Media: Sky cajoled over Prime on Freeview

Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman is calling an industry summit to get Sky-owned Prime Television on to the free-to-air digital platform Freeview.

The move follows a pivotal "carriage agreement" between state-owned TVNZ and Rupert Murdoch-controlled Sky Television that has removed Freeview as an obstacle to Sky's growth.

The deal - which sets new terms for TV One and TV2 to be rebroadcast on Sky and adds TVNZ6 and TVNZ7 to Sky - provides a boost for the Sky juggernaut's domination of New Zealand television.

Sky has resisted putting Prime on to the free-to-air digital platform.

Chief executive John Fellet says it would cost too much to put Prime on to Freeview, which is in only 13 per cent of homes versus 44 per cent for Sky.

But there is a strategic element as well.

Why would it spend money to make a new player more attractive to prospective customers?

Coleman said he had no say in the commercial terms for Prime being on Freeview, nor the terms of the TVNZ carriage agreement that was renegotiated two years ahead of schedule. He had been asked for his opinion, though.

He would be calling a meeting with Freeview, Sky and the State-owned communications company Kordia "in the next few weeks" looking at ways to hasten the move.

Signs are good that Sky will relent and put Prime on Freeview.

STEPPING ASIDE

Nobody will be surprised by the deal to put the taxpayer-funded and advertising-free TVNZ6 and TVNZ7 on Sky. Expectations are that after a swift start Freeview uptake will slow.

Eventually the digital taxpayer channels will be a repository used for public service content - a move that would allow TV One and TV2 to be sold - if there was a buyer for free-to-air TV in four or five years' time.

That appears to be National's unstated broadcasting policy. But the early negotiation of the carriage deal - which was not due until 2011 - was a key win in the television war.

Rebroadcast threatened to be a standoff while some in the former government saw Freeview as a free alternative to Sky.

Sky could not afford to lose TVNZ off its platform, and TVNZ could not afford to lose 46 per cent of customers who watch its channels through Sky.

TVNZ and Freeview were accentuating the positive aspects of the deal saying they would obtain a higher profile for TVNZ6 and TVNZ7 reaching two million Sky customers.

The most clear benefit to TVNZ is that it will now be able to have three regional advertising breakouts - in the north, central and South Island regions - that have not previously been available for Sky rebroadcasts.

THE BIG STRETCH

TVNZ bosses asked staff how to ease costs beyond the scrapping of jobs.

The company insists it has worked to keep job losses down and it dismissed two ideas that would have seen more cuts in pursuit of saving $25 million.

The suggestions would have meant fewer stories on air, but arguably more watchable bulletins. There just ain't enough real news to fill an hour of short sharp items.

Four senior TVNZ journalists approached news boss Anthony Flannery suggesting the 4.30pm news bulletin on TV One be dropped, and that the One News weekend bulletins be reduced from 60 minutes to 30 minutes.

The 4.30pm news bulletin presented by Neil Waka has a tiny audience and one estimate is that dropping it could save around $500,000 a year.

But it seems the the 4.30 bulletin is highly regarded by Flannery. The idea of changing One News to 30 minutes on weekends seems radical until you remember all our bulletins used to be 30 minutes until the early 1990s. Advertisers like to be attached to the news, but presumably they would hang around if they had a good entertainment show. In fact, should networks even maintain hour-long bulletins on weekdays followed by magazine shows Close Up and Campbell Live?

TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said the loss of advertising revenue could outweigh savings, and TVNZ has worked hard to increase its news and current affairs offering, as part of a long-term strategy.

Flannery said he had never contemplated reducing the length of weekend bulletins.

TV3 news boss Mark Jennings said he had not considered a shorter bulletin, but claimed he would have in TVNZ's situation.

UP THE HILL

MediaWorks is reporting its younger oriented channel C4 is rapidly increasing its share of the audience and challenging Prime Television to be fourth most-watched channel.

AGB Nielsen figures for the year to March 21 show double digit growth across several demographics compared with the same period in 2008.

In its traditional target audience for people aged 15 to 29, C4 is up 36.7 per cent.

Among people 25 to 54 it was up 92.5 per cent.

While growth is from a small base extra revenue will compensate in a tough advertising market. TV3 programmer Kelly Martin - who last year took over C4 as well - said results this year illustrated the payoff for a decision last year to move away from largely youth oriented programming to include a slightly older audience,

She was being careful not to alienate the channel's traditional hip and groovy fans.

Reality shows such as Charm School and Rock Of Love had been successful but so too had animation programmes such as Family Guy, King of the Hill and South Park.

C4 started out mostly with music video shows aimed at people aged 15 to 29 but is now aiming slightly older.

Martin said that the loss of first screening rights for MTV programming to Sky may have influenced the move.

THE PIZZA CHARTER

Is Television New Zealand planning on using its investment in TiVo to start selling movie downloads with content sourced from Hollywood?

TVNZ yesterday confirmed that it has bought a one-third stake in Seven Network's ownership of the Australasian rights to TiVo digital video recorder technology.

TVNZ says TiVo allows viewers to receive all free-to-air digital TV channels as well as broadband content, services and games. Users will also be able to watch movies on demand and access services such as pizza ordering, shopping and weather forecasts through their television.