Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

Sky Television NZ are preparing to launch their localised version of music and youth channel MTV at 6pm on August the 18th. It's the second try for MTV down under, after State TV's experiment of operating the channel Free to Air ended after just a year (closing down the semi-regional Horizon Pacific Television in the process, and rushing MTV to air as competition for CanWest's new TV4).

Sky say MTV NZ will be "a non-stop 24 hour entertainment channel combining MTV favourites as well as home grown locally produced shows, music and talent". It'll be available on Sky Digital Channel 35, to all subscribers on the 'Start Up' package or better (ie. anyone paying over $46 a month).

The new MTV operation has already employed 22 New Zealand-based staff, and says it plans to expand on that next year. They've taken on Stefan Chapman from More FM to head up the Programming side of things, with Chris Keely being employed as MTV NZ's General Manager.

The new channel will have first run new episodes of Punk’d, as well as the Laguna Beach spin off, The Hills. A new locally produced show Full Tank is promised, which Sky say will "hit the roads in search of the exciting, the kinky, the glamorous and the downright weird". (Free to Air rival C4 will continue to play some MTV-produced shows under its current contract).

Meanwhile, C4 is heading for a revamp as it prepares for the international challenger. Industry rumours suggest the CanWest channel is considering extended its broadcast hours (it currently only runs 4pm to midnight during the week).

C4 is also dropping a number of its specialist music programmes, many of which have been around since its launch in 2003. Locally hosted shows Amp'd, Intellectual Property, Flashbacks, Sound Lab, Holla Hour, and Freestyle are all being dumped from the schedule.

* Scoop: For the first time in NZ’s history MTV is YOURS
* Muzic.net.nz: C4 To Drop Specialist Shows
* Sky TV: MTV NZ