It’s easier than ever for Kiwis to watch TVNZ shows with today’s launch of a revamped tvnz.co.nz bringing together Live TV and OnDemand viewing.

TVNZ now live streams all its channels – giving viewers the option to view 1, 2 and DUKE on devices at the same time as on air broadcast – and offers local TV shows, Live sports, 1 NEWS, international dramas, box sets, movies and short form videos, all for free OnDemand.

“The big growth trends among New Zealand viewers are the demand for video and viewing on mobile devices, and we’re responding to this by bringing them together on tvnz.co.nz.” said TVNZ Chief Executive Kevin Kenrick.

“It’s all about giving viewers the choice and control – whether they want to watch broadcast TV, time shifted TV, TV streamed on a mobile device, Live or OnDemand,” he says.

Features of the new mobile optimised site include simplified navigation, a new video player and smarter integration for social feeds and content.

TVNZ is extending the amount of time its programmes are available online. “We’re giving people more time to watch episodes before they expire, more box sets and more stacking of episodes one after the other, so viewers can watch at their own pace,” says Kevin Kenrick.

Viewers can work their way through whole seasons of cutting edge dramas Clique and Cleverman (season 2 arrives 3 July), and all four feature length episodes of Oliver Stone’s The Putin Interviews – all new and exclusive to tvnz.co.nz.

TVNZ will be on more streaming devices with a Chromecast app set to launch next month, followed by an Apple TV app later this year, says TVNZ.

TVNZ is available on the following supported devices:• Apple iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus; Apple iPod Touch iOS9; Apple iPad 2, 3, 4, iPad Air, iPad Air 2; Apple iPad Mini, Mini 2, Mini 3, Mini 4 (iOS9 and above)• Apple AirPlay• Android devices including the Samsung Galaxy S7, Edge, and Tab A 10.1 (Android version 4.3 and above)• Samsung 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Smart TVs and selected models of Smart Blu-ray players and Smart Home Entertainment Systems• FreeviewPlus TVs, set top boxes and MyFreeviewPlus Recorders• Playstation3 & Playstation4• Microsoft Surface and Mobile• Xbox One

Coming soon: Chromecast (July).

TVNZ Live streams are available in high definition at 720p resolution.

| A TVNZ release  || June 26,  2017   |||

Promo emails in middle of Mother of All Hacking Attacks

 What was Spark thinking when on Sunday it released to its Xtra email subscribers a promo message from its entertainment operation Lightbox?

The emergency over the global WannaCry hack was sounded at 2030 hrs on the Friday just before. This should have conveyed the message to the entertainment subsidiary that this was most definitely not the time to start a mass promo over email –especially over your own circuits. And have given the unit plenty of time to intercept any such planned scheme. Several days, in fact.

But out the customised marketing email went out on Sunday......by which time the rest of the world was convulsed by the new intruder emergency which this time demanded pay-off for unfreezing users’ computer data.

The Lightbox marketing invitation was ironically entitled “Laugh, cry and escape this Mother’s Day.”

Many Xtra users are unaware that Lightbox is a Spark product.

The email greeted the Xtra customer by their first name and continued-

“This Mother’s Day make a cup of tea, grab the comfiest chair in the house and settle in for some entertaining television.

"Laugh and cry with other people’s families in Better Things, Life Unexpected, Outrageous Fortune and everyone’s favourite and colourful Modern Family.

Don’t forget the biscuits!”

Meanwhile MSC Newswire has received an explanation from Spark over our report of the scam email over Xtra demanding passwords that used in its subject line these words: “Dear Xtra Spark Email User “

Spark notes that the email address rogers.com is a Canadian telco –making very hard for spam filters to detect and block this. This is a very common attack vector for scam emails, because they are more likely to get past filters and into your inbox. Such emails “phishing” emails, because they are fishing for information and- the goal of this email is to get you to respond with personal or sensitive information so they can steal from you or defraud you.

