WELLINGTON, Jan 31 (AFP) - New Zealand's government Monday pulled the plug on plans by its state-owned television network to spend $217 million (U.S.$108 million) introducing digital television. The move means the end, for the time being, of Television New Zealand's (TVNZ) plans to use new technology to develop a combined pay TV, Internet and e-mail service which could have included up to 100 television channels.
Pay television operator Sky TV, partly owned by Rupert Murdochs News Ltd.'s New Zealand interests, already operates a multi-channel digital service here.
Prime Minister Helen Clark told a press conference that the government wanted to consider the implications of the new service and how it would interact with plans to give TVNZ a public service role with more New Zealand programming. Clark added that the TVNZ proposal might hamper competition between it and other digital TV companies under the current company structure.
It is a joint venture with British cable TV operator NCL, which is partly owned by Microsoft. She said it also involved "a considerable element of risk" for the government.
TVNZ chairwoman Rosanne Meo said later the move to digital TV was as inevitable as the move had been from black and white to color TV. "The issue of digital, however, cannot be ignored and must be addressed sooner or later. The current analog technology is a sunset technology, with the whole broadcasting industry worldwide moving to digital platforms."
Losses were forecast for the first eight years of operation and the government's $217 million investment would not have been recouped until 2013
Newswires
