Ban won’t stop programmes

Press, 18 June 1982, Page 11

Ban won’t stop programmes

Transmission of Northern Television’s first - programmes next week will not be affected by the Public Service Association black ban on its promotional material. The ban applies only to free “trailers” promoting the daily, hour-long programme, which will begin on TVI on Monday at 11 a.m. “We’ve prepared several trailers advertising our ‘Good Morning’ programme,” said Northern’s assistant manager (Mr Alan Cocker). “These were to be shown, free, on television to advertise that we were on. Some have already been shown." The Broadcasting Corporation had said that the trailers would be shown, he said. Mr Cocker said that presumably any paid advertisements on television or on State radio stations would be run, in spite of the ban. As far as he understood it, the ban applied only to the

free trailers, he said. Branches of- P.S.A. erm ployees working for the Broadcasting Corporation have already met in Auckland and Wellington to discuss the issue, but the Christchurch branch will not meet until today at the earliest. “I know, from members I have spoken to this week, that we are behind Auckland and Wellington in advocating the ban,” said Mr Grant Roberts, the secretary of the Christchurch branch of broadcasting employees in the P.S.A. “The effect of Northern Television is not as great in Christchurch, but we understand there is expected to be a Southern Television counterpart eventually and this will of course affect us in Christchurch,” he said. “At this stage, the problem is not an immediate one; there is not the urgency about it that there is in Auckland,” he said.