Apsattv
09-05-2008, 11:58 PM
From http://www.stuff.co.nz/4468193a28.html
Posted 07-04-2008 11:12 PM
-air television consortium Freeview wants to extend the coverage of its digital terrestrial television service to smaller towns such as New Plymouth, Rotorua, Wanganui and Invercargill at a likely cost of tens of millions of dollars.
Freeview HD launched last week and can be received by the three-quarters of New Zealanders who live in nine of the country's biggest cities. Viewers need a DTT set-top box – priced by Dick Smith at $399 – and a UHF aerial.
Broadcasts are crisper than analogue signals and some programmes on TV3 are available in high-definition. TV One and TV2 will show a few programmes in high-definition this year. Many more will follow in 2009 and 2010.
Freeview general manager Steve Browning says coverage could be extended to 87 per cent of people by adding more transmission stations to the network of 18 built so far by state-owned enterprise Kordia, at a cost of $30 million.
Extending the network much beyond that is not feasible since covering 98 per cent of New Zealand would require about 450 transmission towers, he says.
He downplayed the chances of compensation for viewers in smaller centres who had already bought DVB-S set-boxes and satellite dishes capable of receiving Freeview's satellite service in the expectation that Freeview HD would not be available in their areas. The satellite service was launched a year ago and is available nationwide.
"The analogy might be dial-up to broadband. I certainly went out and bought a dial-up modem so I could get on the Internet a few years back, and then it cost me to get a broadband modem.
"Consumer electronics and technology moves on, and I don't think this is any different."
Freeview also wants the Government to increase the amount of radio spectrum it can access by two-thirds, by gifting it an additional 16MHz of suitable spectrum that it says is lying idle.
Mr Browning says that without the extra spectrum, Freeview could only add a handful of standard and HD channels to its existing line-up, which includes recently launched channels TVNZ6 and TVNZ7. Broadcasting Minister Trevor Mallard said he had yet to receive the requests.
Freeview says the Government should force Sky TV to make its free-to-air channel Prime available on Freeview.
Mr Browning says this would increase the uptake of Freeview HD and hasten the transition from analogue to digital TV.
Why Prime is off the menu is the biggest question Freeview gets asked by consumers, he says. Such "must offer" rules are often imposed on commercial broadcasters overseas, he says.
Sky TV spokesman Tony O'Brien says Sky fully intends making Prime available on Freeview HD, and in high- definition format, but only when viewer numbers justify the investment. He estimates the cost at about $2.2 million. Sky "would do it tomorrow" if the Government met all the costs.
"We have already got Prime delivered by satellite and UHF. It is uneconomical for us to spend money on a third network at this stage. We are waiting to see the viewership grow on [Freeview HD] and when it is at a sufficient level of course we are going to have Prime there."
Mr Browning says it might not be unfair for Sky TV to get the same government subsidies paid to free-to-air channels to help meet some of the costs it incurred making Prime available on digital.
The subsidies were offered to Sky, but it refused them when Freeview was created. They did not meet broadcasters' costs in full.
Posted 07-04-2008 11:12 PM
-air television consortium Freeview wants to extend the coverage of its digital terrestrial television service to smaller towns such as New Plymouth, Rotorua, Wanganui and Invercargill at a likely cost of tens of millions of dollars.
Freeview HD launched last week and can be received by the three-quarters of New Zealanders who live in nine of the country's biggest cities. Viewers need a DTT set-top box – priced by Dick Smith at $399 – and a UHF aerial.
Broadcasts are crisper than analogue signals and some programmes on TV3 are available in high-definition. TV One and TV2 will show a few programmes in high-definition this year. Many more will follow in 2009 and 2010.
Freeview general manager Steve Browning says coverage could be extended to 87 per cent of people by adding more transmission stations to the network of 18 built so far by state-owned enterprise Kordia, at a cost of $30 million.
Extending the network much beyond that is not feasible since covering 98 per cent of New Zealand would require about 450 transmission towers, he says.
He downplayed the chances of compensation for viewers in smaller centres who had already bought DVB-S set-boxes and satellite dishes capable of receiving Freeview's satellite service in the expectation that Freeview HD would not be available in their areas. The satellite service was launched a year ago and is available nationwide.
"The analogy might be dial-up to broadband. I certainly went out and bought a dial-up modem so I could get on the Internet a few years back, and then it cost me to get a broadband modem.
"Consumer electronics and technology moves on, and I don't think this is any different."
Freeview also wants the Government to increase the amount of radio spectrum it can access by two-thirds, by gifting it an additional 16MHz of suitable spectrum that it says is lying idle.
Mr Browning says that without the extra spectrum, Freeview could only add a handful of standard and HD channels to its existing line-up, which includes recently launched channels TVNZ6 and TVNZ7. Broadcasting Minister Trevor Mallard said he had yet to receive the requests.
Freeview says the Government should force Sky TV to make its free-to-air channel Prime available on Freeview.
Mr Browning says this would increase the uptake of Freeview HD and hasten the transition from analogue to digital TV.
Why Prime is off the menu is the biggest question Freeview gets asked by consumers, he says. Such "must offer" rules are often imposed on commercial broadcasters overseas, he says.
Sky TV spokesman Tony O'Brien says Sky fully intends making Prime available on Freeview HD, and in high- definition format, but only when viewer numbers justify the investment. He estimates the cost at about $2.2 million. Sky "would do it tomorrow" if the Government met all the costs.
"We have already got Prime delivered by satellite and UHF. It is uneconomical for us to spend money on a third network at this stage. We are waiting to see the viewership grow on [Freeview HD] and when it is at a sufficient level of course we are going to have Prime there."
Mr Browning says it might not be unfair for Sky TV to get the same government subsidies paid to free-to-air channels to help meet some of the costs it incurred making Prime available on digital.
The subsidies were offered to Sky, but it refused them when Freeview was created. They did not meet broadcasters' costs in full.