7

TV Stations do the darndest things. They continue to surprise, delight, disappoint, engage, drive away, confuse & repeat. This latest batch of announcements is no difference, so hang on to your girdles, ladies…

I'm Team Coco

The Good

Channel9’s newest digital multi-channel GEM has announced it will be fast-tracking “Conan”, the new talk show from Conan O’Brien, premiering on Tuesday 09/11/10 at 11:30pm. A bold move to air it the same day as broadcast in the states, a shame it will be so late at night. PVR’s at the ready.

Importantly it signal’s Ch9’s intentions to broadcast new material on their digital multi-channels. With the exception of “The Xtra Factor” on 7Two, limited sport on OneHD & a couple of other shows on Go!/GEM (including the cricket as a dual broadcast), there has be a retiscence to air new/original content on these alternate channels. The broadcast of new material absolutely suggests the new channels are to be taken seriously.

Conan, an hour-long, late-night talk show featuring some of the biggest names in entertainment and music, marks the return of one of America’s favourite comedians and TV hosts.

The first week of Conan will feature a top lineup of guests, music performances, and appearances by some of O’Brien’s longtime friends, including:

Tuesday, November 9: Seth Rogen and music guest Jack White
Wednesday, November 10: Tom Hanks, Jack McBrayer and Soundgarden
Thursday, November 11: Jon Hamm, Charlyne Yi and Fistful of Mercy
Friday, November 12: Michael Cera, Julie Bowen and comedian Jon Dore

Emmy Award-winner O’Brien started out writing for television programs including Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons before being approached to host a late-night show for NBC. In 1993, Late Night with Conan O’Brien began and ran for 16 years, ending when O’Brien briefly took over The Tonight Show.

A great starting line-up. Looking forward to him sticking it to the man.

Rubik's Cube geeks unite!

The Confusing

In one of the stranger partnerships for online television content to date, Yahoo!7 have announced a deal with the ABC to host & deliver a range of shows through it’s Plus7 TV catch-up serivce. Right next to proprietary Channel 7 content that it competes with on free to air television. Plus7 do offer a great service, but I absolutely rate ABC’s iView service as superior in delivery & look/feel.

The new agreement will give Yahoo!7’s audience access to shows such as The Gruen Transfer (series 1 and 2), Lawrence Leung’s Choose Your Own Adventure, and The Cook and the Chef. In total, approximately 80 hours of ABC content will become available on Yahoo!7 over the next 12 months. All content that is already available on iView. What the..?!

Kath Hamilton, Director of Audience, Yahoo!7 said, “Since we launched our catch-up TV service at the start of 2010 there have been over 12.7 million full episode streams of our shows. We are proud to be the number one TV website in Australia1and continue to look for ways to improve and expand the service which is why we are delighted to confirm this new deal with ABC. We have now launched 100 shows so far this year on PLUS7.”

Director of ABC Commercial, Lynley Marshall, said “This deal represents another important step in fulfilling ABC Commercial’s digital strategy to extend our brand to new platforms and reach as many Australians as possible.”

PLUS7 is free to access via www.yahoo7.com.au/plus7 and is available across Australia. It offers video streaming of full length episodes of shows from Seven, 7mate and over the coming months, ABC. PLUS7 also offers a ‘MyShows’ section where users can store their favourite shows and receive email reminders when new episodes are available for viewing, and an option to share videos with friends via email and Facebook.

So… can any other station do a deal to host & deliver ABC content? Is this Aunty’s way of saving them money by having other partners host their content so all iView becomes is the delivery mechanism? Can anyone explain this to me?

Conan, GEM, Tuesdays to Fridays at 11.30pm
Plus7 – http://www.yahoo7.com.au/plus7
Image sources: TeamCoco.com; Twitter.com.