Smart move

Freeview makes a bid to stay in the picture.

- Peter Griffin

If you think free-to-air TV is dead in the era of video streaming platforms, think again.

The country's free-to air TV stations reached 32% of New Zealanders each day in 2021, according to NZ On Air, and those of us watching tune in for about two hours of telly a day.

That's a bigger audience than pay-TV operator Sky (30% and in slow decline). But both are dwarfed by online video - the likes of Netflix, YouTube and on-demand, internet-streamed programmes from TVNZ and Three, which 59% of us watch every day. We all invested as taxpayers in the creation of the Freeview digital network 15 years ago, and it now delivers free-to-air channels via satellite, UHF aerial and streaming over the internet.

The Freeview system is reliable and has worked well. But it has had one glaring omission in recent years: the lack of a live TV streaming app to go alongside all of the other streaming apps that are available on a late-model smart TV.

If you already have a satellite dish or UHF aerial on your roof, that's not a major deal. But we live in the era of the internet. People expect to be able to receive live TV over an internet connection, the same way they stream Netflix and Disney+.