Aardvark Daily

Please visit the sponsor!

Freeview's chicken and egg problem

Well all you TV addicts, today marks yet another milestone in the evolution of your drug.

That's right, today is the day that NZ's first official free to air digital satellite TV service officially launches.

However, like so many things these days, it's not really what we were promised.

For a start, the price of the set-top box turns out to be around twice that originally quoted and right now there simply isn't anything being broadcast by FreeView that can't be received from good old analog terrestrial sources.

And that's not likely to change for quite some time.

What a waste.

For a start, we have a number of truly excellent regional TV broadcasters who are being denied access to FreeView as a distribution medium due to the costs involved.

When I lived near Auckland, Triangle TV was one of the few channels I took time to watch on a semi-regular basis. Not only did they carry quite a few hours of DWTV but there were some real gems produced by community groups, wanna-be stars and others.

Okay, I'll admit that there was also a lot of garbage also broadcast, thanks to their policy of selling airtime for just a few hundred bucks per hour, but by and large it was great stuff.

Please visit the sponsor!

Can someone please explain to me again why the two aren't working together?

Yes, FreeView has to show some kind of return on the investment it represents - but that return is highly dependent on folks going out and buying those set-top boxes then tuning in.

I for one won't be wasting $300 on a box just so that I can watch stuff I already get for free. If FreeView wants to get me onboard, they're going to have to come up with some fresh, attractive content.

Without this content, they won't get any uptake and without any uptake, how are they going to recover their costs from broadcasters?

In fact, there are some very good reasons why some people might not want to watch their FTA broadcasts through FreeView. Those with wide-screen TV sets are already bitching about the format changes that seem to switch in and out, almost at random.

Is it 16:9 or 4:3 or something inbetween?

Is this programme letterboxed or does it have black borders down the side?

Come on FreeView -- now's your chance to create a *new* market and attract viewers that would otherwise be doing something *useful* with their lives.

Right now, regional stations are expected to pay up to $1m per year if they want a slot on FreeView's broadcasts -- owch!

The $25m of taxpayers money that the government has already poured into FreeView really ought to be leveraged for greater community good -- by way of carrying those regional stations. Even providing a single channel that carries "the best of" the regional broadcasters would be a great start.

Or why not just do exactly what Triangle and some other regionals are already doing? Sell time on a channel so that anyone can have their own content broadcast for a fee.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about FreeView is the way that a bunfight seems to be underway between the new broadcaster and SkyTV.

Reports indicate that Sky has forbidden its contractors from doing FreeView installations and TVNZ will be encrypting its new news channel (which starts in 12 months time) so that Sky can't rebroadcast it through their own network.

In the face of all this, is it any wonder that sensible folks turn off their TV sets and actually do something useful in the evenings?

Can any readers come up with compelling reasons (outside of a lack of terrestrial coverage in their region) for blowing $300 on a FreeView box right now?

Have your say on this...

Oh, and don't forget today's sci/tech news headlines

Rank This Aardvark Page

Change Font