According to The Mercury, Tasmania is awaiting confirmation about whether they will be receiving digital TV channels 7mate and 11, which are soon to be launched in the rest of the country.

Tasmanian general manager for Southern Cross Media Craig Davies told The Mercury, “We are not sure of the timeframe because we havent got an agreement from Seven or Ten to bring these channels into Tasmania and we also do not have the capacity to broadcast these channels into Tasmania [but] it is within our best interests to get them on air as soon as we possibly can.”

Davies explained to The Mercury that changes needed to be made to the Southern Cross network infrastructure, (based in Canberra), in order for the channels to be brought to Tasmania.

Channel Seven’s 7mate is due to kick off on 25 September with the AFL Grand Final in high definition, which Tasmanian viewers will have to miss out on. Channel 10s 11 is due to launch in Australia at the beginning on 2011.

Tasmanians are not strangers to missing out on digital channel launches. In 2009, after protesting, Ten’s sports channel, OneHD was launched in Tasmania six months after launching in the rest of the country. Seven’s digital channel, 7Two was also only aired a few months later in Tasmania.

Davies expects to be in a better position to make an announcement about the channels in the next few weeks.