“We have some information about how these work and what you can do on our website - http://www.spark.co.nz/help/internet-email/troubleshooting/what-is-phishing-spoofing-spam/”

Netsafe is also recommended : https://www.netsafe.org.nz/phishing/

MSC Newswire anticipates a response from Spark relating to how in the middle of the WannaCry emergency, a canvassing product email was allowed mass circulation over its own Xtra network.

|  From the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk  ||  Wednesday 17 May 2017   |||

This weekend the largest ever ransomware attack in the world has been hitting computer systems of private and public organisations in hundreds of countries, NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says.

Spread via phishing emails where an email that appears to come from someone people know encourages them to open an attachment or click on a link, only to deposit a small piece of malicious code on your system. The bug looks for machines running unpatched versions of Microsoft Windows and then spreads across your network infecting other machines as it goes, Muller says.

“Called a ransomware as it locks people out of their files and demands a ransom before they can access them again. While the ransom is relatively small at around $NZ430 per computer, the criminals who are collecting the ransom will be making millions having successfully taken down large organisations such as the NHS (UK’s National Health Service), Telefonica and FedEx as well as thousands of smaller businesses.

“As a result, the recently launched New Zealand Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) is getting its first real test this weekend and have provided excellent advice for Kiwis.

“First, don’t open suspicious emails or emails from unknown people. Secondly, ensure that you keep your computer updates up to date. In this case ensure the Microsoft patch (MS17-010) released in March has been installed by running an update. Finally, you can also reduce the risk by blocking international emails for a few days until the wave passes.

“If you do get attacked the only option you have is to pay the ransom or throw away your computer. If you get attacked disconnect from any network you are on to prevent it attacking someone else. If you are running a computer with Microsoft XP or 2003 operating systems turn it off now as there are no patches available for these older systems.

“For organisations that require further support or more specified advice, we appeal Kiwis and NZ organisations log an incident on the CERT website at cert.govt.nz.

“Cyber-attacks by ransomware have increased by 50 percent in the past year, according to a study by Verizon and the total cost of cyber-attacks has been estimated to worth over $NZ400 billion a year now.”

This is a very low risk yet highly profitable form of crime but Muller says not to expect it to go away. In fact, it will only get worse until we learn how to be better at keeping our systems up to date and not responding to random emails, he says.

|  A MakeLemonade release  ||  May 14, 2017   |||

Indicates need to distinguish between what is known and what is hoped for

The two newspaper companies always gave the appearance of being confident that they could win over to their way of thinking the Commerce Commission?They made the mistake, so evident now, of believing in their own assumption to the effect that the Commerce Commission would see the merger positively.

What were the contrary signals from the Commission that they missed?The Commerce Commission’s point of view in its rejection of the first draft of the merger proposal turned on several doctrinal, ideological, words that indicated that it was not for turning.

What were these words?Democracy, plurality and above all, diversity.

Why diversity?The loaded word runs through the Commission’s deliberations in a now clearly visible thread. It means that people considerations carry clear priority over any competing considerations in this case those of efficiency, economy of scale and so on.......

Why did the two companies go to the Commerce Commission in the first place? Would it not have been more effective to have simply concocted a new structure with a holding company?The Wellington and Auckland based companies had their hearts set on a single merged New Zealand company with a consolidated balance sheet and all that goes with it such as just one management structure.

Until quite recently the two companies worked closely together with a cooperative news pool and joint advertising sales promotion – why didn’t they just carry on as a de facto cooperative?This cooperative structure began to dissolve when the two newspaper groups came into play during the stock market bubble. The old proprietorial families moved away and were replaced by professional managers.

Where and when did they lose the plot?In their search of their competitive edge they opted for going it alone and thus they acted independently now in terms of their own evolving individual web sites and also in acquisitions. They dissolved their news gathering and dissemination cooperative, the New Zealand Press Association. Also abandoned now were certain geographic areas in which they had long agreed not to compete with one another.

