Foxtel and Austar dump Ovation channel for SBS tie up
Foxtel and Austar have dumped pay TV arts channel Ovation, after signing a deal with SBS to launch a new arts and entertainment channel next year.
The channel, which is yet-to-be named, will go to air in the first half of next year.
An SBS spokeswoman said the new pay-TV channel would in no way be taxpayer funded, but will be operated by SBS’s wholly owned subsidiary, Multilingual Subscriber Television Limited, which owns PAN TV, operator of the World Movie Channel.
The new arts channel will include exclusive broadcasts of major arts events from Australia and around the world; international arts content; original commissioned programming; and information and reviews about performances and events throughout the country.
Ovation has a wide range of programmes. Andre Rieu is featured often.
My wife will tear down Foxtel’s satellite with her bare hands if she can’t see him.
we are appalled, ovation is our favourite channel on foxtel, no andre rieu???
sacre blue.
Arts television in Australia has been sadly lacking for some time. Hopefully this will be the shot in the arm that it needs. Andre Rieu has already featured once or twice on Bio Channel, and as he is one of the hottest properties in music DVD sales in Australia, he will certainly find a home quickly so fans can see him.
What a disappointment? Where is the consultation with subscribers as to what they want? A valubale platform for great entertainment/music has been taken from us.., Shame!
To express your disappointment with this decision and to lobby for the continuation of Ovation – in addition to the proposed new arts channel – on the FOXTEL and AUSTAR platforms, please contact:
FOXTEL
Email: enquiries@foxtel.com.au
(Feel free to CC Ovation Channel – info@ovationchannel.com)
Phone: 131 999
AUSTAR
Email: Use contact form on Austar website
(Note: select ‘General Enquiries’ from ‘Enquiry Type’ dropdown-menu)
Phone: 132 432
Also join Facebook group “Save the Ovation Channel” here:
http://www.facebook.com/group......2127976995..1
Bugger, why ovation channel? what is foxtel/austar thinking of?
Are those owners nuts ? do they think we want to watch the
constant rubbish they transmit as intelligent ?
Ovation channel is one of the best channels on television. !!!!!
i schould now-i have over 1000 international channels .
horst in wollongong nsw 2529
NON SUBSCRIBER OF AUSTAR/FOXTEL
Subscribe to selectv.com
I think there is enough demand for a channel dedicated to Andre Rieu. Maybe cancelling the Foxtel subcription and buying the DVD box set would be a cash-positive solution.
Mark
(Non-foxtel subscriber -> not paying $80 a month for 25 channels I don’t want so I can spend another $10 a month to get the one I do).
i have a message from ovation,have no control over it.
selectv will not answer on send e mails.
they should be doing the complaining.
the side will be taken over by SBS television.
that side is even hatrder to talk to.
what next ?
I’d like Australia to keep up with the rest of the world .Ovation is one way we can measure where we stand. I am proud that our Chamber Orchestra is used in Destinations and there are many other artists working at top level.
This trend to saturate ourselves in our own culture , especially with literature, worries me. We are not yet fully mature.There’s no shame in that.
Look at nations like China who shut the world out . It’s like a family deciding their children will not know about life outside the home. The worst cases we have learned about recently ie fathers holding daughters captive. Isn’t this somewhat the same? We are being protected as if in a well intentioned cult,
Come on. We are not all flannelled fools and muddied oafs, we have minds and can brain it with the best.
All humans need exposure to the beauty in the world to counter the rape and pillage of the News. V Bibby
THE only way to stop the switch off-is contacting SBS,
or a word to the communication minister as a voter.
sbs will not change. If you where arabic ,,,,,,,
That could help…….
This is less about a lack of understanding of the value of an Arts-based channel (box FOxtel et al), and more about the very poor relationship between Gerry Travers (Ovation owner/manager) and Foxtel management edited. Two major points for Ovation fans – the new SBS channel will have a much bigger budget and access to greater content (so no more infomercials throughout the day), and Andre Rieu is such a success in Australia that he will not go off the air. Bio channel, I believe, have already played a couple of his concerts, and with his DVDs consistently being top sellers, somebody will leap at the chance to pick up the shows.
Ovation is by far and away our favourite and most watched channel. What does SBS intend to do to attract young male wiewers? Probably nubile female singers singing unintelligible claptrap.
Very, very disappointed with Foxtel.
I have searched all over the Coast for these Arty young males ( under forty, young ?) wearing velvet smoking jackets, copies of Baudelaire tucked cunningly in a pocket. How great to be able to engage
I hear how they beg to change the channel from Sport to Ovation at the Clubs. They adore Verdi , Simon Callow ,swoon over Rieu’s ladies and Sting’s lute.
I have found none. How adorable if I could engage with them about modern verse or the tritone.
Tom and Cynthia are right, Semi naked male-females, with chain-saw voices, singing lewd stuff is what is thought to sell. That market’s taken .
Why set yourself for failure, for just as we tire of celebrities, the so called “young”
can be as fickle as a shoal of sardines.