Budde said the "vertically integrated monopoly" of Sky TV could stop the $3.5 billion ultrafast broadband network from being economically viable and the inability of Television New Zealand, MediaWorks and Freeview to compete with Sky would have ...
nn The Government should end Sky Network Television's "content monopoly", Australian telecommunications analyst Paul Budde says in his annual report on New Zealand's telecommunications market.n
nn Budde said the "vertically integrated monopoly" of Sky TV could stop the $3.5 billion ultrafast broadband network from being economically viable and the inability of Television New Zealand, MediaWorks and Freeview to compete with Sky would have significant consequences for media diversity and "undermines national cultural and information values".n
nn "An open content access policy needs to be in place for this emerging market to develop – otherwise the result will be similar to the circumstances that are now challenging Freeview," he said.n
nn Yesterday, TelstraClear chief executive Allan Freeth also called for more consideration to be given to the availability of content.n
nn "As New Zealand rolls out the Government's ultrafast broadband network, the question about what it will carry will finally become paramount," he said.n
nn "The downsides of content held by virtual monopolies that can charge what they like, or prevent Kiwis from accessing it, will become increasingly apparent during 2012," he said.n
nn Sky was one of the "virtual monopolies" to which he was referring. "Customer choice can only be increased through diversity of distribution channels."n
nn Budde said the Government's decisions to "abandon its responsibility for broadcasting" in the 1980s and can a review of broadcasting policy in 2009 would come back to haunt it.n
nn But Sky TV chief executive John Fellet said Budde was wrong to hark back to the 1980s when only two television channels – TVNZ One and 2 – existed. "I don't know how anyone could say that was a better situation than we have now."n
nn Anyone was free to compete against Sky for rights to programming, Fellet said.n
nn Sky was not a monopoly, and was always happy to license content to others, he said.n
- Wellington
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