Mediaworks Welcomes Govt’s Support For Pacific TV

Mediaworks Welcomes Government’s Support For Pacific Television Channel

MediaWorks TV, operators of TV3 and C4, has welcomed the Government’s policy announcement supporting a free-to-air Pacific TV channel.

“This is an initiative we have been developing for a couple of years, when we realised the Pacific Island community in New Zealand was not being catered for by television and we decided to do something about it,” MediaWorks CEO Brent Impey said.

“We formed a group of specialists to develop the concept: Pauline Winter (Former, Chair Pacific Business Development Trust); Innes Logan (publisher Spasifik Magazine); Oscar Kightley (writer and performer); and John Barnett (CEO South Pacific Pictures),” he said.

The working group spokeswoman Pauline Winter said the proposal for the concept was put to Government earlier this year, and was warmly received.

“We are very pleased our initiative has been turned into a policy position, and we look forward to the project being funded through New Zealand on Air. We have put an enormous amount of planning into this project, and MediaWorks has been very supportive from day one.” said Ms Winter.

“The South Pacific channel means a significant group of New Zealanders can look forward to seeing their culture fully represented in the form of a dedicated free-to-air TV channel,” she said.

The channel would aim to be up and running in 2010, screening free-to-air on the Freeview platform.

ends

© Scoop Media