Freeview on-demand to end late 2022

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freitasm

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#291937 14-Dec-2021 15:02

Just received:

Freeview is preparing to end one of its free services, Freeview On Demand, by late 2022.

Originally launched in 2015, Freeview On Demand has been offered as an addition to Live TV and is integrated into Smart TVs, connected set-top boxes and recorders. It currently provides access to free on-demand content from ThreeNow, Māori Television and RNZ.

Once it ends, viewers will no longer be able to watch on-demand shows through Freeview; but as they currently do with TVNZ OnDemand, they can still enjoy them across ThreeNow, Māori+ and RNZ, wherever they are available.

All popular free-to-air channels will also continue to be available through Freeview, as Live TV is unaffected by this change. Freeview and its shareholders are fully committed to strengthening the future of free-to-air TV in New Zealand, ensuring Live TV continues to be a mainstay and is easily accessible for all.

Viewers can keep watching all the channels they know and love – live and subscription-free. Other Freeview features will also remain accessible, such as the recording of Live TV and the Freeview TV Guide.

For most viewers, the end of the Freeview On Demand service will mean a simple change. The same range of local and international shows they enjoy will still be available on-demand, just accessed on broadcasters’ own apps or websites.

Freeview will work with those broadcasters over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition from Freeview On Demand to their apps, so viewers can continue to enjoy their favourite programmes on-demand.

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#2832221 14-Dec-2021 15:05

Shame, not unexpected with the Discovery take over of TV3 etc. Everyone wants to own the relationship with their viewers.

It will be interesting to see how much the Freeview services lean towards online over the next couple of years.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

KrazyKid

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#2832237 14-Dec-2021 15:32

Never even thought of using the Freeview on Demand - always just used the channel's own app.

Wonder how popular it was?

davidcole

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#2832249 14-Dec-2021 15:57

KrazyKid:

Never even thought of using the Freeview on Demand - always just used the channel's own app.

Wonder how popular it was?

I think it was a weird hybrid built in app based off the tv guide, I remember trying to figure out how to make it work for my mother, before she got an apple tv with a dedicated tvnz ondemand app (and TV3.....but that's used very little in our household0

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MikeB4

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#2832251 14-Dec-2021 16:05

I can't help thinking that we are witnessing the slow death of free to air TV. TVNZ has been struggling for a while thanks to how much they need to pay the government a a dividend and general limited resources. TV3 has hung on by a thread with years of loss making. The takeover by Discovery is a life line for the TV3 channels but I wonder how long it will be before they the change the business model for the channels they have here. If the dominos begin to fall what will be the incentive for Sky to keep Prime available as a free to air channel.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

alasta

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#2832268 14-Dec-2021 16:40

Free to air delivery of anything is under threat because of Facebook and Google hoovering up so much advertising revenue.

Personally, I don't think it's a bad thing. I am looking forward to the launch of Discovery+ so that I have the option of paying a subscription fee rather than having to put up with the advertising on ThreeNow.

PolicyGuy

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#2832272 14-Dec-2021 16:48

It's in all political parties' interest to keep at least one free to air TV channel going, because it will deliver the eyeballs of the almost-everyone-votes Boomer generation for the next at least fifteen to twenty years.
So I expect TV1 is safe, even if it does get merged with RNZ National and maybe even goes substantially non-commercial. Whether that would make enough commercial revenue available to make TV3 & Prime long-term viable is moot. I expect TV2 to be killed off.

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#2832284 14-Dec-2021 17:16

MikeB4:

I can't help thinking that we are witnessing the slow death of free to air TV. TVNZ has been struggling for a while thanks to how much they need to pay the government a a dividend and general limited resources. TV3 has hung on by a thread with years of loss making. The takeover by Discovery is a life line for the TV3 channels but I wonder how long it will be before they the change the business model for the channels they have here. If the dominos begin to fall what will be the incentive for Sky to keep Prime available as a free to air channel.

FTA TV seems to be doing ok overseas. I thought this government were creating a TV platform off RNZ, that would rival BBC. NZer are really let down by the current system, and TVNZ is some weird hybrid model.

Weird that it corresponds with the end of Vodafone TV. Yet streaming is the future. I think Freeview needs a total overhaul, and they ned to provide open high qulaity streams, which is really no different to broadcasting over UHF in terms of providing a digital stream. Just that UHF coverage of freeview in NZ is patchy at best unless you live in one of the main centres, and satellite is a compressed low resolution mess.

joshhill96

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#2832301 14-Dec-2021 18:07

It was a great run, OnDemand delivered an exciting opportunity back in 2015, this being the streaming market! We will be working with shareholders and broadcasters on transition in coming months.

Formerly worked at iStore NZ (Rest in Peace), Sky Network Television, Freeview, Apple, Spark New Zealand Trading Limited, DISH TV Technologies.

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jonathan18

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#2832323 14-Dec-2021 18:54

MikeB4:

I can't help thinking that we are witnessing the slow death of free to air TV. TVNZ has been struggling for a while thanks to how much they need to pay the government a a dividend and general limited resources.

I understand that TVNZ is still planning an SVOD version of TVNZ On Demand - imagine it will offer either exclusive content or content released before it goes on the ad-supported VOD service, as well as being as-free. That will hopefully keep TVNZ On Demand going for a while, as it really does offer a wide range of decent content.

That said, I’m not sure I’d pay money for the SVOD version unless they upped the audio quality (eg DD) and bitrate (those dark scenes in Vigil looked terrible, with extreme banding).

openmedia

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#2832829 15-Dec-2021 13:15

It would be great to see some sharing of local resources, especially where it can help smaller players like MaoriTV and some of the regional channel.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

Wheelbarrow01

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#2832895 15-Dec-2021 15:22

I never really worked out what happened to the 3NOW app on my old Samsung tv - it just disappeared.

I was hoping I'd be able to get it back on my brand new 2021 Samsung tv, but alas not. At least Freeview ondemand catered for this, but I guess not for much longer....

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#2832897 15-Dec-2021 15:27

The quality on TVNZ is not something I would pay for at the moment. Not sure if its them or what but have extreme judder in some things that I have watched on it, really low quality (not 4k for sure) and the audio sounds both compressed and very limited dynamics like night mode and no sub.

Netflix quality is the lowest I consider acceptable.

Richard rich.ms

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#2832958 15-Dec-2021 15:47

richms:

The quality on TVNZ is not something I would pay for at the moment. Not sure if its them or what but have extreme judder in some things that I have watched on it, really low quality (not 4k for sure) and the audio sounds both compressed and very limited dynamics like night mode and no sub.

Netflix quality is the lowest I consider acceptable.

@Richms - what platform are you using for TVNZ?

There are a couple of issues with TVNZ's content

Some stuff is standards converted when really they should be keeping the native frame rate
Kodi at 25fps gets a bit stuttery so disable 25 and 30fps playback in the whitelist - 50fps is much cleaner.

I'm watching the highest quality streams on a 65" 4K set and they're ok. Not brilliant, but definitely better then we were getting a couple of years ago.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

richms

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#2832964 15-Dec-2021 16:17

I was using the xbox last time. It was probably them mangling things into that bastard 25FPS rate causing the problem. No idea why that persists in the post analog era, but the audio was bad 2 channel. I could hear artifacts and it had clearly had dynamics removed from it. Same show from the bay was a much nicer watch and listen.

Richard rich.ms

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#2832975 15-Dec-2021 16:44

I highly recommend you all grab a copy of next weeks NZ Listener magazine, or download the digital via Libby and your local Library login.

It has a terrific article on the changing state of FTA TV and covers a lot of the same ground as this thread.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

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