Popularity of Triangle Television confirmed

July 9, 2004

Popularity of Triangle Television confirmed in latest statistics

Triangle Television - Auckland's only regional television channel - attracted more than a quarter of a million individual viewers in June according to AC Nielsen figures.

The television station recently commissioned AC Nielsen to determine the monthly cume viewer figures. "Cume" or "cumulative audience" viewer figures, which are also known as 'net reach', reveal the number of people who watch a television channel during a given time period. Each person is counted once, no matter how many times that person tuned into Triangle Television during the period.

The cume viewer figures indicated that 273,250 people aged five and over watched Triangle Television in the month ending July 3.

Triangle Television Chief Executive Officer Jim Blackman describes the result as nothing short of spectacular, especially as the figures relate to UHF viewers only as Triangle is not available via the Sky platform.

"This is the first time we have been able to gauge our audience numbers in a meaningful way, and it is really encouraging to know that we are a confirmed and important part of Auckland's television options. Despite being dismissed by some as very much a minor player in the Auckland sphere, our own anecdotal evidence has pointed towards the impact we are having for quite some time - and now it has been confirmed.

"According to these figures, we are attracting more viewers in the Auckland Region than Maori Television was on its nationwide UHF service in its third week of broadcasting - but we're achieving these results without any funding support whatsoever from Government or its agencies."

On June 26, after its third week of broadcast, Maori Television reported that its UHF viewership for viewers aged five-plus nationwide had "settled back" to 249,000.

Mr Blackman says the cume results are even more laudable because, unlike other niche television and radio broadcasters, regional television appears to have been dismissed as unworthy of funding support by the Government and NZ on Air despite the pledges of successive Ministers of Broadcasting and statements in Labour Party Broadcasting manifestos to support regional television. Not a drop of funding has ever been received by regional broadcasters.

"Because of this we are often asked how we survive. Triangle Television relies solely on a limited amount of support from generous viewers, a minimal amount of advertising which has to conform to the channel's non-commercial status, and our programme providers who pay a broadcast fee as their contribution to overheads so we can continue to broadcast."

The cume results are based on the TV2 sales area which covers a far wider area than the Auckland urban region and includes parts of Northland.

In July Triangle Television added to its already wide broadcasting area in the Auckland Region by broadcasting in Remuera, One Tree Hill, Ellerslie, Newmarket and parts of Mt Eden, bringing its total potential audience to more than a million viewers.

Triangle Television is Auckland's only regional, non-commercial television station and has operated as a public broadcaster to Greater Auckland since August 1 1998. The channel screens a mix of regional-access television with international news and information programmes. It is non-profit making and operates with no funding from NZ On Air. Triangle broadcasts 24 hours daily from UHF channel 41.

ENDS

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