Key spooked on digital switchover and pre-empts his Ministers

John Key’s comments indicating a later start to switching on digital delivery of television are a major set-back for the broadcasting and telco industries and for NZ communities, say Labour’s broadcasting and communication spokespeople, Brendon Burns and Clare Curran.

John Key now claims it’s likely it will be 2015 before sufficient people received digital television to switch off analogue delivery. The date he earlier suggested was 2013.

The Government has previously said that an announcement of the official switchover date will be made when the digital television take-up reaches 75 per cent, or in 2012, whichever happens first.

Brendon Burns says the Prime Minister’s comments are a further indication of the lack of coherence in the Government’s broadcasting policies.“ And it appears that the Prime Minister has pre-empted his Ministers on this issue,” said Brendon Burns.

“The Broadcasting Minister didn’t make this announcement; the Prime Minister did. Perhaps that’s because for more than a year, Jonathan Coleman has been promising a Broadcasting Work Programme. It has never appeared.

“What’s more, there is still no confirmation whether cities the size of Invercargill, Timaru, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Gisborne and Whangarei, will ever receive terrestrial digital signals over Freeview."

A research project is currently underway to evaluate digital take up to date and expected rates of take-up. If the government didn’t intend to wait for the outcome of its own research, why did it commission it in the first place? asked Clare Curran.

“You have to ask who’s interests are being protected by this decision and who will benefit. It won't be the people of New Zealand and the industry that needs to operate in a digital environment. It slows down our progress to a digital future and will leave us looking more like a backwater,” Clare Curran said.

“Ad hoc announcements like the Prime Minister’s undermine the rate of digital take-up. They also make life harder for TVNZ , TV3 and Maori TV which will have to pay the cost of delivering across both the analogue and digital platforms for longer than they have expected,” said Brendon Burns.

"This further delay erodes TVNZ’s value and enhances Sky’s ability to continue locking up exclusive content and customers so New Zealanders are left with only one effective choice for digital delivery, " said Brendon Burns.

ENDS

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