Dub dot dash

ALT TV collapse leave $3 million debt
NZ Herald's John Drinnan looks into the collapse of ALT TV here.
Excerpt... The Herald "reported problems on January 23, when the four shareholders Thane Kirby, Ricky Newby, Oliver Driver and David Kennedy passed shares to a company controlled by Easy Factors.
Easy Factors approached staff to try and turn the company around in one month, but without success.
Kirby - who moved the channel from a weak free-to-air Auckland frequency on to the Sky digital platform - insisted in January the channel was sound and there were no financial issues relating to the owners' exit..

...A secured creditor - the channel's financier Easy Factors - is owed $1.8 million. Liquidator Anthony Harris said prospects for a dividend being paid to unsecured creditors owed $1.36 million were "remote".
The liquidators' report listed 19 known creditors. Among them are Sky TV, state-owned Kordia, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, AC Nielsen, and the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand, believed to be related to unpaid music royalties."


I remember seeing all the amazing old videos ALT TV dug up when they started out on free-to-air tv, and thinking "wow, they must be paying a ton in royalties for all these rare videos." Looks like they weren't paying a dime.

Drinnan also notes that "Television New Zealand is understood to be interested in buying the Alt TV brand to start the channel anew on the Freeview digital platform. A youth music channel would make sense for TVNZ, helping them to pick up younger people who are boosting viewership for MediaWorks' C4."