TVNZ offers ‘a small basic service’

TV New Zealand sees its offer to broadcast public service television to the South Pacific as aid project, but failing that, said TVNZ’s Mr Allan Martin, there could be the possibilty of a government-supported loan system. “This would necessitate some commercials being built into the system to pay for the loan interest,” he told PIM.

“The media keeps seeing it as a battle between Packer and us,” he said. “Some people here might even see it that way, but as far as I am concerned if Packer and the others can pull off these commercial deals around the Pacific, then that’s good commercial business.

“But we’re talking about a public service system that’s designed to do something else and operate on a different basis altogether.”

He said it would be a small basic service operating four hours per day that would give the outlying islands a service also. “It would give them a basic system on to which they could build a degree of sophistication later on,” he said.

He said it would also be a “truly Pacific” system, presented by Pacific islanders. “We are talking about setting up a Piacific islands broadcasting organisation that would tell us what they want.”

So what’s in it for TVNZ? “That’s quite a common question.

But there’s not a lot in it for us because we would be supporting the system to the extent of about half a million dollars a year so there would be no money involved for us.”

He said the trigger for the offer was the announcement by Australia of the third Aussat with a footprint covering the Pacific. “When that happened Intelsat reduced its prices, making this proposal possible.”

There was little in it for TVNZ, though there was a possibility of some influence in the region for New Zealand “and a chance to do something worthwhile on a public service system.”

He said it was not a commercial conflict with the Packer organisation or anybody else, “although we have influenced some of the islanders to think again about what commercial television would do to them.”