Auckland.Scoop
Happy Christmas for most of us, but not for everyone this year.

Pattrick Smellie of BusinessDesk puts it pretty astutely:

One thing New Zealand, let alone Canterbury, didn’t need right now was another big shake. Right on Christmas at the end of a year that’s been bloody tough on so many fronts.

In his moving essay which is titled “Good one, a Christmas earthquake”, he’s optimistic, more or less:

These seismic events are well insured. It may take a long time, because no one wants to rebuild something they have to repair immediately, but the money is there for reconstruction. The country insured itself pretty well against one major disaster. What we don’t need now is something like a volcano in Auckland, while we build the funds back up.

Take a deep breath and consider his summary:

There’s not much we can do for Canterbury except keep working hard, loving our families, remaining compassionate, and not forgetting you.

On a different level, there’s much sadness about the loss of the bravely independent and distinctively diverse free-to-air television channel Stratos, which pulled the plug on its transmissions on the same day as the earthquakes, leaving a blank screen on the Freeview charts.

The Stratos people started 12 years ago with Triangle Television, which continues to broadcast on the analogue system, but only in Auckland. Triangle was seen in Wellington till March 2009, when they stopped transmitting because they couldn’t afford the transmission fees set by the government’s Kordia agency.

Then they created Stratos, which has been broadcasting its impressive range of programmes 24 hours a day nationwide on the terrestrial digital system. But though its audience was reaching a million, again it’s proved too expensive for a small private company without any state support.

Comments on Wellington.Scoop in 2009 are equally relevant today:

Decades ago, the Australian government established the Special Broadcasting Service to give viewers a broader perspective of international news. It continues to pay a big subsidy for this channel. Triangle, with similar programming, has existed without any subsidy at all.

Together with Maori TV, Triangle has been providing the quality “charter” television that the two state-owned TVNZ networks have failed to provide for years.

Stratos continued the Triangle tradition. And now it’s gone.

Labour yesterday issued a shamelessly self-serving statement blaming the government. But Labour had plenty of time when it could have ensured the survival of Stratos. Both political parties share the blame for its demise.

Of course, unless you can receive Triangle, there’s less reason to turn on the TV set today. Happy Christmas, without TV.