Sky TV vs TVNZ

You may have heard some rumours recently that TV One and TV2 are no longer going to be on Sky Digital. Well, this is true, but not until 2011. This is when their contract expires.

TVNZ are starting their new channel called “TVNZ 6” and the end of this month, but it will only be on Freeview. This means to see this channel you will need to purchase a Freeview receiver, costing between $200-$300 (not exactly free is it!) However, this new channel is not going to be available on Sky Digital. Now hang on, I understand that $79 million of taxpayers money is going towards TVNZ’s digital channels. So then shouldn’t these new government funded channels be on Sky Digital so that more of the country’s taxpayers can view them? There are far more Sky subscribers in NZ compared to Freeview so why should we fork out for another decoder?? Some of that $79 million is mine too!

But there appears to be some tit-for-tat going on between TVNZ and Sky TV. TVNZ aren’t going to put its TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7 channels on Sky Digital and Sky TV aren’t going to put Prime on Freeview. A bit childish if you ask me. That’s one main reason why I don’t want to get rid of Sky TV and get Freeview instead because I watch a lot of great programmes on Prime such as Star Trek, Doctor Who, America’s Got Talent, The Late Show, and of course the rugby and league coverage!

So what do they do in this situation in other countries? Let’s have a look at the example of the BBC in the UK. BBC carries all their channels on their Freeview service and on Britain’s Sky TV service! Even Sky TV broadcast some of their channels on Freeview! Wake up Television New Zealand!

But then is it really worth getting Freeview for this new TVNZ 6? Most of the programmes are going to be reruns, such as: Fraggle Rock, Country Calendar, Mai Time, It’s in the Bag, and Shortland Street. Heck, I think I’ll stick with Sky TV!

Here’s some websites about this:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4187772a13.html
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/Jama/3672
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2007/09/totally_unacceptable_tvnz.html
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/tvnz_6_index_skin/tvnz_6_index_group