Hard News: The digital switch-off
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(I don’t see many Italians copying Kapiti cheeses – odd that)
I know basically nothing about making cheese, but I'm happy to put money on the bit of the process that Italians really outstrip us on is what I'll call "post-cow". Whether that means they're better or worse than us at producing milk ("cow phase") I dunno.
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Mozzarella is post-buffalo, though.
Just sayin'.
Edit: apart from all that mozzarella fior di latte which they make. Doh.
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Yes, most mozzarella is made from cow's milk.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Freeview was once a free to air bulwark to slow Sky's growth. But it has a secondary role in TVNZ's digital strategy. Kearley says: "We still support Freeview - but we are not going to launch channels that we cannot make money from.
"We are a commercial organisation and shareholders have made that clear and we try to deliver dividends. That is non-negotiable.
"It has yet to be proven content would boost uptake for Freeview," he said.
Well, he's saying what he has to.
But there's an effing big risk here for the government. The rationale for 6 and 7 was that they would help facilitate the move to digital terrestrial. That has gone fairly well, but the job's not done yet -- and they need to get to the digital switchover.
When the analogue signal is turned off, there will be a bonanza of reallocated spectrum. There are plenty of potential uses for the unused frequencies. And governments make good money parcelling them out. They're going to look pretty stupid if they've tilted the market so far in Sky's favour that they can't get there when they need to.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
They're going to look pretty stupid if they've tilted the market so far in Sky's favour that they can't get there when they need to.
As in Berlusconi stupid?
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Sacha, in reply to
Berlusconi stupid
Hey, that film has an invisible opposition too
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JackElder, in reply to
with some facial hair and a bicycle
That's facial hair and a fixed-gear bicycle, thank you. Or a BMX.
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Steve Withers, in reply to
Urlich of First New Zealand Capital says Sky is under-leveraged with an inefficient balance sheet. Profits had boosted Sky's asset levels but there were no apparent acquisition targets and little prospect of a boost in dividends or a share buy-back.
In other words...they just provide a service with no quick fixes for market speculators.
We need more businesses like that....and especially ones that don't involve Rupert Murdoch in any way.
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Late to this one too - been out filming the demise of public service TV.
I mean who’s to say we can’t have a few good but marginally less profitable programmes in the schedule and make up for it with, I don’t know, Jersey Shore?
I think that could work great in theory, but a) you need someone at the top who's all about that, rather than someone who really just wants to do what the owner tells them to do ("maximise profit, return big dividend") and b) it assumes it's easy just to make a bit more money. Having been at TVNZ during a continual series of cutbacks, lay-offs and restructuring these past 7 years, I can only assume it's not :)
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
b) it assumes it's easy just to make a bit more money.
I guess what I'm asking is: does TVNZ have to return a profit, or does it have to return the maximum possible profit short of broadcasting hardcore porn? Because surely it could return a bit less of a profit in exchange for funding one hour and a half a week of current affairs programming pitched at people with an IQ in the human range.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
broadcasting hardcore porn?
Which, it seems proper to note, makes plenty of money for Sky -- the religious beliefs of its chief executive notwithstanding.
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Light relief from the 'stroking a grudge' file. Our old friend Mr Siataga from his exile at The Standard manages to make this topic all about our host's todger. What a silly little fella.
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nzlemming, in reply to
I'd rather be a sycophant than a psycho-phant
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What a silly little fella.
Yup. The whole thing seemed to cut him to the quick. So he's following his own metaphor, that blogs should be like ruffneck bars, and is lurching like a drunk from one to the other, hoping to ingratiate himself with the publicans by slagging off the competitors, which works right up until they realize he's a customer they don't really want either.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
I guess what I’m asking is: does TVNZ have to return a profit,
Well yes, it does. Otherwise we couldn't afford things like this... $43m lifeline to TV3 owner
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Well yes, it does. Otherwise we couldn’t afford things like this… $43m lifeline to TV3 owner
Well knock me over and fuck me to a gentle rumba beat. National gives it’s right wing hate radio supporters a $43 million taxpayer bailout to keep up the good work?
Oh, and didn’t the current minister of communications once own this company? Corruption, is thine name Steven Joyce?
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Too quick to deny?.
Government denies MediaWorks loan"All I can tell you is that the Crown has not advanced any cash to MediaWorks at all, that the Crown has offered a deferred payment option to all of the frequency holders who were due to renew at that time, which involved them paying interest and getting in their payments over five years."
Mr Joyce said MediaWorks had been keeping to the terms of deferred payment.
Bugger, I thought we had him there.
Seems it's just the Herald getting it wrong again. -
What is the difference between a loan and a deferred payment?
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Russell Brown, in reply to
What is the difference between a loan and a deferred payment?
Not all that much, really.
Tbh, I think it's the right move. It wouldn't make sense to kill off Mediaworks by demanding immediate payment.
Even though Mediaworks' problem is basically that it was acquired by a greedy, stupid private equity firm.
But it would be nice to see the government treat public broadcasting assets as kindly as it treats the private ones.
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Stephen Judd, in reply to
What is the difference between a loan and a deferred payment?
Transferring cash to the borrower.
But it still stinks. Eg, why don't the owners of MediaWorks pony up? They're fully capable.
I'd be interested to know who the other eight broadcasters who have taken up the deferred payment plan are. That might or might not make it look a lot better.
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Che Tibby, in reply to
Even though Mediaworks’ problem is basically that it was acquired by a greedy, stupid private equity firm.
russel, russell, russell... please refer to page 57, stanza 12 of the Market Manual.
there are no greedy or stupid private firms.
"And lo, the Market did create unto Man the perfect means of Life, and it was good [sic]"
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
But it would be nice to see the government treat public broadcasting assets as kindly as it treats the private ones.
I'm curious what MW's interest rate would be if it'd borrowed from commercial funders. 11.whatever % sounds pretty steep to me, especially in light of an almost-certain OCR cut.
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Rich Lock, in reply to
What is the difference between a loan and a deferred payment?
I'll have to try this one out if I ever see him down the pub. 'Ey, Steve-o my old chum, any chance you could deferred payment option me $20 to tide me over to pay day? No, no, no. Not a loan. Perish the thought.'
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
’Ey, Steve-o my old chum, any chance you could deferred payment option me $20 to tide me over to pay day? No, no, no. Not a loan. Perish the thought.’
If you had borrowed the $20 last week on the proviso that you were to pay it back this week then deferring the payment to next week is not a loan but an extension on an existing loan. In the case of MediaWorks we are talking about a deferred payment of its broadcasting licence fee. If the Govt were to say "We will pay your fee and you can pay us back" that would be a loan, that is not what is happening here.
Damn, that is so not like me to say that.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
’Ey, Steve-o my old chum, any chance you could deferred payment option me $20 to tide me over to pay day? No, no, no. Not a loan. Perish the thought.’
uh, no. More like 'Ey, Steve-o my old chum, any chance you'd let me repay that $20 I owe you for last week's dinner over, oh, four weeks?'
Deferred payment is not just another name for loan, and Granny's headline was pretty shocking. The Government never had the money that it is now owed by MediaWorks, which is the normal requirement for a loan. A loan implies retained ownership but transferred possession. No money changed hands, MW just gets to pay off an incurred obligation over a period of time, with interest.
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