By LOUISA CLEAVE
Sky is set to launch the country's first parliamentary television channel on its digital service using footage supplied by TV3.
It is understood the channel will be on air within a couple of weeks.
Radio New Zealand broadcasts live from the debating chamber when the House is sitting and the new channel is expected to run in a similar way.
TVNZ had proposed a parliamentary channel under its digital television plans that the Government scrapped this year. Now foreign-owned media have beaten it to it.
The gesture is likely to earn Sky Brownie points with the Government and could be used as an argument against quotas.
Former Alliance MP Pam Corkery expected there would be as much public interest in watching Parliament as there was in listening to it on radio. "Sort of like a bad cricket match - you know, might as well check in and see how the team's doing."
She said televising Parliament would also highlight the long hours and show who were the hard workers.
Act MP Rodney Hide, no stranger to television news cameras, said it was a great idea but MPs would have to lift the quality of debate in the House.
Political satirist Jon Gadsby welcomed the move. "Everyone's been complaining about not having any new comedy shows ... [it] promises to be one of the funniest things to come out of this country in a long time."
Sky, TV3 combine to show Parliament in action
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