Television New Zealand, the state-owned broadcaster, says it won't turn its back on Freeview after signing a deal with the nation's dominant pay-TV company Sky Network Television to set up a rival set-top box.
TVNZ and Sky offered scant details of their partnership to develop a set-top box to offer user-pays and free-to-air content over Sky's DTT spectrum and may be open to using ultra-fast broadband in the future. That relationship won't impact on TVNZ's participation in Freeview, which was set up by the nation's broadcasters to cater for the digital switch over.
"This does not affect our relationship with Freeview" and won't reduce access to free-to-air programming, Megan Richards, a spokesperson for TVNZ, told BusinessDesk.
Sky TV and TVNZ have been developing closer relations over recent years after a decade of hostility after the state-owned broadcaster sold its stake in the pay-TV operator. Last year, TVNZ sold the pay-TV rights for local shows from the national archive to be aired on Sky's Heartland channel.
This deal comes after TVNZ's failed bid to bring TiVo into New Zealand and after it took a $17.7 million charge on its Hybrid Television Services joint venture because the TiVo box didn't gain traction among Australians or New Zealanders.
