Apsattv
03-06-2008, 03:55 AM
From http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4568534a28.html
TVNZ has seemingly found itself a lone voice in calling for strict controls to be imposed on Sky TV.
But most of the 80 submissions received by the Culture and Heritage Ministry in response to its review of broadcasting regulation called for some form of "open access regime" to be imposed on the industry.
The central issue is whether Sky should be obliged to carry third-party programming on its set-top box network on terms and conditions that are set by regulators.
It is a question that will be asked more often, once its set-top boxes are connected to the internet and it becomes possible to use them to deliver the "long tail" of Internet video content to TV sets.
The submissions made on the future of the industry have not apparently jumped to the top of Broadcasting Minister Trevor Mallard's bedtime reading. Sky will be hoping the review will go away with the election of a National government.
But while National might be more inclined to take a hands-off approach to the industry, it only takes one incoming Labour government with a fixed agenda to turn Sky's business upside down.
The best outcome for consumers would be if they could buy or rent set-top boxes that would provide, a la carte:
Access to all taxpayer- and advertising-funded TV content.
The option of subscribing to pay-TV channels, perhaps from a range of content aggregators.
The right to buy Net-delivered content on an ad hoc basis from anyone who produced it.
That would require common technical standards for set-top boxes, "must offer" and "must carry" rules on broadcasters and a voluntary industry code or regulation that restricted the bundling of TV content.
Certainly, there would still be a role for multinational content aggregators such as Sky, which can use its buying-power to consumers' advantage.
Sky could voluntarily embrace that future. A first step might be for it to market a base package that provided subscribers with access to free-to-air channels only, but from which it could upsell its pay-TV services. Regardless, consumers have a way of getting what they want in the end.
UNSURE what the Digital Strategy Advisory Group did? Never quite get your head around ICT-NZ? Reckon the HiGrowth project was some kind of pyramid scheme?
Don't worry about it. They are gone and two new edifices have poked through the fog, funded with $2.9 million from the Budget.
Eight industry bodies, including InternetNZ, the Telecommunications Users Association and the Computer Society, have agreed to contribute a member each to the Digital Development Council, whose councillors will from next year be elected by a sister body, the Digital Development Forum.
Communications Minister David Cunliffe says that, together, they will form an "association of associations" that will become an important contributor to New Zealand's digital future and provide "strategic, independent advice to the Government".
A space has been left vacant on the council for a representative from an IT industry organisation that it is hoped will fill the vacuum left by the now-defunct Information Technology Association.
Microsoft New Zealand chief executive Kevin Ackhurst is leading that charge.
TVNZ has seemingly found itself a lone voice in calling for strict controls to be imposed on Sky TV.
But most of the 80 submissions received by the Culture and Heritage Ministry in response to its review of broadcasting regulation called for some form of "open access regime" to be imposed on the industry.
The central issue is whether Sky should be obliged to carry third-party programming on its set-top box network on terms and conditions that are set by regulators.
It is a question that will be asked more often, once its set-top boxes are connected to the internet and it becomes possible to use them to deliver the "long tail" of Internet video content to TV sets.
The submissions made on the future of the industry have not apparently jumped to the top of Broadcasting Minister Trevor Mallard's bedtime reading. Sky will be hoping the review will go away with the election of a National government.
But while National might be more inclined to take a hands-off approach to the industry, it only takes one incoming Labour government with a fixed agenda to turn Sky's business upside down.
The best outcome for consumers would be if they could buy or rent set-top boxes that would provide, a la carte:
Access to all taxpayer- and advertising-funded TV content.
The option of subscribing to pay-TV channels, perhaps from a range of content aggregators.
The right to buy Net-delivered content on an ad hoc basis from anyone who produced it.
That would require common technical standards for set-top boxes, "must offer" and "must carry" rules on broadcasters and a voluntary industry code or regulation that restricted the bundling of TV content.
Certainly, there would still be a role for multinational content aggregators such as Sky, which can use its buying-power to consumers' advantage.
Sky could voluntarily embrace that future. A first step might be for it to market a base package that provided subscribers with access to free-to-air channels only, but from which it could upsell its pay-TV services. Regardless, consumers have a way of getting what they want in the end.
UNSURE what the Digital Strategy Advisory Group did? Never quite get your head around ICT-NZ? Reckon the HiGrowth project was some kind of pyramid scheme?
Don't worry about it. They are gone and two new edifices have poked through the fog, funded with $2.9 million from the Budget.
Eight industry bodies, including InternetNZ, the Telecommunications Users Association and the Computer Society, have agreed to contribute a member each to the Digital Development Council, whose councillors will from next year be elected by a sister body, the Digital Development Forum.
Communications Minister David Cunliffe says that, together, they will form an "association of associations" that will become an important contributor to New Zealand's digital future and provide "strategic, independent advice to the Government".
A space has been left vacant on the council for a representative from an IT industry organisation that it is hoped will fill the vacuum left by the now-defunct Information Technology Association.
Microsoft New Zealand chief executive Kevin Ackhurst is leading that charge.