Sometime next year in New Zealand there will be a free digital TV service. TVNZ, CanWest, and Maori TV have got together to provide up to 18 free TV channels. (See: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10386824)
The catch? Well of course there's a catch. Viewers will need to fork out from $200-$400 for a set-top box to receive the signal, as well as more money for a dish (or decent antenna) if they don't have one of those. So far the only confirmed channels on this new service will be TV One, TV2, Tv3, C4, Trackside, and Maori TV - whoopee, hold me back! Not much of an offering to pay up to $400 for is it! We can already receive these channels free-to-air through normal TV transmissions, and they can be received on Sky Digital anyway.
There needs to be an incentive for people to depart with there money to get a set-top box. True analogue signals may be switched off in 6-10 years time, so people could wait till then , but what about now? Apparently TVNZ will have 6 of the channels and CanWest (TV3) will have 6 of the channels. So what will they show? They'll probably just have the same crappy TV programmes but at different times of the day - whoa, I can't wait for Dancing with the Stars to be on more than once a week! There will need to be some decent channels like Britain's Freeview TV (see http://www.freeview.co.uk/). Hope Prime TV signs up, but now they are owned by Sky TV this may not happen.
How will this affect Sky Digital? Hope the free-to-air channels are still on their service, otherwise we may have to purchase the new Freeview set-top box - especially for people in bad reception areas.
The media is talking about this new digital TV service as a new revolution in this country. It's not! Sky TV has been around for 16 years and almost half of that time with their digital service. We already have over 40 channels available to us on a digital/satellite platform and a lot of good channels too. Can't see at this stage how Freeview will be any better (unless you take money into account.)
But with all these new channels next year I bet NZ television will still treat top quality shows like crap. The prime example - Star Trek! Currently Prime TV is only showing a couple of Star Trek shows on Sunday mornings. In other countries around the world all the series of Star Trek are been shown often on various TV channels. Let's hope Freeview TV provides some good quality TV channels for the NZ audience for a change - yeah right!
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