I haven't seen anything anywhere else about this, but on the NZ Herald website it mentions a new "lifestyle" Freeview channel on it's way - I hope this isn't just another description of the shopping channel that's replacing TVNZ7 mid-year..
FYI the page is at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/television-industry/news/article.cfm?c_id=260&objectid=10783004
About halfway down that page is the following:
NEW CHANNEL
More new digital TV channels are on the way, with a Freeview "lifestyle" channel the most advanced.
It will be a welcome addition to the free-to-air digital platform, which has been abandoned by the Government and TVNZ, which are now focused on pay TV.
It is understood the channel will be run by a production company and it will be interesting to see how it is funded.
As a free-to-air channel you'd expect there has to be advertising revenue so presumably there would be a link with another media company here or overseas.
Meanwhile, rumours persist on the future of a public service channel.
One suggestion is that Sky TV has toyed with the idea of running a TVNZ 7 style channel on its platform. It would make a lot of sense for Sky. It would be a relatively cost-efficient way of undermining the dissent about its growing dominance of television and meeting demands for a public service channel.
Sky TV could be a new home for shows like Media7, which has a contract to run on TVNZ 7 until June this year.
Media7 producer Phil Wallington said production company Top Shelf was working on a proposal for the show to continue next year but could not say where.
The other proposal advanced last year was for Maori TV to operate a public service TV channel, with money taken away from handouts to commercial TV channels. TVNZ and MediaWorks want that money and will be opposing that idea.
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Anyone able to shed some more light on this?