Television Breaks Free From the Box

Media Release: 27 April 2008

Television Breaks Free From the Box

From May 1, a day of revolution, ALT TV will be the first New Zealand television station to break free of the limitations traditional broadcasting and stream all its content live and free on the web to audiences here and abroad.

Internet Service Provider Orcon has come to the party and guaranteed hosting high-quality images and killer sound, while APRA & RIANZ have chipped in with licenses for Alt to showcase the best in New Zealand music on screen.

“This is a first for New Zealand television,” says Alt Creative Director Oliver Driver. “For the first time viewers of a television channel will not be chained to bunny ears or set-top boxes and by using a simple internet connection will be able to bypass the big old sets entirely.”

The groundbreaking webcast from www.alttv.co.nz will be launched with one week of wall-to-wall local music coverage to mark the start of New Zealand Music Month. This special will feature exclusive life performance footage and interview with the indie darlings the Phoenix Foundation, Hollie Smith, New Zealand’s clean answer to Amy Winehouse, Europe-bound hipster Lawrence Arabia and the bearded Liam Finn.

Alt’s archives of NZ Music been bolstered by the kindness of the Flying Nun, the demise of the Max TV storeroom and the stations staff and hosts’ excellent existing contacts in the Kiwi independent music scene delivering the old, the new, the inescapable and the unsigned.

The week of 24-hour music will commence with Alt TV’s flagship music show
Alt-ear-oa hosted by CHARLIE ASH’s foxlet Mailee Matthew’s, lining up alongside Alt’s 20 other specialist music shows – covering every genre from pasty white-boy Emo-Rock to homegrown brown Waiata.

Highlights online from Alt TV also include regular programming, such as:

* Let’s Be Frank – Oliver Driver interviews notables in New Zealand’s only long-form television interview show. Previous guests have included John Key, Henry Rollins and Helen Clark. Tuesdays, 8:30pm (Rebroadcast Sundays, 10pm).

* Sunday Newspaper Brunch Club – Media infant terrible Bomber Bradbury and a rotating panel of guests, including Bill Ralston and Willie Jackson, dissect the weekend newspapers over coffee at Verona Café. Sundays, 11am.

* ALT LIVE – ‘The Chris’ interviews the latest touring bands and acts live on K’Rd at 5.30pm

* Naked News Flash – commencing Monday May 12 at 10pm this new show exposes the news of the day in a bulletin that is stripped bare.

ENDS

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