Freeview

Today is the last day for voting in the 2013 Freeview Awards, otherwise known as The Freebies.

Prizes include two Panasonic 42-inch LCD TVs and five Panasonic MyFreeview recorders.

Head over to the ‘Vote & Win’ page to complete the survey and get in the draw.

This is more good news for Freeview in light of the forthcoming Digital Switch Over.

New figures show more than half of all New Zealand households with a working TV now use at least one Freeview device for their television viewing.

The government’s latest digital tracker survey shows the number of households using Freeview increased from 48% to 52% in the last three months to the end of January.

Freeview General Manager Sam Irvine says the upswing in the number of Freeview households bodes well for the future of free TV and Freeview’s own research suggests that 80% of the remaining analogue homes will make the change to Freeview during the digital switch over. Continue reading »

Figures released this week suggest there are still nearly 150,000 New Zealand households still without adequate digital television equipment for the analogue switch-off.

Public information campaign Going Digital claim there are 146,000 homes without Sky, Freeview, TelstraClear or Igloo services, meaning they will be unable to watch TV by the end of the year.

Going Digital is warning those yet to make the move that if they leave it until the last minute they may face delays due to the rush.

Greg Harford, Going Digital National Manager, said: “There were people in Hawke’s Bay in September last year who left the move to digital TV until the last minute and when they sought help from technicians or installers, they found there was a wait. That’s why we’re advising people to start thinking about the change now. Continue reading »

It’s been confirmed that Quickflix will be available to FreeviewHD viewers from next year.

Viewers who connect their Freeview set-top boxes to the internet will be able to access the pay-TV service via their on-screen guides.

Quickflix offers an unlimited internet TV service that allows subscribers to access movies, TV and other content for $14.99 a month.

The difference between standard Freeview channels and Quickflix is that the latter is streamed to Freeview devices over the internet rather than through digital terrestrial radio. Continue reading »

You might notice some banners on the site at the moment for Freeview’s Share Some Love campaign which, if you participate in, could land you a new TV. Here’s the video that explains it in a bit more detail.

The Oceania Football Confederation is considering launching a new free-to-air TV channel on Freeview.

The OFC, which is backed by the wealth of world football body Fifa, has already initiated talks with free-to-air television provider Freeview, at least 15 national sports organisations and Crown entity Sport New Zealand.

It is understood the Oceania plan is for 24-hour broadcasting, including live events, built around football but also encompassing other sports – many of which struggle to meet the financial demands of subscription satellite provider Sky TV. Continue reading »

The number of households with Freeview has increased significantly over the last four months, according to the latest figures.

The Digital Tracker, funded by Going Digital, shows 47% of all households with a working television now have Freeview, up from 41% last quarter.  The percentage of homes with Sky TV or TelstraClear dropped from 57% to 55% over the same period.

Freeview General Manager Sam Irvine said the figures show free to air digital television is becoming more popular in New Zealand, and he expects the trend to continue as digital switch over gets closer. Continue reading »

Freeview were experiencing problems this afternoon with the Prime service on FreeviewHD and Freeview satellite.

A message on their Facebook page alerted viewers to the problem.

The issue, which has now been remedied by transmission provider Kordia, did not affect all receivers.

This autumn will see the launch of ChoiceTV on the Freeview digital platform. It will be New Zealand’s first broad appeal Free-To-Air TV channel launched in more than a decade and will offer viewers an exciting and interesting range of programmes twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

ChoiceTV’s programming will centre on entertainment, information, and lifestyle content from around the world. To achieve this, major shareholder Top Shelf Productions (one of New Zealand’s leading production companies) has acquired unique and previously unseen international content; programmes that will tap into the tastes and interests of many Kiwi viewers with themes like homes, travel, gardening, food, adventure, health & fitness and comedy and drama.

“NZ is rapidly heading towards the first Digital Switch Over in September and when that day comes we will be there to provide viewers with free access to a greater choice of popular programmes. Viewers are demanding more high quality free to air content and as a major producer of local programming it made sense for Top Shelf to be involved in the first of NZ’s new Freeview TV channels.” said ChoiceTV and Top Shelf Director, Vincent Burke.

