Commercial

New Zealand has a range of private commercial television services. They include:

TVWorks

TVWorks, which operates TV3 and C4, is the television arm of MediaWorks and was, until recently, majority owned by the Canadian conglomerate Can-West. 30% of MediaWorks was successfully floated on the New Zealand stockmarket in 2004.In June 2007 HT Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ironbridge Capital an independent private equity group, purchased CanWest’s shares in MediaWorks and continued to purchase additional shares until total ownership was achieved. As a consequence Can-West MediaWorks was de-listed from the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

Prime TV

Prime was until very recently owned by Prime Australia, although run under a management contract with Channel 9, Australia’s leading commercial channel owned by Kerry Packer. It invested in extending its coverage, to enable it to apply for NZ On Air funding, with the intention of becoming a major player in the New Zealand free-to-air television market. In early 2006, the network was purchased by Sky TV. Its future role is uncertain, although Sky have announced that Prime will continue as a free-to-air service.

Sky TV

Sky provides both content and distribution. As New Zealand’s major pay TV provider, it has offered delivery by UHF since 1990 and New Zealand’s only digital service, by satellite, since 1998. In April 2005 Sky had 600,000 subscribers – 40% of homes. Of these some 510,000 were digital subscribers – 34% of homes.

As of June 2004, Sky Digital was offering a total of 84 channels, including 25 radio and audio channels. All the free-to-air television channels are available on Sky Digital, although TV3, C4 and Prime are encrypted.

All set-top-boxes required to access Sky are leased by viewers from Sky, who own the boxes. A limited amount of interactive programming is available. Sky   introduced a Sky + box, incorporating PVR functionality in late 2005.

After considerable losses since its beginning in 1990, Sky returned a profit of $35 million in FY 2004. Profits increased to $48.7m for the six months ended December 2004.

Regional Broadcasters

There are also number of regional broadcasters scattered around the country, varying in aspiration, size and profitability. Notable among them are Southland TV, which broadcasts on the Sky satellite, Dunedin’s Channel 9 and Christchurch’s CTV. There are a number of other community broadcasters operating in various parts of the country.

The regional broadcasters have been seeking a measure of public funding for many years, notably since a pledge to support regional broadcasting was included in Labour’s manifesto in 1999. They achieved success in May 2005, when the Government announced that $3.5m would be spent on regional television over the next four years, this funding to be allocated through NZ On Air.