Jason Paris wants it to be easier to get video from TVNZ than to steal it. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Jason Paris wants it to be easier to get video from TVNZ than to steal it. Photo / Brett Phibbs

TVNZ will ditch premium downloads from its internet-based video on demand service and the digital rights management software designed to prevent piracy as it looks to advertising to pay the way.

The state broadcaster is also working with Microsoft and Sony to bring its video on demand service to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video game consoles and aims this year to introduce an ad-supported video service for mobile phones.

Almost a year on from the launch of TVNZ OnDemand, the portal where TV shows can be streamed for free or downloaded at a cost of $2 to $4 an episode, 200,000 TV shows are being streamed each month to 150,000 local users.

TVNZ's head of emerging business, Jason Paris, said free video streams of programmes with adverts featured at the beginning and end of the feed had outnumbered paid-for downloads by "many thousands to one".

"New Zealanders conclusively said they didn't want to pay for content online. We're now focusing purely on an ad-supported model and it seems to have won out around the world as well."

How soon the ad-supported model takes over depends on the progress of negotiations with content providers, but Paris said it could happen from as early as next month.

"We're very close to securing a deal with Disney to move them from paid downloads to ad-supported. The same goes for a couple of the big local production companies."

TVNZ has been using Microsoft's PlaysForSure digital rights management software to try to prevent downloaded TV shows from being copied. But just days after the launch of TVNZ OnDemand last March, the protection systems had been bypassed by viewers using software freely available on the internet.

Paris said the dropping of anti-piracy measures was an admission by TVNZ and its content providers that they could not prevent TV content from being copied and dispersed.

"We've made a conscious decision at TVNZ that we're no longer in control of our content," he said. "We need to make it easier to get it from us than to steal it."

Part of making the content easier to get hold of would include making it available on a growing range of devices. internet-connected game consoles would be capable of receiving video feeds from TVNZ straight to the lounge, providing an alternative to computer-based downloads.

"We're open to offering a type of a la carte bundle of on-demand content which they can host," said Paris of Microsoft and Sony, the two console makers TVNZ has started discussions with.