Did they underestimate what the internet was going to do to them?At first the internet looked even promising. There were new personalities, celebrities that people wanted to read about. Covering the internet brought in the coveted younger demographic. Let’s look back. When television arrived in New Zealand the newspapers actually benefitted, and the Sunday papers were now launched to satisfy the interest in the new world of television

What happened with the internet?The internet instead now ushered in the era of disintermediation which is still accelerating all around us. People want to deal direct, sweep away the middle operator, the mainstream media, which had hitherto controlled the gateway to news coverage. You want an event covered?You go to Facebook. You want something known – there’s Twitter. You have an opinion? Then you start a blog. You have a range of points you want to air? Start your own website.

There are also any amount, at least 50, broadcasting channels available now. Plenty of competition you would think?The Commerce Commission took a narrower view of this scene than the newspaper managements jointly appeared to appreciate. The Commerce Commision’s verdict centred on most of the nation’s daily newspapers being held in a single set of corporate hands, and the perception thereof.

The daily newspapers published by the two groups are often considered to say the same thing about the same things anyway?The Commission concerned itself with the perception. In this case the perception of most of the dailies being controlled by just the one proprietor. It was now at the first decision that there was introduced the notion that New Zealand if the merger went through would convey a similar perception as that of China in that the press in China is controlled by just the one entity, the Communist Party. The signal was clear. It was not picked up.

The Commission’s second and seemingly last veto was delivered at the very start of International Free Press Day. Was this symbolic?Perhaps – and just because in this attenuated affair so much can be viewed as turning on symbols and perceptions.

What happens now?The two newspaper groups, the ones based in Auckland and Wellington must wash their minds of further approaches, appeals, to constituted authority including now the judiciary, and they must do so primarily on the grounds of sidestepping any further distractions. The danger of a strategic assumption, in this case that the Commerce Commission would approve the merger, is just that it is so enticing just because it makes the transition from supposition to reality. The wish becomes the fact.

In practical terms, this means....?The two groups will have to rearrange themselves around a new corporate structure and one that stops just short of a unified balance sheet. The daily newspaper business, an extremely marginal one, is riddled with intensive and in-built administration procedures especially on the subscriber and circulation side where there are stop-starts that can only be automated up to a certain point. They must now merge these departments. They must merge too their printeries.

They will have to be more radical than that, given their falling circulations?They will have to adopt a new business model and my feeling is that they will develop a franchise model which has already been experimented with by at least one rural newspaper management buyout. Print is relatively strong in the provinces. A franchise move will allow the two groups to develop their centralised services and will dilute the liability also of their substantial staff contingencies.

What about the hedge funds and such like said to be lurking in the middle distance?The two newspaper groups began to go heavily into play in the 80s bubble and will have been stripped by now of hard asset value i.e. real estate. So they are unlikely to be a target for speculators.

We keep hearing about the Auckland and Wellington-based groups. But what about the third proprietor, the one in Dunedin?The Smith family who control the Otago Daily Times group kept it within the family. They are a force to be reckoned with and in the affair under discussion remain the dog that did not bark. Or, if it did, was not heard by anyone. They remain in an envious competitive situation notably now dominating the high value tourist region centred on Queenstown.

What would you recommend that the two beleaguered would-be North Island-based suitors NOT do?Cut the frequency of any of their dailies to let us say three issues a week. The disruptive force of the internet and everything that came with it was to break the newspaper-reading habit. This custom so dominant until just so recently can only be further disrupted by meddling with the frequency of established daily titles.

One has this impression, somehow, of unfinished business. Was anything held back by any one of the parties involved?The episode was characterised by candour. It was just that the two parties looked at the same thing, the merger scheme, and each saw something that was quite different.

Your full hindsight?The two groups should have pulled back after the first round when the Commission’s viewpoint was made clear. They should have done so issuing high-minded yet truthful communiques about the severity of their position, and their continuing determination to better the lot of the public at large. In the event they appeared resentful and so their task in formulating a virtual amalgamation will be harder than before.

|  From the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ||  Sunday 7 May 2017   |||

Spark has launched PureCloud, a new customer experience system by Genesys, to help New Zealand businesses manage and service their customers more seamlessly and affordably over the cloud, keeping on top of rising demand for smarter customer experiences.

