Freeview

Freeview

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeview_(New_Zealand)

On May 2, 2007, Freeview's satellite television transmissions were turned on for the first time to the general public.

Freeview
(sometimes incorrectly spelt FreeView) is a non-profit service, providing free-to-air digital television and radio to New Zealand.

Freeview is available via satellite television to the whole of New Zealand. Freeview will also be available via digital terrestrial television, covering 75% of New Zealand, from early 2008.

Freeview has been designed to eliminate the bad reception caused by New Zealand's rugged topography, and provide New Zealanders with crystal clear digital television and radio. Freeview will also provide more channels for people to choose from, high resolution video and improved sound quality, and interactive content. This will prepare New Zealand for analogue switchoff, planned for some time between 2013 and 2017[1].

A set-top box, a suitable TV tuner card or a digital capable TV, and an UHF aerial or a satellite dish, is required to receive Freeview. At current, two manufacturers who helped to make the EPG for Freeview, Zinwell and Hills, have exclusive rights to mark their products with the "Freeview tick", meaning that they are certified. Receivers with the Freeview tick cost between NZ$280 and NZ$300, however uncertified generic DVB receivers costing as little NZ$150 are available.

Freeview uses the DVB-S and DVB-T standards on government provided spectrum. The government will also pay $25 million, about one third of the total cost.

History
Sky Television launched New Zealand's first digital television service in December 1998. Until the launch of Freeview, Sky has held the monopoly for digital satellite television.

On June 15, 2006 it was announced that a free-to-air digital television service called Freeview would be available via satellite transmissions from mid-2007 and terrestrial transmissions from mid-2008.

On April 23, 2007, Freeview's marketing campaign was launched. The campaign saw the Freeview website coming online, and a series of four television adverts being shown on Freeview's shareholders' channels, using the slogan "Make bad reception a thing of the past", and showing people using unusual items and ways to get television reception.

On May 2, 2007, Freeview's satellite television transmissions were turned on for the first time to the general public.

On May 18, 2007, Freeview's first digital-only channel launched: a temporary channel from TVNZ, providing coverage of the V8 Supercars.


Currently on the Freeview platform, there are 5 television channels and 2 radio stations. Presently, TVNZ, CanWest, the Māori Television Service, and Radio New Zealand supply content.

Up to 18 channels will be available, with six each assigned to TVNZ and CanWest, and the remaining six[3] assigned to other networks. [2] Giving that TVNZ's and CanWest's current free-to-air channels will be available on Freeview, they will each have four extra channels available.

Freeview also has its own eight-day electronic programme guide, named Freeview EPG. TVNZ's Teletext service is also available.[4]


Current Television Channels
TV One
TV2
TV3
C4
Māori Television
One Sport Extra -

Current Radio Stations
Radio New Zealand National
Radio New Zealand Concert

Temporary Channels
TVNZ had announced a channel especially for the V8 Supercars in 2007. From Round 4, which begins on May 18, One Sports Extra will be broadcast on channel 20 and will bring the races live and uninterrupted.

Other Networks
Another two companies have stated they will participate in the Freeview venture:
Alt TV and an unspecified independent broadcaster rumoured to be Triangle TV.

There are ongoing negotiations with Prime, other regional TV operators, and overseas companies wanting to start up in New Zealand.
Freeview will be open to other free-to-air broadcasters if they want to join.

Prime has said it will definitely not make a decision before 2008. Also, Prime's contracts with sports bodies preclude it from broadcasting sports programmes unencrypted on satellites, so Prime may only be available via terrestrial transmissions if it decides to join Freeview.

The New Zealand Racing Board originally showed interest, but currently has withdrawn as a shareholder, but may join at a later date.


Future Content
With 11 spare channels available, several new digital-only television channels will be launched within the next two years.

TVNZ will produce two new channels, one each in 2007 and 2008. One will be a commercial-free news, sport and information-based channel with 90% local content, tentatively titled TVNZ News 24. The other will screen preschool, family, and arts programmes, and has been tentatively titled TVNZ3.

CanWest confirmed it will produce one extra channel each in 2007 and 2008 targeting a niche market. The BSA expects it to screen imported programmes on its first extra channel.Since CanWest will not use all six channels allocated to it, it may sub-lease the spare capacity to other companies. As of April 11, CanWest has made the transition from 4:3 broadcasting to 16:9 (on TV3), and on May 2nd C4 followed suit.

Māori TV aims to launch more channels later.

Parliament will get its own channel ("Parliament TV") soon.

Although the satellite and the terrestrial service will both have 18 channels initially, there is space for only 20 channels on the satellite transponder so fewer channels may be available on satellite than terrestrial in the future.


Quality
“ The quality [of the signal] will be stunning. People wouldn't recognise it.… It's not what you get on Sky now, it's much better. ”
—Rick Freisen
COO of CanWest TVWorks

Satellite transmissions will be broadcast in 576i, as the satellite transponder is not high definition capable. However, terrestrial transmissions can be broadcast in high definition, and the government will let the broadcasters decide whether to broadcast in high definition or continue in standard definition. TVNZ does not currently have plans on HDTV, and will keep to SDTV. Prime, if it joins, will broadcast in high definition.


Technology
Freeview uses the satellite Optus D1 to broadcast via satellite. It uses a transponder, leased from Kordia.

UHF terrestrial broadcasting will be introduced in May 2008, and will initially cover 75% of New Zealand's population. Freeview's terrestrial transmissions will be broadcast from Kordia's existing transmitter towers. Eventually, terrestrial transmission may reach 92% of the population.[2]

Freeview uses the DVB standard, as standardised in 2001 with NZS6610:2001. DVB is used mainly due to New Zealand's rugged topography, meaning multipath was inevitable. ATSC cannot handle multipath well, so it was not chosen.

TVNZ said digital terrestrial will be broadcast in MPEG4 and satellite broadcasts will be in MPEG2. This means people who took part in the Auckland digital trial using terrestrial DVB-T MPEG2 receivers will need to change their receivers to DVB-T MPEG4 to receive terrestrial Freeview once officially launched in May 2008.

Freeview certifies set-top boxes but doesn't sell them - this is up to electronics retailers. Freeview certification centres on the localisation of multimedia data. This data is broadcast over DVB using the MHEG-5 standard. At the moment this is only used to transmit EPG data.

Freeview is currently discussing with Telecom about the provision of IPTV over ADSL.


Finance
The government will pay up to NZ$25 million and provide free radio spectrum, estimated to be worth up to NZ$10 million, during the transition to digital. The companies involved will pay the remaining $50 million. The government claims a NZ$230 million benefit to the economy. This is the second digital TV system attempted by the government. The first attempt in 2000 wasted NZ$6.8 million. Freeview may turn into for-profit after the analogue switch off.

It will cost Alt TV NZ$600,000 a year to broadcast on Freeview. Canterbury TV estimates it will need to pay NZ$1 million a year if it joins FreeView.


Competition
Sky currently has a free-to-air package where channels similar to the ones available on Freeview are available for a monthly fee of NZ$18.29, plus an installation fee of NZ$99.[18] Around 90,000 people use this service, generally by people who cannot get a high quality signal from analogue terrestrial television.[8] However, as only twenty channels are available on the satellite for Freeview, and presently there are fewer channels on Freeview than Sky, Sky is relatively unaffected. A Sky dish can be used to receive Freeview but a separate set-top box will be required.

More info
Offical web site
http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/channels.html
forum
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Freeview_nz/
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeview_(New_Zealand)

www.apsattv.com
www.vetrun.com .

http://www.freetv.co.nz/freeview.html