I have just been enjoying Checkpoint with John Campbell. While it is apparent that RNZ does not have the resources that are available to TV3, I do think this is very much a portent of the future. I have also been watching Ziln and thinking about dinosaurs. The animated discussion on other threads in regard to the efforts of Netflix and others to curb geo-unblocking, also has to do with dinosaurs. There seem to be two kinds of dinosaurs getting in the way at the moment. One is the kind that thinks digital media can be restricted by geographical (read: made up) boundaries. The other is the ostrich dinosaur, head firmly planted in the ground, mumbling about Nielson ratings, insisting there is nothing new happening here, determined to carry on selling advertising for linear TV presenting podgy Australian chefs judging the efforts of anxious kitchen warriors until the last ageing viewer has expired from sheer boredom. 

 

 

 

It is easy to dismiss the feeble attacks of an uncoordinated kitten, but streaming TV is the wave of the future, and those who pretend otherwise are just whistling in the dark to persuade themselves that there is no bogeyman out there. Streaming entertainment (or information) from overseas is one aspect of this and no doubt there will be many battles before the rights issues are settled. But unfettered local and national on-line TV designed to appeal to specific niche audiences is the killer app that will spell the end of proscriptive, ad-saturated, dumbed down 'mass' broadcast TV that only rest home residents who can't press the button on the remote will continue to watch.

 

 

 

Ziln even has a new TV 7! It doesn't amount to much yet, mostly just Parliament TV re-runs, but it is the wave of the future. Who needs government funding, or approval, or expensive PR, or anything else when anyone with a webcam and a computer can start their own 'broadcasting' service?

 

 

 

I have seen the future of New Zealand television, and it looks bright.