The new subscription-based contact centre infrastructure brings together inbound and outbound calling, email, webchat, social media, and fax (for those using it), enabling customer interactions to be viewed and managed as single, unbroken journeys across platforms.

Richard Adams, GM Solutions for Spark Digital, said this is the kind of experience customers are growing to expect from businesses:

"More and more, people expect to be able to determine how and when they get in touch with a company, and they expect the experience to be unbroken, regardless of the way in which they make contact.

"We wanted to help New Zealand businesses keep ahead of this growing demand from their customers with a system that would be easy to adopt, affordable to run, and that would make things easier for businesses as well as their customers. PureCloud does all this and more, so we’re thrilled to be bringing it to our customers."

PureCloud comes with enterprise grade security, regular updates and real-time customer information. It can be adopted with just a headset and an internet connection and, being cloud based, enables business continuity through disruptive events such as natural disasters.

PureCloud is available at www.sparkdigital.co.nz/solutions/collaboration/purecloud-contactcentre/.

|  A Spark release  ||  April 05, 2017   |||

By-product of Marcom build up

Vodafone has joined in the online media gold rush by what it describes as “launching its own news website.”

The New Zealand subsidiary of the British mobiles telco in recent times has swelled its marketing communications force with television, business, and IT sector journalists.

The company’s “news” website meanwhile resembles an online version of the once familiar IT sector marketing support instrument, the house magazine.

The company’s news site hardly surprisingly features Vodafone in its community role.

Notably with emphasis on its participation in the post–earthquake Christchurch reconstruction participation.

Also its ability to deploy helpful rapid support services in Oceania.

The marcom by-product news site at this stage does represent though a potential challenge to the IT trade press.

This is dominated in New Zealand by International Data, a US publishing, survey, and events operator which publishes under licence here with such titles as Computerworld, CIO, and PC World.

According to Vodafone its “Vodafone News will feature behind the scenes video of important developments, offer advice and readable features across a range of topics for consumers as well as insights from leaders in a range of diverse fields.”

A heavily promoted video-voice-words convergence over hand-helds poses a medium to longer term threat to the media at large.

This is because by definition it targets the younger market, the one which increasingly relies exclusively on palm tops of various descriptions as access to news that it can use.

Since the heyday of IT recruitment advertising, as significant in its era as property advertising is now, the print proprietors have pretty much given up on targeted IT news, absorbing it into their general business sections.

Vodafone is not the first retail telco provider to move into the wider news sector.

Telecom was first off the mark with an authentic diversified aggregated news site for its Xtra users. This was then subsumed into Yahoo which expanded the already comprehensive localised curated coverage.

For reasons that remain unexplained this long established open site remains un-ballyhooed.

In this reticence may lie the gap that Vodafone has identified.

|  From the MSCNewsWire reporters'  |  19 March 2017  ||

Co-venturing Wellington and Auckland universities will rub collegiate shoulders with world’s major production engineer

General Motors subsidiary Holden’s arrival in Newsroom as founder-backer of the online information enterprise is GM’s second venture into the New Zealand information sector.

It was New Zealand’s major data processing proprietor when it owned Databank through another of its subsidiaries, Electronic Data Systems.

Databank at this time was considered the southern hemisphere’s pre-eminent non-governmental data processing operation in terms of capacity.

GM’s return this year to the New Zealand information sector carries value through the early involvement in it also of the University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington.

GM internationally is accelerating its recruitment of information technology graduates and its ground-floor involvement with the two universities will give it a special advantage in talent-spotting.

The auto manufacturer originally entered the information sector when it acquired Electronic Data Systems from Ross Perot of US presidential race fame.

With Electronic Data Systems now came New Zealand’s Databank at that time the world’s first and most successful nationwide cheque-clearing cooperative.

General Motors began to shed its non-core investments such as Electronic Data Systems and thus Databank as Asian manufacturers continued to pour on the competition.

Its new cat’s paw into the public dissemination sector of the information business in New Zealand through the Newsroom co-seeding also presents a valuable opportunity to the two universities involved, the ones in Auckland and Wellington.

This will be to take advantage of the commercial collegiate opportunity of rubbing shoulders as co-venturers with a research and development investing production engineer of this magnitude.

