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Less than two weeks ago Channel Seven very softly launched Seven HD, their foray into commercial multichanneling. With Seven HD on air, Network Ten looks next to launch with their service, Ten HD, which is promising 50 hours of new programming a week (is that Friday Night Lights I see in the promo?).
The above promo for Ten HD, created by Jane Eakin and Motion Foundry is a light hearted introduction to the new channel, which goes some of the way to explain to the uninitiated what the new service is all about.
With the Seven HD logo taking some inspiration from BBC HD, its no surprise that the Ten HD logo has a whiff of the ABC America high definition logo in its design. I look forward to seeing how derivative the Nine HD logo will be.
– Thanks to Alex from Motion Foundry for the video.
28 replies on “The multichanneling continues: Ten HD”
Now THIS is the kind of adverts needed to promote digital TV in Australia, very simple yet understandable. And hopefully would make viewers consider upgrading. Very good advert, well done Ten
That’s the best I’ve ever seen HD explained to anyone! More ads like this are needed across the world, I think
Why the hell is an AMERICAN! doing the ad?????
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I mean, TEN already is 90% American programming, maybe they feel hearing an aussie voice would be ‘out of place’?!?!?!
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How stupid. WHo on Earth thought it was a good idea, or acceptable????
I like this….
Very clever… but I agree with Andy, the American accent is horrible.
It is quite unacceptable that an American present this ad. I guess this could be seen as a result of Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan removing the foreign ownership restrictions on Australian media. Ten is owned by a Canadian corporation, perhaps little value or thought is given to Australian content.
I myself would have prefered an Indian accent, so that my extended family of 17 (more on the way) could better identify with the Australian way of life and feel included in this wonderful multicultural society of ours. What a shame some of the comments here are so racially intolerant. P.S. he’s also BLACK!!!
racially intolerant???? How so?
It is an ad for Australian TV…it SHOULD have an Aussie fronting it!
Yes, and Aussie can mean indian, asian, arab, islander, green, blue or whatever! But they would generally have an Australian accent not an obvious American one. We would be racist if we said we didn’t like he was black.
Exactly. I don’t give a damn what the colour of his skin or his ethnicity is. That’s WAY beyond the point. It’s an Australian TV network, and it should be fronted by an Australian. ‘Nuff said.
And the fact that you referred to him as a person of a different “race” is discriminatory in and of itself. He’s a human being. His ethnicity and skin colour is completely irrelevant. We just want an Aussie presenting the ad.
So boys, from what you’re saying, there are two kinds of Australians – those who speak “strine” and those with foreign accents. Where would you stand on Victor Chang, Mel Gibson, Jimmy Barnes, Lote Tiquiri, Fred Hollows, Neil & Tim Finn, Marcia Hines, Kamahl, Lee Lin Chin, Patrick White, Dan Vickerman, Sir Henry Parkes, Clyde Rathbone, Dicko, Amrita Cheema, Olivia Newton-John, Rena Sarumpaet, Guus Hiddink, James Ruse, Keppler Wessels, etc, etc, etc representing “Australian” society? For heaven’s sake, it’s time to get out of the Cronulla mindset and embrace true Australian culture. Our culure is derivative of all walks of life and nationalities. It has been, and will continue to be the case throughout our development and continuance as a Federation – regardless of accent.
OH MY GOD! Cronulla Mindset?! Cronulla disgusted me. It still does. The thought of race or anything like that does not even cross my mind when I meet someone. For god’s sake Ten’s obvious intention with this promo was to make it appear American. To portray Ten as being up-to-date and current, as its target audience idolise American culture. I know there are tonnes of Australians with different accents, but the intention of this ad was not even to appear Australian. And that is where the problem lies. Now there is nothing wrong with idolising American cuture or any other crap you want to read into this, and it is probably quite a good approach for Ten’s target public BUT in the end it is an Australian network and should at least to pretend to be, if not with its programming-which it doesn’t-then its promos. They actor they used could be Aussie and that is just wonderful but it is very clear the intention of the ad was to make it appear American in origin.
@nick: finally someone with a brain, (evel though I dislike the Cronulla generalisation) and in all honesty I am more interested in the content and presenters on the tv shows, not the idents!
Thankyou Nick! That is all true! Dilbert, you haven’t a clue!
