__NOTOC__
ALT TV was a
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
broadcast, privately owned and operated 24-hour live-to-air music TV, which aired from 2006 to 2009 and was seen on SKY Digital channel 065. In March 2009, the company was placed into liquidation and the channel went off-air.
ALT TV's most recent slogan was 'Know Good Television.' Their previous slogan was 'Actual Music Television.'
Created by Thane Kirby (founder of
George FM
George FM is a New Zealand dance music radio station, owned and operated by MediaWorks from its Hargreaves Street headquarters and relayed on Freeview and radio frequencies around New Zealand. Its seventy-five regular presenters and additional ...
) and Ricky Newby (creator of music festival Deep Hard 'n Funky), it was launched in Auckland on UHF channel 62 on 14 November 2005. The television station also started screening on SKY Digital Channel 36 on Friday, 1 December 2006, later moving to SKY Digital Channel 65 on 1 March 2007. By early 2009 it was under new management. On 4 March 2009 Sky TV stopped transmitting the channel over its digital satellite (DVB-S) service, replacing it with an image stating that ALT TV is no longer available in Sky Digital. The last song played to air was 'The End' by The Doors. While the Sky feed ceased, the web streams were still operational at this time. On 18 March 2009, a liquidator was appointed and ALT TV placed into liquidation. On 27 March 2009, the liquidators first report stated: "Reason for failure: substantial and consistent trading losses sustained". Finally on 28 March 2009, ALT's website went offline along with the
FLV
Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital video content (e.g., TV shows, movies, etc.) over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are t ...
streaming indexers.
ALT TV catered for the alternative demographic which some consider a response to the growing commercialism in other New Zealand Music channels such as
C4 and
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
. ALT TV supported niche musical genres as well as
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
,
indie
Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Gaming
*Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies
*Indie game, any game (board ...
,
old school Rap &
hip-hop,
heavy metal,
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
, Soul,
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
, alt
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
,
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
,
hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
,
glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...
, 1980s,
house
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
,
drum n bass
Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-b ...
and
classic rock
Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...
.
ALT TV supported New Zealand music and featured a high degree of unsigned and amateur content, including interviews, music videos and features of unsigned local bands. ALT TV was known for its intentionally unprofessional and unpolished style which is a common feature amongst most of their volunteer presenters and crew members. ALT TV would play Music Videos and performances sent in by local bands, thus being a launching ground for talent which would otherwise be ignored by commercial radio.
At last count ALT TV had around 424,000 monthly viewers and around 50 live to air shows, the highest number of live content in New Zealand. In March 2008 they began a search for a confident topless news anchor to host their upcoming Marquis Condoms' Naked News Flash show for 3 months. Lisa Lewis became the eventual host and completed her 3-month contract, however ALT TV and Marquis decided not to renew the show.
Former show line up
Breach of Broadcasting Standards
On 6 February 2007 ALT TV broadcast the Groove in the Park musical event, and viewers could send in text messages which were then shown on screen. ALT TV engaged a censor to moderate the text messages before they were broadcast. However, the censor was drunk and failed to perform this role for five hours during the broadcast. As a result, offensive messages with sexual and racial content were broadcast.
The
Broadcasting Standards Authority
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA; mi, Te Mana Whanonga Kaipāho) is a New Zealand Crown entity created by the Broadcasting Act 1989 to develop and uphold standards of broadcasting for radio, free-to-air and pay television.
The main f ...
ruled on 10 October 2007 that ALT TV breached broadcasting standards. As punishment BSA ordered the channel to broadcast an apology and a summary of the BSA decision for five hours on 22 October 2007 instead of its regular programming. This was the first time the BSA has made a channel stop broadcasting.
The BSA also fined the channel the maximum of $5000.
Following this ALT changed the censorship rating of many of their evening programming to a rating of '16' even when the content was not of an adult nature.
TV3 News
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References
External links
Official Site (now defunct)
Official myspace page, not updated since mid-2008, last login states: "15/08/2008"
24Hour Media TV
{{Channels on Sky TV
Defunct New Zealand television channels
Television channels and stations established in 2005
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2009