TV1/TV2/TV3 regional zoning?

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sbiddle

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Topic # 15209 9-Aug-2007 15:26

Can somebody who's in the know let me know the exact status of regional TV in NZ?

My understanding is that TV3 now only have a single feed for the whole of NZ which is the same for their Freeview transmission and all terrestrial broadcasts but TV1 and TV2 still have regional broadcasts via terrestrial. Will TVNZ be moving towards a single nationwide feed? If regional feeds will still exist will TCL be carrying a Wellington/Lower NI feed over their cable TV network or will it be a nationwide feed?

chiefie

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Reply # 81759 9-Aug-2007 16:04

I must say, I haven't pay much attention to see what ads been fed into the commercial break on FTA channels... mainly because we watch Discovery or Sky 1 or Movie channels more. Though we do get a lot of Australia ads which is annoying with most of them are competition opens only for Aussie :-/

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Kiwi Pete

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Reply # 81763 9-Aug-2007 16:28

TVNZ on terrestrial appear to be in 3 regions only. The feeds are Upper North Island, Lower North Island, and South Island. However on both their Freeview and Sky channels only Auckland commercials are seen. Checked this Tuesday night comparing both Freeview and Sky Tv1/TV2 against terrestrial channels in Canterbury. The Freeview decoder is set to Canterbury but it still only receives Auckland commercials in the regional breakouts. TV advertisers advertising regionally outside of Auckland are being ripped off when you consider the many many people who watch TV1 and TV2 via Sky and to a lesser extent Freeview.

ZollyMonsta

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Reply # 81768 9-Aug-2007 16:47

Even though there is 'regional settings' on freeview, TVNZ only appears to transmit one feed for all regions (ie: If you're in Auckland, you'll see the same feed someone in Christchurch sees). I think there was supposed to be seperate feeds, however this never came to fruition. Perhaps because it would use bandwidth duplicating 98% of a channel space that could be used for something more productive, ie: additional channels. With DVB-T (Digital Terrestrial) the local advertising might come more into play, with there being more bandwidth available. I think TV1/TV2 do indeed have local advertising breakouts on terrestrial, as does Prime TV. Canwest channels are nationwide on both Terrestrial and Satellite (Sky/Freeview).

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cyril7

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Reply # 81780 9-Aug-2007 17:37

It is my understanding that the TVNZ terrestial service (and I presume the DVB-T service will follow suit) will remain regional. There are five ad rates for TVNZ, Northern, Central(Wharite out), Southern NI(KauKau out), South Island, and Nationwide (ie the DVB-S FreeView/Sky service).

Something makes me think that the feeds will be reduced to 4 in the near future but I cannot remember the exact detail, Tom Ackroyd will have the gen on that I suggest.

The removal of the regional feeds on Sky/FreeView was forced upon TVNZ when the Avalon uplink that provided sky with the regional feeds died late last year. Sky who had an issue with TVNZ for quite sometime (because they refuse to run adverts for Skys services, ever noticed that), well stepped into the breach to move all the regional feeds onto the Auckland feed when the Avalon uplink died and refused to move subs back to the regional feeds when the Avalon uplink was restored. Eventually TVNZ thru the towel in and decided that the DVB-S services (Sky/Freeveiw) should be a nationwide advert region, which makes good sense when bandwidth is a premium.

Anyway, I suggest you give Tom Ackroyd a PM, he will have the low down on what TVNZs advert regions currently are.

Cyril

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Reply # 81786 9-Aug-2007 18:03

It seems to be a waste of time to continue with regional feeds with more and more people watching TV via Sky or Freeview. Sure there could be a loss in advertising revenue but there are obvious costs in maintaining the different feeds. Many advertisers are being ripped off now anyway with so many people now watching FTA TV via Sky so whether such a service should continue could probably be questioned.

cyril7

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Reply # 81789 9-Aug-2007 18:16

Very much agree.

Cyril

manaia

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Reply # 81850 10-Aug-2007 08:06

ZollyMonsta: I think there was supposed to be seperate feeds, however this never came to fruition. Perhaps because it would use bandwidth duplicating 98% of a channel space that could be used for something more productive, ie: additional channels.

I remember either Zinwell or Steve Browning (I think - I can't find the items I remember on the interweb) saying that special Zinwell technology in the freeview decoder would support the provision of regional ads to up to 25 regions. I can't figure out how this would be implemented without, as you say, duplicating the entire channel. That is how SKY used to transmit regionalised TV1 and TV2 and now transmits regionalised Prime. Storing regional ads on a HDD for substitution is possible but seems far-fetched. Staggering ads by region and breaking programmes in different places would be a technical nightmare. I can't figure out if this feature is real or not. Certainly it seems that Zinwell are making more of other features now, like the very worthy ability to record captions.

PromNZ

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Reply # 81860 10-Aug-2007 09:04

There is definitely still regional advertising for TV3 - but only on terrestrial, not Freeview. As I understand it, FV and Sky Digital receives the master feed (Auckland and 16x9) while terrestrial receives the regional feeds, and arc'd (aspect ratio converted) to 13x9.