A constant problem for New Zealand universities has been to get on a working level with this category of production engineering multinational.

The indirect solution via the Newsroom joint involvement indicates a working opportunity that has consistently eluded New Zealand universities in the co-development sphere.

If the association looks a fruitful creative mix in automotive/academic terms then the news venture promoters could well find themselves with sufficient additional investment allowing them to take their foot off the paywall accelerator.

New Zealand browsers continue to exhibit a reluctance to pay for a service that they consider part of the free model.

|  From the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk  |  Fidy 17 March 2017  ||

2017’s already been identified by Vodafone as the year of data explosion, with Kiwis using more and more of it to stay up to date.

But it’s not just being chewed up by the binge-watching habits that online-only series like Netflix’s Stranger Things brings about.

Kiwis are still just as interested in what’s happening around them, and the video and stories giving insight into their changing world.

In fact, hyper levels of mobility in how we consume news - and how often we expect updates - appears to have increased the appetites of everyday readers.

That’s all part of why Vodafone New Zealand is launching its own news website, offering a behind the scenes look into the work the company’s involved in, its people, and the latest trends in technology, industry and community developments.

Chief Executive Russell Stanners said, "Ever increasing levels of connectivity create an expectation that we need to share what’s going on, and we want to get the latest stories, in many instances, direct from those at the centre of what’s happening.

"At the same time this truly is the age of the customer - they’re digitally savvy, empowered by the technology - and they want to understand who they’re dealing with, at a deeper level," he added.

Vodafone News will feature behind the scenes video of important developments, offer advice and readable features across a range of topics for consumers as well as insights from leaders in a range of diverse fields.

Russell Stanners said, "At Vodafone we’re at the forefront of innovation, and Kiwis want to know what we think about topics that are important to them.

"We want to get our story out, we’re proud of what our people are achieving, and so much is set to change in technology trends this year, we want to make sure people can make sense of it all," he added.

People are consuming news and information constantly these days through a range of mediums, and the days of only reading news from just one or two websites has rapidly declined.

Instead, as the recent U.S election illustrated, consumers will browse a wide range of sources - whether that’s hard copy, online or through social media, to read more about what they’re interested in.

Andrea Brady, Vodafone’s Head of External Communications, believes this shift in media consumption habits, opens the door for customers to experience major projects from the inside.

"There are times when Vodafone is hard at work in areas that you might not expect. A good example is our Instant Network team. They’re our first response team who go into emergencies, when everyone else is fleeing them," she said.

The team deployed a year ago when Fiji declared a state of natural disaster in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Winston, with a series of suitcases and a mobile generator to successfully establish a local communications network.

"They were the first emergency relief to reach Vanua Balavu that had been devastated by the cyclone. Communications were quickly established enabling the village to reach out for medical evacuation for those in need, and so that people could let relieved family members know they were still alive," Andrea said.

Behind the scenes video on Vodafone News paints the picture of how the Instant Network team works, and the powerful impact it can have on communities’ desperately in need.

"There are countless examples of innovation taking place every day in communities and businesses around the country. We’re keen to make sure those get the attention they deserve," Andrea added.

For more information head to https://news.vodafone.co.nz/

|  A Vodafone release  |  March 15, 2017  ||

2017’s already been identified by Vodafone as the year of data explosion, with Kiwis using more and more of it to stay up to date.

But it’s not just being chewed up by the binge-watching habits that online-only series like Netflix’s Stranger Things brings about.

Kiwis are still just as interested in what’s happening around them, and the video and stories giving insight into their changing world.

In fact, hyper levels of mobility in how we consume news - and how often we expect updates, appears to have increased the appetites of everyday readers

That’s all part of why Vodafone New Zealand is launching its own news website, offering a behind the scenes look into the work the company’s involved in, its people, and the latest trends in technology, industry and community developments.

Chief Executive Russell Stanners said, “Ever increasing levels of connectivity create an expectation that we need to share what’s going on, and we want to get the latest stories, in many instances, direct from those at the centre of what’s happening”.

