With the late but imminent release of Igloo in New Zealand, which is a broadband and UHF digital service, it’s worth comparing it to the new YouView service in the UK.
YouView is an extension beyond the UK Freeview service, and has 70 free digital TV channels. Freeview UK has about 50. But YouView also has a fully integrated week of catchup TV incorporated into the episode guide and apart from download costs its free to access. There are also paid movies available for download.
Igloo is not 70 free channels, but it’s the Freeview channels + 11 prepaid Sky channels, plus a pay per view channel, and downloadable movies and TV. What it doesn’t have is the integrated 7 days of catch-up TV.
DVB-T/DVB-T2 digital UHF plus a broadband connection could be pretty cool. Igloo is DVB-T/DVB-T2 Digital UHF plus a broadband connection plus a credit card.
Igloo say they are making an exciting platform for the coming decades for NZ TV. I bet within a couple years its going to be seen as a bit naf. The best thing to possibly happen to NZ TV after getting a proper public broadcaster setup, would be to get the common satellite channels like RT, DW, Al Jazeera English, NHK World and Arirang relayed onto Freeview to take up any spare broadcasting slots, and to take over the bandwidth used by the next to useless TV3+1 and TV ONE +1 wastes of electricity. RT and Al Jazeera English are included on YouView in the UK. France News 24 is also pretty good, as is Channel News Asia.
