Broadcasters lift wraps on free digital TV today

Limited and snowy television coverage could soon be a thing of the past for rural homes as free-to-air digital television finally looks set to become a reality.

An announcement at a Wellington conference today is expected to pave the way for clear viewing usually reserved for people who live in or close to urban centres or who have signed up with Sky television.

The conference, likely to detail the launching of Freeview, will be fronted by Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey, and the top executives of broadcasters TVNZ, CanWest and Radio New Zealand.

Digital free-to-air television has been debated regularly since a proposal from TVNZ to launch it was canned by the incoming Labour Government in 2000.

The concept came a step closer this year when CanWest MediaWorks and TVNZ reached an agreement to share a satellite through a sub-leasing arrangement with state-owned enterprise Broadcasting Communications.

Freeview was expected to involve a dual delivery system - either digital terrestrial television, delivered to aerials via transmitters around the country, or straight to households via satellite.

The satellite service would enable free broadcasts to be received by isolated households, which currently only have pay television (Sky) as a viewing option.

The digital terrestrial service would act as a backup in the event of a satellite failure, as happened with Sky television recently.

Households with a Sky satellite dish will be able to receive the new service, but cancelling Sky and keeping the dish is not likely to be an option.

To get the new free-to-air service, customers are likely to need either an aerial or dish - and a set-top box separate from the Sky box.

People with old television sets might have to upgrade to newer ones.

The costs of boxes and dishes, and the costs of establishing and running the Freeview service, are expected to be revealed today.

Beyond what is currently offered for free by the major broadcasters, future programming for digital free-to-air is not known.

National Party broadcasting spokeswoman Georgina te Heuheu said the new service sounded good but called on Mr Maharey to outline all costs involved up front.

"It seems there is no agreement among the broadcasters on programming and no agreement on who is going to pay for it," Mrs te Heuheu said.

"Any announcement will look and sound very hollow unless the Government lays out for the public exactly how much taxpayer money is involved."

- NZPA