KEY POINTS:
The Government should be applauded for promoting diversity in digital broadcasting. Diversity is a good thing. We see its elegant example in the natural world. We know multiple viewpoints are better than narrow-mindedness. And that plentiful consumer choice indicates competition is working. Best of all, diversity means there's no one fat cat calling the shots.
Now if only the Government would stop dithering and get on with it. The Ministries of Culture and Heritage and Economic Development have published a wealth of papers on this subject all pointing to the bleeding obvious. But rather than act now to be relevant in digital time, the Government seems determined to sit on its hands. Meanwhile consumers get screwed - just as they have been for some 15 years of glacially slow telecommunications reform.
There are simple things the Government could do right now to dramatically improve the lot of broadcast consumers. "Must carry" rules could stop the nonsense that's going on between Sky and TVNZ and give both consumers and the Government immediate benefit. If Sky was required to carry Freeview TV6, the soon-to-be launched TV7 and Sports Extra (a simple channel tuning exercise on the Sky box) and Freeview was required to carry Sky's Prime channel, consumers would get a much fairer deal.
The country would also have about 50 per cent of households watching universal free-to-air digital TV - getting very close to the 60 per cent threshold needed to set a date for analogue TV switch-off. Why is that important? Because there is an estimated $230 million net national benefit if a full transition to digital TV is achieved by 2015. In essence that's because digital transmission enables heaps more TV to fly through the air.
The Government needs to intervene now because both Sky, TVNZ and Freeview are playing perverse games. When you let business run the show, it invariably ignores the public good for the sake of profit and mad ideas to kneecap competitors.
How else to explain the ridiculous situation many consumers face right now - that if they want to get all the free-to-air digital channels in New Zealand, they have to buy two set top boxes when one would do?
The Government needs to intervene also in setting open access standards for set top boxes to stop further anti-competitive tactics through the use of incompatible electronic programme guides and other lock-out mechanisms. Even Freeview is guilty of this anti-diversity behaviour.
Some of its accredited set top boxes - the Zinwell and re-badged Dick Smith box - are locked down to prevent customers tuning in other free-to-air satellite channels as they become available. It shouldn't be allowed. Or, at the very least, prospective buyers should be told: "This box will not allow you to pick up other freely available satellite channels in New Zealand."
There's more perversity going on in the world of electronic programming guides with Freeview and Sky each following slightly different approaches to how they send this information through the sky. Open free access to programme schedules is vital for consumers in a digital age - not just to find what programmes to view, but also for recording to view later on a variety of different devices. A significant roadblock to open access for programming information here - by mandating a standard such as EIT (event information table) - is TVNZ, which jealously guards copyright over its programme listings. Bizarrely, TVNZ actually charges newspapers and magazines to publish its weekly programme schedules. Why print media companies don't band together and say a loud "no" to this small-minded aberration is a mystery.
Finally, the Government should be brave on must-carry rules to ensure fair free-to-air access to content of national significance. The general public should not have to tolerate commercial censorship that locks them out of watching large sporting events just because someone has bought the exclusive rights.
