KEY POINTS:
On May 2, TVNZ will start doing something it's never done before - satellite broadcasting, along with its television signal, of eight days of television programme listings free. Not exactly breaking news, I know, but it is significant because it highlights a little-known piece of copyright hypocrisy, and how TVNZ is denying consumer choice.
Unknown to most, TVNZ, unlike TV3, Sky or other broadcasters, jealously guards its programme listings and charges print media organisations all over New Zealand serious money for the privilege of publishing them. It's a ridiculous state of affairs - an anomaly that arose from the days when TVNZ was a monopoly and weekly TV listings could only be found in the Listener.
But on May 2, FreeView satellite digital TV begins, and along with better digital pictures, viewers with a FreeView set-top box and satellite dish will get what's known as the FreeView EPG. That's electronic programme guide - an onscreen spreadsheet of television listings that can be navigated with your remote control.
If you're a Sky subscriber, you'll know what I'm talking about, because Sky has an EPG for all its channels, including TV One, TV2 and TV3. EPGs are a fantastic invention because they're so darn convenient. Just press a remote button to scroll ahead for what's coming up. Press again to set a reminder that will tell you when the programme is about to start and press again to get a precis of what the programme is about.
Here's the hypocrisy. How can TVNZ justify charging media organisations to publish its listings on one hand and on the other publish them free?
"We will continue to charge other media where the listings are being used for commercial advantage," says TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards. It's a moot point. Media organisations publish TV listings as a service to readers.
Yes, they gain some commercial benefit from that. But there's also a significant cost in offering that service, and in TVNZ's case, a substantial additional cost thanks to its copyright charge. Let's also not forget the enormous benefit TVNZ gets from these print listings - hundreds of thousands of viewers informed about what programmes to watch.
One wonders just how long TVNZ would hold out if all publications ran blank spaces for TVNZ listings while carrying the programme schedules for TV3 and other competing channels.
The argument goes to the nub of all copyrights - when are they a right and when are they a wrong?
The right is usually relinquished when people agree the information, recording, broadcast or whatever is better in the public domain than restricted for commercial gain.
It's hard to see how television programme listings should be anything other than freely available as a public utility. After all, when did anyone consider taking out copyright on bus timetables?
Consumers have long been disadvantaged by TVNZ's reluctance to give up its lucrative listings revenue stream. The lack of a publicly available EPG has long held back the uptake of digital video recorders and Windows Media Centre PCs. Without a readily available guide these devices have their recording ability (to a storage disk) severely castrated.
But with a guide, as evidenced by the My Sky set top box, a whole new world of television viewing opens up - watching what you want, when you want and without the ads.
The launch of satellite FreeView is the start of giving listings back to the viewers. But it doesn't go far enough. A FreeView set top box will automatically pick up and display the listings for TV One, TV2, TV3, C4, Maori TV and RadioNZ National.
Notably absent are Prime, Triangle and other regional free-to-air channels. But what's really disappointing is that FreeView hasn't certified a satellite tuner card with enough smarts to pick up and display the EPG.
If it had, thousands of existing Media Centre PCs could easily be transformed into easy-to-use TVs with digital recorders.
Meanwhile, if you want to know how to pluck television programme listing information out of the air, go to www.openmedia.co.nz to find a supercharged digital recorder with its own programme guide for all the free-to-air TV channels. It's an example of what can be done using the open source software MythTV to right the wrongs of a ridiculous copyright.
