You interview: Brent Impey, Chief Executive Officer, MediaWorks NZ Ltd (TV3)

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › You interview: Brent Impey, Chief Executive Officer, MediaWorks NZ Ltd (TV3)

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#180400 26-Nov-2008 11:20

are there any plans to make use of your +1 channel in other ways? I am forever frustrated that V8 Supercars and A1GP get shunted as they clash with primetime programming, surely this would be a good use for the +1

Do you plan to show the A1GP from Taupo live next year? The spectacle of the race was ruined by the delay in the race coverage this year.

Are there any further plans to move C4 away from being a music channel? Is this part of the strategy for Mediaworks with moving it on channel 12 on Sky Digital/TelstraClear?

ronw

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#181051 29-Nov-2008 10:24

I understand thet Media Works are committed to two new channels on Freeview. When you get to the fourth channel could you consider a different genre. I feel we could have a viable alternative type channel. SciFi would be a great place to start but if one genre can not carry a full weeks programming about a multi genre channel eg Scifi during week and Movies during weekend.
Also have you considered anyway to carry a pay channel on Freeview. I realise the boxes being sold do not have slots for pay cards but this could probably be handled in other ways.

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#181063 29-Nov-2008 10:57

Why was the decision made to go with 1080i rather than 720p for TV3?

It's obviously still some time off yet but if/when the two additional Freeview MUX's are rolled out once ASO occurs do you see MediaWorks having any interest in them?

Ironbridge have no other assets in the media industry. Is this a downside or upside compared to ownership under Canwest who were a large media organisation?

What sort of plans do TV Works have for expanding it's on demand content? The quality of on demand programming at present is low and not suitable for somebody who wants to view on their TV. Do you believe local NZ programming should or could appear on a service such as iTunes, your own service or a service in partnership with other media organisations in NZ allowing high quality full length downloads?

quickymart

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#181150 29-Nov-2008 18:02

With the rebranding of the legacy provincial stations to all be More FM's, do you see Radioworks going down the same road as TRN eventually, and only having a local breakfast? I realise that would be more profitable, but if so, isn't that losing a good deal of the local flavour and content?

If not, do you see the local hours of the More FM's expanding? I'm aware that already there are some stations that don't have much in the way of a local presence on the weekends, rather they are networked out of Auckland.

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#183583 11-Dec-2008 17:21

Folks, I have posted the answers from Brent Impey now.

You can discuss here in this thread.

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ockel

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#183589 11-Dec-2008 17:34

Answered in a fashion that can only be Mr Impey. I can almost hear his voice when I read the answers......

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openmedia

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#183594 11-Dec-2008 17:52

Really rather disappointed with the generally negative responses.

No word on new channels or content other than TV3+1

No plans for their radio stations which is a real shame.

I fully understand that they don't have additional goverment funding to drive this, but personally I thought adding radio to their Mux was obvious.

Maurico - Thanks for organising this. Great work\

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#183600 11-Dec-2008 18:16

To be honest and blunt it looks like a reply typed up in under 5 mins but doesn't really say anything new

Interesting tho about no plans re DAB, looks like the FM band is going to have a long life yet

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#183603 11-Dec-2008 18:27

As above, bit disappointed with short answers, however at least there wasn't any dodging questions and we got a yes/no on most things.
Cheers MF.

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#183604 11-Dec-2008 18:27

Good on Mr Impey for fronting up and answering our questions.

I was, however, left with a feeling that he thought it was a bit of a waste of time. He seemed a bit terse.

Am I being too picky?

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#183610 11-Dec-2008 18:49

Sounds like the Ozzy bean counters have put the screws on Mediaworks..

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ZollyMonsta

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#183621 11-Dec-2008 20:24

Reads like Mr Impey was pressed for time when he answered the questions. You have to remember that a lot of information is commercially sensitive also.

I'm glad to read that there is no intention to remove local content from the More FM provincial stations (now, if only they could hire some DJ's that don't sound like they just left pre-school) ;-)

Shame about them not showing any interest in DAB.

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#183626 11-Dec-2008 21:05

I am sure that Brent is under considerable pressure from Ironbridge to generate significant cah for the owners. After all an equity company only is interested in turning quick profits. They will strip mediaworks of everything of value and then break the company up and flick it. Except to see a significant amount of debt added to balance sheet so that they can withdraw cash for thenselves. Once the company is staggering under debt the only people likely to want it are the mangers themselves and they will have to work themselves into the groupnd to make a buck oput of the shell that Ironbridge will leave them.
Trouble with this scenario is that the broadcate arena is changing so quickly the licences that Media works owns will not be so attractive in future.
Regardless of what Brent's view of DAB is it will be come in. It si too attractive a format not to. But it will play havoc with current analogue radio transmissions. At one stage TRN were looking at DAB quite serriously but they are now in the same boat as Mediaworks and they will quite likely be sold to an equity company as part of Tony O'Reilly's divestment of APN etc.
I guess Ironbridge would be prohibted from purchasing TRN but who knows with the new right-wing government in New Zealand they might take a complete hands off.
The other possible bidder for TRN is of course Sky and their is a considerable benefit in joinging SKYTV and TRN into one company.

The Television side of Mediaworks will also find it hard if the company is broken up. I would predict that FTA television is going to rapidly disappear and more and more people will watch IPTV or just download their own content.
It is quite interesteing that SKYTV are now paying for excluive IP rights to everything they show. They have been doing this for a while which is going to exclude TVNZ or TV3 from showing current programmes with IPTV which effectively shuts them both out of the IPTV market.
Trust Rupert M he saw this coming and got SKY to get into IPTV beefore anyone else even considered it.
I think SKY will start dissemenating IPTV from middle of next year.
I for one would be more than happy to pay a small fee and be ab le to legally d/l content as soon as it is available rather than wait for FTA to have it on.
Sky's model is a big earner after those initial years when setup costs were high. They now bring in some $60-90 dollars per customer every month. Their MySky box is streets ahead of MyHD freeview offering and while there was a small chance that labour Government would have forced anti-syphoning rules onto Sky Nationsl have said no way jose which leaves Sky growing profitably and Freeview struggling. If it was not for the large cash injection to Freeview it would never have got off ground. My own view FWIW is that Freeview should have done a deal with SKY and come up with a formula that allowed transmission over SKY platform but with the Freeview channels freely available. It would be in SKY's interests to even provide free decoders as they would expect to get FTA viewers opting to take up some pay channels once they had the gear installed. Hell with the $75,000,000 the government coughed up to get Freeview going they could have purchased a couple of seats on SKY's board and that could have protected the FTA component.

Just my 2 cents worth

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#183656 11-Dec-2008 23:40

DAB is a lame duck - no surprises there.

ockel

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#183682 12-Dec-2008 08:48

As someone who has posed similar questions to Mr Impey in the past I can understand that some people could perceive his responses as short, terse or even flippant.
I can assure you that he treats every question on its merits but he does expect people to take the time to be fully informed and consider all issues (so if there is an obvious answer to a generic question then thats what you'll get back).

And as was mentioned by ZollyMonsta a lot of these areas are commercially sensitive - especially in an environment where your largest competitor is subsidised (and owned) by the Government.

Importantly this is the first interview that I can recall since the Ironbridge transaction and I can assure you that many people have been interested in hearing his views but been unable to get access to him. And these are clearly answered by Mr Impey rather than being handled by someone else within Mediaworks. So I think hats off to Mauricio for organising a coup.

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