Prime to Move Down the Freeview Dial
February 15, 2023 
5 Comments
Freeview is shifting Prime from channel 10 to channel 15 so Whakaata Māori’s Te Reo channel can take over its slot in a bid to boost viewership.
The higher up the dial, the more likely viewers are to watch a channel, which is why TVNZ and Warner Bros. Discovery occupy the first four positions with their channels while Whakaata Māori is fifth from the top.
The changeover will happen on March 1, which is when Prime+1 will launch on Freeview channel 21 for viewers who tune in to Freeview via satellite and viewers who stream Freeview.
It will occur nearly a year after Freeview’s last reconfiguration of its channels.
“Swapping the Prime and Te Reo channels supports our shareholder Whakaata Māori’s efforts to make te reo Māori more accessible to a wider audience in Aotearoa, by increasing its prominence within the channel list to help it grow its audience,” a Freeview spokesperson says.
“We had intended to do this alongside the changes made a year ago but it wasn’t possible at the time.
“Prime is an important channel for Freeview viewers and we have to manage the change appropriately.
“With all the preparations now having been made, we’re able to complete the channel updates.”
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February 15, 2023 at 8:31 pm
What? Why is Maori more important than Prime? This makes no logical sense and shows that Maori is taking over this country!
Sky has never been overly committed to Freeview (remember how long it took to get them on FV in the first place) and have always felt like the odd one out. I do wonder if Sky threatened to pull it entirely from the service again…
Prime should atleast be given the channel 7 or 9 slots currently occupied by plus1 channels. Sky should formally join Freeview to give Prime a better ratings shot. Glad they’ve seen some sense to officially launch its plus1 channel on the platform.
So there would be no Prime on Freeview like they did in 2007.
With Prime being the first channel to add its plus 1 channel to streaming, Philip, is there any time frame for when the other networks will add their plus 1 channels to the Freeview streaming platform? I know they ruled out doing it because of their respective on-demand services having catch-up which would negate having their plus 1 channels via Freeview streaming. It’s interesting that Prime has embraced having their channel become the first to do so.