Triangle TV Pulls Plug On Wellington Transmission

Triangle Television restructures for future

Triangle Television is pulling the plug on its Wellington transmission from March 31.

Jim Blackman, founder and chief executive of the free-to-air Triangle Television and nationwide channel TriangleStratos Television, says Triangle is not immune to the same economic realities that other TV stations and media are experiencing.

“In fact we have less padding to survive the downturn because unlike other TV services, like the state owned broadcaster, we have to rely on funding from the communities and we receive little from New Zealand on Air,” he says.

Local programming support, funding levels, sponsorship and commercial uptake of the Wellington service has been far lower than hoped for. The Wellington service has also had ongoing transmission problems, which has affected signal strength and viewership in some areas.

“As we do not see this situation improving in the short to medium term our must focus on those areas of our activity which are more viable,” Mr Blackman says. “The good news is that Wellington viewers and producers will still have the option to see the majority of Triangle programming via TriangleStratos, which is available on Sky and Freeview satellite services and Telstra Clear cable. We will also still accept locally made programming from Wellington to broadcast on those platforms.”

Triangle Stratos is available on Freeview Channel 21 and Sky Channel 89. It is also on TelstraClear cable on Channel 89.

Mr Blackman says although the Wellington decision was necessary, overall Triangle and TriangleStratos have been gaining market share as their reputation for offering an alternate voice to New Zealanders on news from around the world spreads. The channels screen news and current affairs services in English from Al Jazeera, Euro News, Deutsche Welle (DW), Voice of America, PBS, McLaughlin Group (US politics), Frost over the World (David Frost) and Tongan, Fijian, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, French, Swiss, Flemish, Greek, Russian, Chinese, Thai and Japanese language news.

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