Mere TV changes?

Press, 25 November 1982, Page 12

Mere TV changes?

PA Auckland The new Broadcasting Act, which has' been changed; to allow 'private companies' to ■ air television' ’progranimes on TVNZ on weekday hiornihgs, needs further amendment, says the managing director of Alternative Television Network, Mr Michael Wall.

Even in its revamped form; the act would not allow private television broadcasts, he said. Mr Wall heads one of the two major private concerns interested in producing their own television shows.

, The hitch is a legal one, involving Section 75 of the act, which allows for shared frequency warrants. Such warrants have been used in the past, notably when Auckland’s Radio I first went on the air, to help newcomers to broadcasting over early

transmission troubles.

„>-Mr Walt said that the warrants could not , -be granted to profit-making organisations like Alternative or its main rival, Northfern Television. . '

■ “The act also says shared frequency arrangements apply only to radio,” he said. The problem, which may cause some red faces in Government after a lengthy battle to amend the act only a few months ago, concerns the wording of the section. A warrant is given to a transmitter,'not a studio.

The revamped Broadcasting Act says one organisation can use-another’s transmission facilities only if the former is non-profit making. One of the major arguments of the introduction of private television programmes into existing TvNZ schedules has been that they will make a

profit and add to the Government’s tax revenues.

The principle at issue does not affect Northern’s “Good Morning” show, shown on TVNZ’s Channel One, as it is scheduled as part of normal programming.. Last month, the Government announced that private television companies would be allowed to apply for time on TVI from 6.30 a.m. on weekday mornings.

With the Christmas recess only four weeks away, Parliament would be hardpressed to push another amendment through this year, particularly if it had to go to a select committee. The general manager of Northern Television, Mr Graeme Douglas, said his legal advisers had been studying the shared frequency portion of the newly amended act.