Hot wired: Pay TV streets ahead in Australia

The digital v high-definition TV debate will hot up, but the future is unclear

The Commonwealth Games don't come close to the Olympics for nationalistic fervour, even in the land of Oz. But it's a safe bet that any Kiwi visits to the medal dais will lead to plenty of press coverage back here - but not on Sky TV.

The 176-page guide to Sky viewing in March talks up plenty of mediocre sporting encounters but doesn't mention the Games at all.

In stark contrast, Australian digital pay TV coverage of the Games extends to seven simultaneous channels available to Foxtel, Austar and Optus TV subscribers. A multi-view channel will also show each of the seven channels on one easy-navigation screen, along with an updating medal tally.

Fox Sports in the US will take the broadcast and TVNZ's feed will be seen across many parts of Southeast Asia.

The recent Winter Olympic Games in Torino were the first Olympics to enjoy total digital TV coverage, complete with filming in high definition. NBC became the first US network to broadcast an Olympics in HD during primetime.

Apart perhaps from those with their own apartment-sized international satellite dish, Kiwi viewers will not have gained any picture-quality benefit from this significant technological step. It's one thing to have an HD TV in the lounge but quite another to get an HD broadcast feed which will produce genuine high-definition pictures on it. Not here, not yet.

Minister of Broadcasting Steve Maharey hopes to have a specific plan for the introduction of digital television at TVNZ by the end of this year.

Word is that rather than risk further messing with the still profitable TV One format, the two state-owned channels would be left pretty much as is, operating non-digitally with ratings-contrived programming. Two or more new digital channels will instead be added and operated as purely non-commercial public broadcaster outlets.

Maharey will prepare a TV broadcasting paper to this effect for Cabinet discussion this year.

Digital content for the two new channels could be minority and local content programming for one, children's and drama/arts-based for the other. Whether New Zealand HD TV owners will even be able to watch the 2008 Beijing Olympics in glorious free-to-air high-definition digital is, however, still very much up in the air.