“At the same time this truly is the age of the customer – they’re digitally savvy, empowered by the technology – and they want to understand who they’re dealing with, at a deeper level,” he added.

Vodafone News will feature behind the scenes video of important developments, offer advice and readable features across a range of topics for consumers as well as insights from leaders in a range of diverse fields.

Russell Stanners said, “At Vodafone we’re at the forefront of innovation, and Kiwis want to know what we think about topics that are important to them.

“We want to get our story out, we’re proud of what our people are achieving, and so much is set to change in technology trends this year, we want to make sure people can make sense of it all,” he added.

People are consuming news and information constantly these days through a range of mediums, and the days of only reading news from just one or two websites has rapidly declined.

Instead, as the recent U.S election illustrated, consumers will browse a wide range of sources – whether that’s hard copy, online or through social media, to read more about what they’re interested in.

Andrea Brady, Vodafone’s Head of External Communications, believes this shift in media consumption habits, opens the door for customers to experience major projects from the inside.

“There are times when Vodafone is hard at work in areas that you might not expect. A good example is our Instant Network team. They’re our first response team who go into emergencies, when everyone else is fleeing them,” she said.

The team deployed a year ago this month when Fiji declared a state of natural disaster in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Winston, with a series of suitcases and a mobile generator to successfully establish a local communications network.

“They were the first emergency relief to reach Vanua Balavu that had been devastated by the cyclone. Communications were quickly established enabling the village to reach out for medical evacuation for those in need, and so that people could let relieved family members know they were still alive,” Andrea said.

Behind the scenes video on Vodafone News paints the picture of how the Instant Network team works, and the powerful impact it can have on communities’ desperately in need.

“There are countless examples of innovation taking place every day in communities and businesses around the country. We’re keen to make sure those get the attention they deserve,” Andrea added.The advent of new news – a conversation with customers

| A Vodafone release  |  March 13, 2017  ||

Prev Article

New figures released by Chorus have shed light on New Zealanders’ broadband habits, including the busiest day of the year for surfing the internet.

On an average day, data usage on the Chorus network is at its lowest at 5am and begins to rise between 6am and 8:30am. Usage remains consistent during the day and jumps sharply from 3:30pm.

“It is unlikely to be a coincidence that it’s the same time certain data-hungry members of the family wander in from school,” says Chorus network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers.

“We slow down again over dinner time, and from 7:30pm we climb to our highest usage period of the day – between 8pm and 10:30pm – as we get through one or two Netflix shows, upload the homework or plan our next tropical holiday.

“Daily usage is higher in the weekends and we’re online slightly less at night on weekends too. But if you look at the numbers we’re generally following the same routine every day.”

However, New Zealanders’ online patterns change during the summer holidays.

“A lot of us may have been doing some Christmas shopping on 14 December at 9:30pm as that was the busiest 15 minute period on our network during 2016.”

Average consumption dropped 30 per cent on Christmas Day and more than 40 per cent on New Years’ Eve.

Data consumption in Chorus’ Auckland Central exchange dropped by 25 per cent over the Christmas/New Year break. However, it is likely Aucklanders were not giving up their binge watching, just relocating it, as data use in the Coromandel increased by 44 per cent over the same period.

“Here at Chorus our analysts collect and interpret national and regional data consumption figures to help us plan for and manage traffic flow through our network in the future.

“We need to do that to make sure our national network has the capacity to get everyone’s favourite show to them; whether they’re watching it on the couch at home, or from their favourite holiday spot.

“Interesting trends aside, what these numbers are overwhelmingly telling us is that as a nation our average data use is growing fast. As a country we chewed through 1.5 exabytes (or 1,500,000,000 gigabytes) of data last year. That’s a lot of information, emails, movies, music, and more being bundled and carried all over the country.”

Despite the growing role of broadband in our lives, about 60 percent of homes and businesses on the Chorus network could have a better broadband connection and a more enjoyable online experience, often at no extra cost.

People can check here to make sure they are on the best broadband available.

|  A Chorus release  |  February 14, 2017  ||