July 30, 2013 10:00am by David Farrar

Another TVNZ channel closes

TVNZ is planning to shut down youth channel TVNZ U, which failed to work financially.

The vacated frequency will be used to screen TV2 programmes an hour after they appear on the main channel.

TVNZ said it had made a commercial decision to take TVNZ U off air at the end of August, after the free-to-air channel had run at a loss for two years.

“Despite our best efforts, we’ve not been able to make it work financially,” TVNZ chief executive Kevin Kenrick said.

“As it is, the channel is a very lean operation and no significant savings can be made to address the shortfall.”

In other words, no one was watching it and it could generate not even minimal revenue.

It is a pity the Government hasn’t sold TVNZ while it might get some money for it. It’s long-term prognosis is not good, as the money will be in production or distribution – not in channels.

I would have loved the Government to sell TVNZ and use the proceeds as capital for a public service broadcaster, merged with Radio NZ.