MEDIA BRIEF
ATTENTION 31 JULY 2003

Juice TV goes free-to-air with 500,000th music video

Juice TV will mark the broadcast of its half millionth music video at 12pm on Saturday 2 August in a special way – by going free-to-air.

The New Zealand owned music channel, which broadcast its first music video on Sky’s digital platform on 1 November 1998, will extend its existing viewership in over 400,000 Sky TV digital homes, by going free-to-air in the Auckland region on UHF channel 57.

Juice TV General Manager Patrick McAteer says the securing of a free-to-air frequency has been a long-held goal for the Network.

“Taking Juice TV free-to-air is something we’ve always wanted to do,” he says. “Our viewers demand a dedicated 24 hour music channel and finally we have the opportunity to offer it to New Zealand’s biggest market, free-to-air

“Broadcasting free-to-air is a logical step for us because it opens up music television to a whole lot more people and gives New Zealand bands a much bigger platform to launch their careers from. We’re pretty excited about that,” says McAteer.

More than 150,000 of the half million music videos played on Juice TV have been by New Zealand artists, with local band the feelers “Pressure Man” video being the first ever played on Juice TV.

Nearly 5 years and 499,999 music videos later, the feelers “Pressure Man” will rack up another first as the first music video played free-to-air on Juice TV.

Already more than 180,000 New Zealanders watch Juice TV on Sky Digital channel 30 every week. The new Auckland region UHF frequency means a further 1 million viewers can now tune into Juice TV.

Mr McAteer says 86% of Auckland homes will be able to tune into Juice TV’s free-to-air signal on UHF channel 57. “All anyone needs to get free Juice TV is a pair of bunny ears plugged into their telly,” he says.

Mr McAteer says Juice TV remains committed to dedicating more than 25% of its schedule to New Zealand music, and has plans for new shows and live-to-airs to increase the exposure of New Zealand acts on the station.

“We’re in this business to see more New Zealand music on television, and more New Zealanders able to access the very best in music TV,” he says.

Juice TV will broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week on UHF channel 57 from BCL’s Waiatarua transmitter in the Waitakere Ranges, the main TV transmitter for Auckland. The station is already in negotiations with BCL for free-to-air frequencies in other centres.

As well as broadcasting live-to-air in the Auckland region, Juice TV will continue to broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week on channel 30 on Sky TV’s digital platform. Juice TV’s sister channel J2 will continue to broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week on channel 31 on Sky TV’s digital platform.

For further information contact:
Patrick McAteer
General Manager, Juice TV Network