Sky firm about Prime's future

Sky Television is showing no sign of buckling to pressure from the Government to make the Prime network available on the Freeview free-to-air digital platform.

A spokeswoman for Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman said he had asked officials to invite Sky, Freeview and state-owned transmission company Kordia to meet him to discuss the matter.

This followed a decision by Television New Zealand last week to allow Sky subscribers to view TVNZ6 and TVNZ7.

Sky TV spokesman Tony O'Brien said Sky was "happy to talk to Coleman at any time about broadcasting issues", but reiterated the company's position that Prime would be put on Freeview when the economics work.

"It is not economic for Prime to be on Freeview at this time."

The costs exceed the gains Sky would receive from extra advertising revenues, he said. More than 200,000 homes one in eight households could receive Freeview, but O'Brien said that was not the same as viewership.

Sky would have to pay Freeview $350,000 over three years to cover its share of Freeview's marketing costs, plus a confidential fee to state-owned company Kordia to cover transmission costs.

Kordia spokeswoman Emma Wilkinson said Kordia believed it had "put in a very sharp commercial offer".

Sky will have to make Prime available on Freeview by 2015 at the latest for the channel to remain "free-to-air" and bid for non-pay-TV sports broadcasting rights. The final deadline for the closure of analogue television transmissions is 2015.

Freeview general manager Steve Browning said the absence of Prime was one of the main considerations hindering the uptake of Freeview. "It is certainly the one we get the most feedback on."

Forsyth Barr analyst Rob Mercer doubted political pressure alone would persuade Sky to relent.

"You don't often see people writing a cheque for the sake of it." But reduced transmission charges could change the equation, he said.TVNZ said more than 3000 people had registered interest online in being among the early customers for TiVo set-top boxes, due to go on sale in New Zealand before Christmas.

- © Fairfax NZ News