NZ television on threshold of a revolution

Kiwis will be able to watch their favourite TV programmes over the internet within 18 months, says Woosh Wireless chairman Rob Inglis, after securing broadcasting spectrum from Sky TV.

So why are we bothering with digital TV? That, says Inglis, is a good question.

The Government announced on June 15 that free-to-air digital transmission would begin next year. Through the FreeView consortium - comprising TVNZ, CanWest, Maori TV, Trackside and Radio New Zealand - satellite digital transmission is expected to start early next year, followed by a progressive rollout of terrestrial services. Viewers will access it through a set-top box, and the Government is providing $25 million over five years to make it happen.

Digital TV, says Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey, offers a perfectly clear picture, and the ability to provide many more channels and services than the current analogue system.

Woosh has secured rights to more than 2.3 gigahertz of spectrum owned by Sky, which would let it provide internet protocol television (IPTV) over its network throughout the country.

The deal follows Woosh's acquisition in the past two years of Wimax spectrum, a high-speed wireless broadband standard. "It's all about having enough spectrum, or band width," says Inglis. "If we've got enough we can run television channels over the internet to your TV."

Digital television is a different technological platform from IPTV and the jury is out on the wisdom of government investment, given that television will soon be delivered over broadband.

One commentator's cynical view is that the investment will entrench government-owned broadcast network company BCL as the infrastructure provider. If the Government were to leap-frog over digital - the easiest means of continuing free-to-air television once analogue becomes obsolete - it would marginalise its existing investment in infrastructure.

Robin Field, communications adviser for TVNZ, says the eventual demise of the ageing analogue system is a good reason to switch to digital. The Government says analogue will be switched off in six to 10 years.

Just as important is the chance to broadcast more channels, says Field. "We have the opportunity to fulfil our charter on more channels, which can only be good for the viewer."

And while broadcasting over broadband will be possible, "nobody is able to estimate when broadband will be universally available".

Field also says IPTV providers will offer viewers programmes on demand for a subscription, whereas FreeView digital is just that - free.

However, digital and broadband are simply transmission methods - there's nothing preventing free-to-air television over the internet.

As a telecommunications company that has never been in television, Telecom is watching developments in IPTV very closely. Earlier this year it conducted a trial of the technology with Sky.

"Don't call it internet TV, because then people think you mean delivering TV to their computer," says Philip King, the company's general manager of video services. He says IPTV also means "interactive and personalised" TV, which defines the difference between what it can do and what's available now.

Digital is a step in the right direction, he says. "We could offer a set-top box which would take free-to-air digital and allow for on-demand movies and other services such as catch-up TV, which we could deliver over our broadband network."

Which is exactly what Sky TV is planning. Communications director Tony O'Brien says it plans to roll out a hybrid set-top box with two connections - one for satellite digital TV and a broadband connection, which will download episodic programmes. Pay TV operators BSkyB in Britain and Sky Italia have done similarly.

In Britain BSkyB places such a high importance on gaining a foothold in the internet TV market that it announced last month it was pouring $1.2 billion into building a broadband access business in the next three years. It will offer all its television customers free broadband connections.

O'Brien says a commercial rollout will follow the trial with Telecom. But he won't let on when, saying the Woosh deal is only one of several conversations with internet service providers, and "it really depends on how those conversations are going".

Commentators also downplay the significance of the arrangement, saying Woosh does not have a large customer base. They question also the choice of Wimax as a network.

"Our plan is to be everyone's pay TV partner," O'Brien says.

There will probably end up being several set-top boxes on the market, says Telecom's King, from low-end ones that simply receive a digital signal, through to sophisticated devices that can record programmes and access on-demand services. The Government has said set-top boxes are likely to cost around $200.

"They [FreeView] have got the twin challenge of wanting to get take-up, and some consumers will be sensitive to price, and their second challenge is to say 'how can we make more money out of this?"' he says. "Interactivity will clearly be a direction they want to head in. So they will be keen for consumers to also buy boxes which have interactive capability."

Catch-up TV was the most popular aspect of the IPTV trial, says King. "What people really like is this on-demand capability, they love watching TV when they want to watch it. No longer will the decisions of station programmers be acceptable."

TVNZ's Field says every content provider knows that broadcasting will be on multiple platforms. "No one delivery system will stand alone or necessarily supersede the other."