Private TV role favoured

Press, 12 February 1981, Page 3

Private TV role favoured

PA Auckland; . The results of a national! public opinion poll show! that 60 per cent, of the! people polled were-in favour of private participation in television broadcasting, with: little difference in attitude! among voters for any of the! three main political parties. I Twenty-three per cent of those polled preferred the; present system, and 17 per cent were undecided. The poll was conducted by, McNair Surveys in Novem-ber-December, after Alternative Television Network had < announced its plans to establish a new network, re-

jplacing an existing TVNZ I service. | The results were almost i identical with those obtained by McNair in a poll last I July. I The managing .director of, iA.T.N., Mr Michael Wall, I said the . survey clearly I showed that New Zealanders ’were tired of the. present ! television monopoly and! wanted to see’ what private) enterprise could do. “The only question now is| the manner in which inde-l pendent television is to be; established,” he said. The Broadcasting Corporation has announced that ‘ it

I'jvill call soon for tenders for! (‘previously unused television) ’ time. While welcoming this; I move as a. first step, Mr<; ’Wall said that it did not’, (answer the demand for inde-l ’pendent . television as re- ! 'vealed by the recent survey. ’ This is how party suppor- ; Iters who were polled saw ’the issue:’;.- . ’ National, 62 per cent were i ’ in favour of private partici- I pation, 26 per cent preferred the present system: .Labour i 59 per cent 22 per cent; i Social Credit, 66 per cent, 22 I per cent. i A.T.N. has sent a copy of ! the results of the poll to’ the i leaders of all' three political i partie's. - i As in the previous survey, < males (65 per cent) were more likely to be in favour 1 of some private enterprise! i participation in television: < broadcasting than wereli females (55 per cent). ’ Support for some private !

> enterprise participation in j television broadcasting was ; highgst among people aged 135 to 44 (78 per ceni), and ;25 to 34 (70 per cent), followed by people aged 15 to 24 years (58 per .cent). , ’ Support was lowest among people aged 45 years or over (49 per. cent). A similar pattern of a'ge differences was' found in the earlier survey. Support for some private enterprise participation in television broadcasting is higher among residents of the northern region of New Zealand (65 per cent) than it is among residents of the central region (58 per cent), or the South : Island (53 per cent). Similarly, support is higher among residents of) Auckland (63 per cent) and, Christchurch (62 per cent) than it is among residents of Wellington (57 per cent) or Dunedin (50 per cent).