Will the Government kill off private sector TV?
Stuff reports:
Television channel Three owner MediaWorks has warned the Government that commercial television could come under more pressure if it doesn’t consult widely and think through its plan to boost public broadcasting. …
But he cautioned that the free-to-air television market remained under a lot of pressure.
“To have the Government owning three TV channels – One, Two and Duke – with no public service broadcast imperative, competing against one independent broadcaster, means you are potentially jeopardising your one point of diversity of view.
“If you ended up in a situation in two or three years where Three didn’t exist and the only form of broadcast news was government-owned, with a commercial imperative, it would be a very unfortunate outcome,” he said.
We should be worried that the Government is dominating the airwaves. Look at the significant free to air public TV channels and private TV channels.
Government owned
- TV1
- TV2
- Duke
- Maori TV
- Radio NZ (planned)
Private
- Mediaworks (could fold)
- Prime
So if the Government wants to turn Radio NZ into a Government owned TV station, they should sell off TVNZ first. It is unhealthy to have so many stations government owned.