I would vote for around mid November through Xmas, but not massively bothered when it starts / ends.
I agree mate, even if it starts mid November and with a two week break over Xmas it will still be all over by the end of Feb (in it's current 10 game form) so would be ideal.
I would vote for a one-off Christmas special for peeps that want to play over Xmas.
Short Answer is yes there will, details will be up before the end of the week, I expect it will start at the beginning of October and end just before Christmas. There could then be an X-mas Special after that.