It’s a disgrace that NZers are not seeing any of the live coverage of the Paralympics.
Sky TV pay wall subscribers are only being provided with the highlights of Paralympic events, while coverage for analogue or digital Freeview audiences is limited to items appearing on the six o’clock news shows.
The lack of live coverage of events showcasing the enormous talent of our Paralympians is not only a lost opportunity to provide positive role models for the almost one in five New Zealanders with a disability, but also exposes the glaring gap that public television should be serving.
Why don’t we have live coverage? Because there isn’t a buck in it for the commercial broadcasters (apparently). Because we don’t have a public TV channel that puts public interest and serving the whole community above the commercial interests of the advertisers. Instead, we have a government that does not put a value on public interest broadcasting.
A host of the top Australian politicians are at the London Paralympics this week, and the coverage (live, 16 hours a day on Channel 4) in Britain is the most popular TV. Are any of our politicians at the Paralympics?
I believe in a country that champions and encourages all who try their best to achieve. That is the nation I grew up in and continue to believe in.
I hope when you’re the minister of broadcasting clare you can fix this, I hope you will be able to tell the state broadcasters what they should be showing on TV.
Clare out of interest, when has the Paralympics been live on TVNZ or other ‘public interest’ tv channels in NZ?
You would think that they would show what we want to watch!