We’ve been swamped with traffic for the launch of new digital television station 7TWO and plenty of emails and comments asking when the channel will launch in Prime regional viewing areas.

Prime is the affiliate station for the Seven network in much of regional Australia. Like their regional competitors, Southern Cross (TEN) and NBN & WIN (Nine), Prime are anticipated to take on the new digital station from their affiliate partner….and they will….eventually.

There is one hitch in the plan, though. The new station’s name.

Southern Cross were happy to take on OneHD from TEN. NBN were happy to take on GO! from Nine. But for Prime the 7TWO name and branding is too closely identified with the Seven Network. Its not an easy brand for them to work with and Seven clearly weren’t thinking much about their affiliates when they settled on the name.

So regional Australia, that’s why you won’t be watching 7TWO for a while. We’ll let you know when an agreement has been reached and launch is scheduled.

Popularity: 4%

The Newcastle TV Ratings, week ending October 31

Note: These ratings results are compiled using the combined resources of SC TEN, NBN & Prime’s weekly AGB Nielsen Media Research reports.

This week sees NBN fall nearly 3% in it’s viewing audience. Prime increased by 1.7% and SC TEN by 0.7%.

Last week the Hunter enjoyed ABC’s ‘Midsomer Murders’ more than the weekly NBN News.

Prime & SC TEN also managed to get two programs each, up on the ‘Most Watched’ leader board.

Read on for the full results…

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Popularity: 1%

The National TV Ratings
Week ending October 31
Source: David Dale, Sun Herald Blogs

The prime time audience shares for the week were: Seven&7TWO 28.8 per cent, Nine&GO 26.4, Ten&ONE 20.8, ABC1&2 18.4, SBS1&2 5.7.

This was Pay TV’s account of itself: “The Saturday night broadcast of the third one day international cricket test between Australia and India, Live: Cricket: ODI Ind v Aus 3rd ODI S1, topped the week for STV with 214,000 viewers. The FOX Sports’ coverage of Live: Rugby Union: Bledisloe Cup was watched by 144,000 people, 66,000 watched Live: Cricket: Ford Ranger Cup and 65,000 watched Live: Football: A-League Bris v Newc (all on FOX Sports).

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Popularity: 4%