Sky Television has fired more salvos at TVNZ, MediaWorks and Freeview as it steps up a television war with free-to-air channels.
Sky yesterday released an additional "cross submission" delivered to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
The document says the free-to-air channels are trying to hobble Sky with
more controls and prevent them from conducting "fair" competition.
They were making "inaccurate and misleading claims", the company said.
TVNZ said Sky was trying an old tactic of its controlling shareholder - Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
It was "muddying the waters" to keep New Zealand broadcasting's status quo as "a wild west with no sheriff".
Sky's document hits back at proposed controls to curb its growth as it tries to avoid new rules in a Ministry for Culture and Heritage review of broadcasting regulations.
Sky is making a big scale public relations effort on calls by TVNZ, MediaWorks Freeview and the programme makers body Spada.
They include restrictions on Sky owning sports rights and a Telecom-style split of the company.
Cabinet is expected to consider the Ministry for Culture and Heritage report on July 31 but even if politicians consider regulations, nobody expects any changes before the election.
But Sky is concerned controls will become an election issue and the free-to-air channels know it could be the last chance they have to curb Sky.
The company, whose platforms deliver television to 47 per cent of New Zealand homes, also runs money-losing free-to-air channel Prime TV.
The free channels claim that among other market dominance issues, the cross-media ownership gives Sky the power to shut them out of international programming deals.
They say the convergence of the broadcasting and telecommunication world gives Sky extra power.
Sky, which has dismissed the regulatory review as "a solution looking for a problem" said that free-to-air claims are inaccurate and misleading and aimed at "hobbling" fair competition from Sky.
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage said Sky's release had no official status as part of the review. TVNZ spokesman Peter Parrussini said Sky's document was focused on the current environment and ignored the effects of growing convergence of the broadcasting and telecommunications sector.
