Derek Fox makes pitch for TV4 signal

By AUDREY YOUNG political reporter

Maori Television Service board chairman Derek Fox has gone on to the front foot in a bid to get backing for a new transmission deal for the Maori channel involving CanWest's TV4 signal.

At his own request, Mr Fox appeared before the Maori affairs select committee at Parliament yesterday, ostensibly to give the MPs a progress report.

He said planning was well advanced. Programmes had been commissioned, but it would be at least May before the "interactive" channel goes to air.



He made a pitch for the TV4 VHF transmission platform, and he accused the Ministry of Economic Development and BCL - a TVNZ subsidiary and New Zealand's main transmission company - of telling "porkies" about UHF, which he and his board do not favour.

"It is no secret that our preferred option is TV4," Mr Fox said.

"There's a few porkies being told by BCL and by the Ministry of Economic Development. To say we can put up the same number of UHF transmitters to give the same coverage as the TV4 VHF transmitters is incorrect.

"UHF is a very fickle signal that is highly ... dependent on line of sight and all sorts of other things."

He said it would cost Maori, the people who could least afford it, $350 for a UHF aerial and $100 to tune in their sets.

But a VHF deal was being discussed and could be concluded within a fortnight.



The Government's original budget had been based on the channel's starting out with one hour's television a day.

"I don't know what Einstein thought that up but I don't think the Maori people have come all this way to turn on their TV sets for an hour a day," he told the committee.

Eight hours' daily transmission was the initial target. And 600 hours of Maori programming had already been commissioned (85 per cent in Maori, 10 per cent bilingual and 5 per cent in English).

BCL managing director Geoff Lawson took issue with Mr Fox's comments.

He had never said anything about the number of transmitters, which was irrelevant, anyway.

"It's not about number of transmitters. It's about coverage."

BCL's proposal for UHF would provide 86 per cent of the country with coverage, compared with about 70 per cent for VHF.

The VHF network, used by TV One, Two, TV3 and TV4, was full.

Mr Lawson said UHF was the principal means of transmission for Sky analogue, Prime and a number of regional television services.