"It is not as if there is a security guard [on our channel] saying show us your gender before we let you in,

TVNZ boss Kevin Kenrick is taking on the world's biggest players in online viewing with the planned launch of a new "male-skewed" channel

The state broadcaster's chief executive admits it represents an attempt to reclaim young male viewers who have abandoned traditional television.

Asked about young men who had turned to illegal downloads and overseas online broadcasters for their viewing, Kenrick said: "I think we should have a viable option for them".

DAVID WHITE/FAIRFAX NZ TVNZ have announced plans to launch a "male-skewed" television channel.

The yet-to-be-named channel will launch later this year with chiefly imported content and will be live-streamed by TVNZ, but will also be available through Sky's platform.

READ MORE:

* Is TVNZ's boys club 'herding' us into boxes?

* TV Guide letter calls pregnant TVNZ presenter Jenny-May Coffin an 'eyesore'

* Eyesore' letter about TVNZ's Jenny-May Coffin makes global headlines

* Paula Penfold: Don't belly-shame Jenny-May Coffin

* TVNZ staff told to look less glamorous

Kenrick said if it was a success, TVNZ would consider other online-based channels in the future: "Let's focus on first things first, but if this is outrageously successful, we will all be climbing over each other to do more."

Kenrick would not reveal any of the planned programmes - although they would include comedy, drama, sport, movies and documentaries - a launch date, or a name for the new channel, but said most content would be imported and some could crossover from TV1 and TV2. They would be "very responsive" to viewer feedback.

It's clear TVNZ don't see this as a direct tilt at TV3 or Sky, their traditional competition, but at the emerging raft of online players, such as Netflix and Lightbox: "We really view our major competitors as being global online players," Kenrick said.

He denied the timing was linked to the perceived turmoil at Mediaworks, owners of TV3, and asked about Sky, Kenrick said: "I think Sky are probably doing a good job relative to others in the market when it comes to male audiences."

"We are pretty confident there is a gap in the market: we have got the number one and number two most watched channels in the country, and both these and the other players tend to skew probably 60-40 female to male.

"When we talk to advertisers and do our own research, we think there is an opportunity there ... I wouldn't assume we are the only ones to see it as an opportunity and really have a crack at it."

Kenrick said his new channel would skew 60-40 towards men, and younger men, but downplayed perceptions it would be a men's-only zone.

While he hadn't watched Sky TV's recently-launched Discovery Turbo, he said that judging by the promotion of the motoring-themed channel "it was very blokey, very male - we are talking something that skews male as opposed to something as far down the track as they have gone".

"It is not as if there is a security guard [on our channel] saying show us your gender before we let you in, we think it will have broad appeal and we will leave it up to the viewers to decide if they will watch it."

Kym Niblock, chief executive of online service Lightbox, said she expected TVNZ would now be in the market for live-action shows like Ice Road Truckers and said there had been big successes offshore with male-skewed channels like Britain's Dave, which carries the tagline "the home of witty comedy banter".

"Anything that brings niche content to customers is a good thing," Niblock said. "There's always room to aggregate for people's interests - the old model of programming at a base level for a broad blanket of people, which is clearly what TVNZ has to do, leaves out a huge slab of the audience who are regularly turning elsewhere to get their needs met".

Niblock doubted younger viewers would be interested in the new channel, saying they were pursuing edgier, sometimes-illegal and very niche content of the type provided by the youth network Vice.

* Comments on this article have now closed.