17 January 2005
By Tom Pullar-Strecker

Radio New Zealand expects to step into the mainstream of online news
publishing in February or March.

The state-owned broadcaster signalled in April that it planned to spend
hundreds of thousands of dollars expanding its online presence and letting
people listen to broadcasts at a time of their choosing over the web.

Chief executive Peter Cavanagh told a select committee that the website
redevelopment was in its second phase and progress has been "wonderful".

Its revamped website will include online news, "some basic information about
weather and finance" and "enriched information about programmes", he says.

This may include information that might be "some gateway to website links
that our researchers have come across in producing programmes that we think
our listeners might be interested in".

Mr Cavanagh says "audio-on-demand" will put the control of the radio
schedule in the hands of the listener.

"I have very actively championed this project because I believe having a
good, solid online service is now a fundamental part of core business for
public service broadcasters.

"It is a bit unreasonable in this day and age when people are so time poor
and they are under so much pressure to rely on them to be available to
listen when we can broadcast programming live."

The audio-on-demand service is estimated to cost $259,000 to set up and
$360,000 a year to run.

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