National’s Jonathan Coleman has announced a bullet-point excuse for a broadcasting policy. Essentially, it adopts the status quo but moves TVNZ charter funding to NZ on Air’s control (there goes any hope of TV1 ever becoming a proper public broadcaster) and preps the ground for privatisation in a second term.
Amongst the bullet points is the statement that National will set a date for switching off analogue broadcasting when 75% of the population have digital or in 2012, whichever comes first. When Labour announced exactly the same policy eight months ago, here’s what Coleman said in a press release titled ‘How many TV viewers will Labour switch off?’
“National supports digital television, but there has to be a firm plan to deal with the final group of New Zealanders who haven’t made the switch to digital.’
Strangely, that ‘firm plan’ is not to be found in Coleman’s broadcasting policy. Just another hit and run.
[PS. Why are National calling these one page documents ‘policy summaries’ when there are no full policy documents? To create the illusion of substance when there is none?]
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