Ten ‘preferred options’ for private TV listed

Press, 15 July 1982, Page 10

Ten ‘preferred options’ for private TV listed

PA ’ Wellington A list of 10 preferred options on private enterprise television has been released by the minister of Broadcasting (Dr Shearer) as a preliminary move before, final decision's later this year. Dr Shearer has- < listed alternatives ranging ■ from turning TV2 over to private enterprise or setting-up a third, private channel, to introducing a cable system.. The options with the advantages and disadvantages as he sees them, are intended to stimulate debate “about the shape our television broadcasting system should take in the 1980 s.”

The list has been widely circulated to interested groups.

Dr Shearer said private enterprise had much to offer but he warned. “I will resist any proposal likely to undermine the effective public broadcasting service we have built up. "I believe private enterprise has much to offer the viewer in terms of a wider range of' programme material and a competitive approach to news and current affairs that should ensure high standards are maintained. It should also ensure wider employment opportunities for journalists, and production and technical staff within the broadcasting system. -

"However, private enterprise groups wanting access to the present system must convince me that their product can match the generally high standards of public service broadcasting in New Zealand,” he said.

Nbn-commercial services run by the Broadcasting Corporation such as the YA radio .network, the concert programme, and the symphony orchestra “must be protected." . Dr Shearer said his concern was to strike a proper balance between private and public television, "a balance that preserves the integrity of the present system while bringing to the public the benefits of alternative television services.” ,

The 10 options outlined by Dr Shearer involve: ® The full time or part-time private operation of TV2. ® Preserving the status quo of TVNZ control of both channels but expanding private enterprise input along the lines of the NTV."Good Morning" programme. ® Preserving the status quo but adding the independent development , of a private local-regional-national ultrahigh frequency (UHF) network. ® Preserving the status quo but allowing limited private telecasts to the main population centres using the veryhigh frequency (VHF) channels 10 and 11 which will be cleared of navigational services by mid-1983. & Making one existing TVNZ channel non-commercial and introducing! a third UHF/ VHF. channel for private enterprise. ® Preserving the TVNZ status quo but leasing transmitter time outside the present transmitter time on the pay-TV system on the “user pays” system, or establishing a whole third channel on the pay-TV system using UHF broadcast. ® Cable Television. Virtually all the options have disadvantages concerned with reducing TVNZ advertising revenue or restricting the new service to the main centres. But the advantages enumerated by Dr Shearer include the efficient use of

spare plant, the opportunities for more than one private enterprise group to become involved, the stimulation of local manufacture in some cases, and in the case of payTV the introduction of programming with high public appeal like first-run movies.

The chairman of Northern Television, Ltd, Mr H. M. Horton, said his company saw the first option of parttime time-tendering of TV2 as a valuable introduction — a step which would allow the company to become established in a reasonably substantial way — and which could be proceeded with quickly.

He regarded the private enterprise VHF television to main centres using channels 10 and 11 as the most attractive option which was probably nest when combined with the UHF (private local-regional-national) option to get maximum coverage. The managing director of Alternative Television Network, Mr Michael Wall, said his firm very much favoured those options which involved access to existing transmission systems in prime time. Of Dr Shearer's option suggesting the full time private running of TV2, Mr Wall said: “That is what we have proposed all along." Mr Wall said the option of part-time running of TV2 by. private enterprise was “half as good as" the full-time option, but it was the next best.