Sky to switch off UHF service

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Sky Television will end UHF pay-television transmissions at midnight tonight, switching off a service once used by hundreds of thousands of households.

Spokesman Tony O'Brien said that, by yesterday afternoon, all but about 100 Sky subscribers had switched to its satellite television service, which provides better reception, more channels and can support high-definition broadcasts. The change would not affect Prime Television.

UHF (ultra-high frequency) broadcasts are picked by a television antenna, usually attached to a roof, rather than a satellite dish.

The closure of the service will free up radio spectrum that Sky Television could use to provide dozens of extra channels – possibly including 3D channels – to its 785,000 Sky Digital customers. It could also pave the way for it to broadcast to portable, handheld televisions and mobile phones.

Chief executive John Fellet said last month that he saw no reason why nine in 10 households would not eventually subscribe to Sky.

Unitec broadcasting lecturer Peter Thompson said that, at some point, Sky would meet a natural level of resistance from people who would not or could not pay for television, but it would take a clever analyst to predict exactly when that would be.

Outside of sport, Sky had not invested heavily in local programming and he was concerned that some in government thought "let them watch Sky" was the solution to all broadcasting problems.

- © Fairfax NZ News