Whilst I feel that the context behind this work has been completely smothered by a racial debate, I feel compelled to point out that none of you lads have actually answered Dilbert’s question.
Dilbert – those people you have listed are still considered Australian because they are somehow connected. We consider them Australian even though they have a foreign accent.
But as for the guy in the advert, he’s an American (accent or no accent). We’re not saying that we have anything against Americans, but it’s an Australian channel. If he had an Australian accent, then there wouldn’t be an issue because we probably wouldn’t even know that he was American (and besides, to have a true Australian accent you would have had to grew up in Australia or live here for a long long time to adapt it).
Imagine, say, an American ad like this was fronted by an Australian – I’m sure many people would remark how odd it is for an American channel to be fronted by someone from overseas.
Okay, Peter, here’s my answer to Dilbert’s question: where would I stand on the people mentionned representing Australian society – I would be 100% in favour. YOU miss the issue, which is that this guy is in NO way connected to Australia at all, the ad could have been for an American network, apart from the fact that it isn’t. I think it is wrong to have the ad in this way…and from a marketing point of view it is a mistake.
Okay, we’re starting to read a bit too much into a simple ident. Who wants to bring the psychosexual undertones and flop their phallic references on to the table?
My reckoning is that it’s meant to be a very light-hearted promo. It doesn’t have pretentious overtones, talking heads and current-affairs-show style experts blabbering on about how HD will make your life better and give you cake every five minutes; rather, it has a bunch of actors wearing lab coats in an obviously faux scientific environment overacting their little hearts out. The American accent just adds to the tone, perhaps Ten poking fun at themselves and their over-reliance on American programming. If we must acknowledge the “marketing point of view”, Ten’s target demographic (18-49 y.o. tech literate kids with lots of money) would probably appreciate the tongue-in-cheek tone of this ad. Because who would take this ad seriously? Oh, wait…
The last thing I would assume from this ad is OMG RAISIST UNASTRAYN I LUV MAT CRBY. I see it for what it is: An light-hearted ad for Ten HD. It may not be champagne comedy, but it does the job of promoting the new channel in typical Ten style.
And anything which offers the prospect of Friday Night Lights on air is always good.
Yeah, I can’t wait for a tv show about American Football
/sarcasm
Andy,
Friday Night Lights is a brilliantly crafted and engaging show, its appeal has nothing to do with football, in fact I doubt the majority of the shows audience really cares for the game itself, its just storytelling at its best, that happens to be in a town where football is god.
Give the show a chance.
The Ten HD ad is misinforming the public, a set top box alone will not bring you HD quality what so ever.
Ten HD,Misinforming Australia
http://www.hdtvlounge.net/news/ten-hd/
I think the whole American accent thing was just to catch the viewers attention well. The accent seems more clear and understandable to listeners. Take the Ford commercial for example with that cricket player guy presenting the ad. Can you understand him much? No, so I reckon the American accent is WAY more understandable, even to people who have trouble speaking english can understand the American accent.
I second the Friday Night Lights awesomeness. It’s not your average teen drama in that it’s actually GOOD and emmy-award-winning. Like if One Tree Hill or The OC were set in an alternate universe where actors could act and the writing wasn’t subpar 😛
Ariel, I don’t think you make any sense. How is it logical that Australians would find the American accent any easier to understand then their own? The easiest accent to understand is always your own.
Although we may be accustomed to the American accent here in Australia due to the unfortunate importation of American culture (via films and TV shows), personally I find the American accent foreign sounding and annoying.
The American accent is very grating.
@Matt
Heh, you do realize they are not misleading anybody? What they are saying is you can VIEW THE CHANNEL for free AFTER you have a HD-SET TOP BOX, they didn’t say you can literally view HIGH DEFINITION, they are saying you can view the HIGH DEFINITION CHANNEL.
And the whole “I am currently on holiday in Australia,” Proves this persons an American, We talk a little differently over here, we understand what is being said.
It’s supposed to look like it’s on the set of CSI or Law and Order or something similar, no? (Don’t jump in and tell me that those shows aren’t on Ten – I just mean it’s supposed to look like something in that vein and that an American accent achieves that.)
Just a thought.
Does anyone know what show the girls kissing in the HD ad is from?