Tech Investment In Tvnz News & Current Affairs

MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday 24 August 2000 For immediate release

SIGNIFICANT TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT IN TVNZ NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The TVNZ Board has today decided on a significant technology investment in TVNZ’s News and Current Affairs.

It has approved the introduction of a computer-based operation designed to move news and current affairs programmes away from their current reliance on videotapes and provide simultaneous content to multiple customers on multiple platforms.

TVNZ Chairman, Ross Armstrong, says today's decision, along with the earlier announcement of seven new specialist reporting roles and the opening of a regional news bureau covering the Central North Island, is a clear signal that TVNZ is investing in its news and current affairs future.

With 260 editorial staff including camera crews throughout the country, TVNZ is New Zealand's leading news organisation covering the whole of the country.

"The Board is concerned to ensure that valuable television material is not only captured and preserved but is also made available to as many people as possible in the most timely and effective ways, including all the new delivery systems emerging in the converging communications environment," he says.

TVNZ Chief Executive, Rick Ellis, says through this investment TVNZ will be at the forefront of international news and current affairs technology.

"It will have a significant impact on improved quality, efficiency and speed because programmes and other applications will no longer have to wait in line until tapes become available."

Once the system is up and running next year, tape material, live footage and satellite feeds will go into a central computer where it will be stored.

"Video and sound images will be made available simultaneously to a number of users. For example two or three programmes, such as One News, 60 Minutes and Face the Nation will be able to access and edit the same material at the same time, as well as it being made available concurrently to internet sites such as nzoom.com and new services such as information over mobile phones."

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