Stratos Closing

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DjShadow

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#94984 23-Dec-2011 11:48

Bit of a bugger this, I heard they were planning to step in to cover some stuff from TVNZ7 when it closes:

http://www.stratostv.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=167:plug-pulled-on-stratos-television&catid=36:station-news&Itemid=56

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#560955 23-Dec-2011 12:54

Not really a surprise. Wasn't help that it wasn't the greatest quality picture. At this rate freeview is going to have very few channels, and won't offer much more than what is on the analogue band. Not much of an incentive now to go digital for those with CRTs

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trig42

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#560967 23-Dec-2011 13:32

robbyp: Not really a surprise. Wasn't help that it wasn't the greatest quality picture. At this rate freeview is going to have very few channels, and won't offer much more than what is on the analogue band. Not much of an incentive now to go digital for those with CRTs

I suppose the only incentive is that if they want to be watching any TV this time next year they will have to go digital.

old3eyes

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#560992 23-Dec-2011 15:15

Not closing but closed. Just showing a black screen.

Pity. Didn't watch them much but they had some good international news and The Untouchables . So marches on the dumbing down of NZ free TV..

Regards,

Old3eyes

foamfollower

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#561007 23-Dec-2011 16:01

I did watch them a lot - mainly news. Many thanks to Jim and the Stratos team for giving it such an epic go - I will miss Stratos, and so will Freeview. This leaves a significant hole in the Freeview experience, and means that that the loss of TVNZ7 is even more serious.

robjg63

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#561032 23-Dec-2011 18:23

So I gather that Triangle is still going on analogue.
I guess the broadcast costs on Freeview have killed Stratos.....

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

PimpMyMagic

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#561033 23-Dec-2011 18:28

As did I and I second John's views.

The Al Jazeera feed was an invaluable alternative to the constant diet of American biased sources we get fed by main stream media.

I also much appreciated the extreme right perspective Perigo used to bring us and the opposite side of the political spectrum Bomber Bradbury serves up with his inimitable humour - also the more reserved but probing interviews from David Beatson.

How I shall miss all these resourceful sources. Who now to keep John Key honest. He must be one of the few to celebrate this channels passing.

A sad day for NZ.

old3eyes

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#561036 23-Dec-2011 18:56

Pity they could transmit Triangle on the AKL digital frequency as it too will vanish on analog shutdown.

Never understood why Triangle and Statos both existed showing the same programs at different times of the day..

Regards,

Old3eyes

mattwnz

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#561040 23-Dec-2011 19:41

trig42:
robbyp: Not really a surprise. Wasn't help that it wasn't the greatest quality picture. At this rate freeview is going to have very few channels, and won't offer much more than what is on the analogue band. Not much of an incentive now to go digital for those with CRTs

I suppose the only incentive is that if they want to be watching any TV this time next year?they will have to go digital.?

A lot of people in our society (largely the elderly and poor/vulnerable) don't have freeview and still rely on the analogue signal. Watch this space I think. Alot of overseas the governments gave away vouchers for free or heavily discounted receivers. I had heard our government was thinking of subsidising the igloo device, which isn't an authorised freeview device anyway, and is more than 3times the price of the cheapest freeview receiver anyway. However many people will still need to get a dish or aerial installed, which is probablyt a bigger cost if you are getting someone in.
The thing about freeview, is it was sold as having all these extra channels, such as TVNZ sport, TVNZ 6, TVNZ 7 etc. However all those have gradually been killed off. I think they need to make the heartland channel freeview, as most of the programs on that channel were paid for by our taxes anyway, but we have to pay gain via sky to see them.

Printertech

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#561050 23-Dec-2011 20:13

It makes the Satellite D2 channels, Press TV, NHK, and RTS even more valuable for getting news from the other side.

mattwnz

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#561062 23-Dec-2011 20:58

Definitely. As NZs own news is now so poor, especially business and world news, and we no longer have a public broadcaster. TVNZs business program is also shutting down, so everthing is in decline.

tedzart

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#561327 25-Dec-2011 04:41

Now that I have stopped watching the Al Jazerra News Broadcasts ... the Drone has stopped spying on me!
*salute*

bfginger

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#561450 25-Dec-2011 21:45

Were they outbid for their broadcast slot by World TV?

You can watch Al Jazeera news on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oObdPuriO2w

Athlonite

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#561479 26-Dec-2011 03:41

Ah I was wondering why the black screen when I changed to Stratos Buggar I enjoyed Al Jazerra news

sarg

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#561483 26-Dec-2011 05:54

disappointed that they couldn't keep going after 4 years on air. Enjoyed the alternate news services

that would be an ecumenical matter

deepred

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#563841 2-Jan-2012 20:29

Wouldn't the Commerce Commission be taking an interest in this? It's the equivalent of the Beeb selling out to Murdoch, or PBS/NPR doing the same with FOX.

SKY will never see a cent of my dosh, not because I'm a tight bastard, but because I object to the Orwellisation of broadcasting in NZ.

"I regret to say that we of the F.B.I. are powerless to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed interstate commerce." — J. Edgar Hoover

"Create a society that values material things above all else. Strip it of industry. Raise taxes for the poor and reduce them for the rich and for corporations. Prop up failed financial institutions with public money. Ask for more tax, while vastly reducing public services. Put adverts everywhere, regardless of people's ability to afford the things they advertise. Allow the cost of food and housing to eclipse people's ability to pay for them. Light blue touch paper." — Andrew Maxwell

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