Network Ten has today officially confirmed the widely anticipated news that it will launch a HD simulcast of its main channel on Wednesday March 2nd.

The announcement is good news for sports fans with the new HD channel launching ahead of the Clipsal 500 and Australian Grand Prix coverage in March.

At this stage the HD service will only be available in metro areas. TEN HD will be broadcast in the MPEG4 format on CH13. The change will mean the ONE multi-channel will now only be available in SD.

Meanwhile TEN has indicated it wont be rushed into launching an additional multi-channel to compete with new services inlcluding 9Life and 7Flix.

Ten CEO Paul Anderson telling The Australian today, 

“Our view is that fragmenting the audience across television even further is not a good thing for industry. If we do anything, it needs to make commercial sense, so there’s no point in adding ­another channel that just adds cost to your business and further splinters the revenue across more channels,”

“I think if we do something [launch another multichannel], it will be very different from anything that’s out there at the moment. Our focus, at the moment, is on Eleven and One. Our ratings this year are up in pretty much all the demographics. At the ­moment, investing money into those two digital channels is higher up on the list of priorities than adding another channel that will just undercut the audience base.”