The door is also open to New Zealand programme makers says Vincent Burke. “We’re keen to screen independently funded local content if it fits the programming strategy for the channel and we’ll also look seriously at the back catalogues of local production companies.”

Also ChoiceTV management are looking to develop relationships with various organizations with a view to producing public interest programmes that will be screened in off-peak time slots.

And in an exciting move, ChoiceTV has formed a relationship with international broadcaster RTL Festival. This will bring New Zealand viewers a range of international festival films, plus Red Carpet interviews at all international film festivals starting with Cannes in May this year. Choice is also in discussion with the NZ Film Commission for the screening rights to its back catalogue of films and shorts.

The channel’s management team is made up of Top Shelf’s Vincent Burke, Laurie Clarke and Brian Holland and highly experienced industry experts Julia Baylis and Alex Breingan.

“The model for running a very successful channel already exists in the pay market so marrying that with some of commercial radio’s most savvy business initiatives presents a very real chance to gain a significant foothold in the emerging and expanding Freeview market” says ChoiceTV General Manager Alex Breingan. “Our business model and pricing structure will also offer very affordable entry into TV advertising for small businesses as well as major corporates.”

Channel launch is planned for mid to late April 2012 and, while the exact channel number is yet to be confirmed, it’s expected to be either 12 or 13 on Freeview. The channel will be available to all households with either a Freeview box or a Freeview capable TV in those areas of the country that are covered by Kordia transmitters – at the moment that’s around 80-85% of the country. ChoiceTV management are negotiating with another transmission company to reach a further 7% of the viewing audience.

About the team:

Vincent Burke established Top Shelf Productions in 1988 and has made iconic documentary and factual programming including iconic series like Target, What’s Really In Our Food? Immigrant Nation, Frontier Of Dreams and Media 7.

Laurie Clarke has been with Top Shelf as executive producer, producer and director since 2002. Prior to that he worked as a current affairs producer with TV3 and in various TV roles in Australia with the ABC.

Alex Breingan is former Channel Manager for Sky TV’s Food TV and Living Channel after 15 years in radio including time as Mediaworks Radio Operations Manager and Assistant Programme Director for both More FM and RadioLIVE. He began his career in the mid 1990’s in UK commercial radio and later as a producer at the BBC before moving to NZ in 2002.

Julia Baylis has spent the past 5 years as Head of Programming and Acquisitions for Living Channel and Food TV. Prior to this Julia spent 8 years with Television New Zealand in the Programming area of the company – the majority of her time with the

network as Head of Programming for TV2.

Brian Holland is Head of Development for Top Shelf Productions where he has developed series such as Media7 and The Kitchen Job, and developed and produced Cook Kids Cooking, The Sitting and The Nutters Club. Prior to this he served for 12 years as a programmer at TVNZ.

Choice TV is owned and operated by Top TV Ltd

For the last few years we have been flooded with the pros of the up-coming digital TV revolution.

From next year our regular analogue form of broadcasting will start shutting down and we will all have to switch over (or off) whether we like it or not. For those of us who won’t, or can’t, pay for the likes of Sky or TiVo (is TiVo even still going in NZ? It went very quiet VERY fast) Freeview is, apparently, the answer to our prayers.

When Freeview started out I would have loved to have been able to get it. All those new channels: TVNZ 6 & 7, C4 and TV3 Plus One all looked to provide a large range of informative, fun programming with some good, old-school NZ TV repeats thrown in for good measure.

But now Freeview, or at least the TVNZ side of it, has utterly lost me. TVNZ 7 is being scrapped and sold off to become who knows what – Infomercials, Home Shopping,  a 24hour a day episode of ‘Good Morning’? (Shiver!)

TVNZ 6 – gone too. Replaced by Kidzone and “U” – The programming for “U” would appear to make MTV look highly educated and the simple lessons taught on Kidzone look like nothing short of astro-physics.

Someone please tell me C4 is at least still a decent music channel.

So here is my question: Why bother? If viewers have to spend up on a new set-top box or new TV to receive our free to air viewing in ‘better quality’ digital transmission next year, shouldn’t the product we receive be something of equal quality to appreciate? Because at the current rate the formerly ‘good old TVNZ’ is running its business, channels and schedules Freeview will no longer be delivering much quality programming by the time it (or whatever alternative people choose) becomes compulsory in 2012.