Lines blur between Freeview, pay TV
The boundary between Freeview and pay television is set to blur in April with the launch of a $399 Freeview recorder designed to provide easy access to paid internet-television services.
As well as letting people pause and record live television and access Freeview On Demand, the set-top box will put Spark’s Lightbox internet television service as well as movie service Stuff Pix on its menu.
Stuff Pix, which is partly owned by Stuff (formerly Fairfax New Zealand), will offer a catalogue of about 600 movies that can be watched online for between $1 and $7 each, as well as future new releases from most major studios about 10 to 12 weeks after they have screened in cinemas.
Freeview chief executive Jason Foden said the set-top box would be made by Dish and would include multiple satellite and UHF tuners as well as an Android media player and a one-terabyte hard drive.
Freeview would ‘‘not get rich’’ through partnerships with ‘‘over the top’’ (OTT) video services, but wanted people to be able to access as many of them as possible through the recorder, he said.
Netflix would not initially feature as that company needed to approve every piece of hardware ‘‘and we are in the queue to have that done’’, he said.
Sky Television spokeswoman Melodie Robinson could not comment on whether its Neon internet television might be available through the recorder.
Freeview will also update its own On Demand service later this month, providing easier access to free streamed content available from Television New Zealand, Three’s owner Mediaworks, and Maori Television.
The update will mean streamed content from the three broadcasters will be pooled into a single catalogue with a shared logon.
People who have Freeview On Demand – which is available on smart TVS and Freeview boxes sold since 2015 – will automatically get that update later this month.