Third-channel option lined up for viewers

Press, 9 December 1983, Page 1

Third-channel option lined up for viewers

Parliamentary reporter

New Zealanders could be switching on to thirdchannel private television next year.

The regionally based third-channel option has been favoured by the Government.

The decision was made by the Government caucus as its meeting yesterday, and axes the other option before it — leasing or selling TV2 to the private sector. The Broadcasting Tribunal will be asked in an immediate directive from the Minister of Broadcasting, Dr Shearer, to meet interested private ' companies and work out, by March, a framework for the introduction and operation of the private third channel. The decision to go to a regional third channel was greeted with a burst of applause inside the caucus room.

It came after an uncertain course by the Government for more than a year

on the best way of bringing the private sector into television broadcasting. A decision to offer it unused morning hours on TVI failed in August when the parties felt Broadcasting Corporation fees were set too high. The caucus then examined the feasibility of leasing or selling to the private sector the whole or part of the TV2 operation. The caucus’s decision yesterday was based bn a report by Dr Shearer on the pros and cons of a third channel based in the regions, and the TV2 lease-or-sell options.

The consensus was reached when members were assured that national coverage could be quickly provided by the third channel, said a member of Parliament later.

Previously, members felt that more remote areas would miss out to the main regional centres. It was this reservation that had led the caucus to look at leasing or selling TV2. The channel

already had almost national coverage.

The caucus was expecting the interested parties — among them, Northern, Southern (based in Christchurch), Alternative Television, and City Television — to co-operate in setting up a regional service with a national news service, the member said. Dr Shearer said it was not correct that private sector regional television would begin in Auckland and move south with time. Use of the communications satellite, Intelsat, would facilitate transmission to isolated areas, Dr Shearer said. Intelsat would give quicker coverage to isolated regions than TV2 had been able to provide. Caucus endorsed the satellite above other transmission options. A paper prepared by communications advisers to Dr Shearer puts the cost of satellite ground stations for Auckland, Waikato,

Manawatu, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin about $5.35 million. The annual cost of renting satellite capacity would be about $1.2 million and there could be a charge on users.

Asked whether the Government was expecting the four private sector companies to work as a consortium, or remain separate but co-operate, Dr Shearer said discussions in the next two months would be crucial to this. Dr Shearer said that newspapers had a system of pooling regional news, and he could see private sector television following suit.

Advisers have set out a schedule for national coverage by the third channel. They believe that an Auckland channel could be operating within a year after the go-ahead, and that stations in Christchurch and Dunedin could be under way two years and three months after permission to proceed.