For the first time in New Zealand, television watchers will be able to view their evening news bulletin presented by a naked female anchor.

Alt TV, which can only be seen on Sky, wants to hire an "articulate" female to strip down and read the autocue for the station's evening Naked News Flash.

Alt TV's creative director and former Shortland Street actor Oliver Driver told Sunday News mainstream that TV news had become a "farce". "So we thought we might as well join them," Driver said.

"I mean TV3 is not happy when they win best journalist, only when they get the best ratings.

"There was more coverage of Gin the otter going missing when in the same week a Korean boy was also gone."

Driver said Alt TV, based on Karangahape Rd, Auckland, was stimulated to produce Naked News Flash: "Because we thought it would be fun and we like doing things the others won't."

He also admitted that the announcement was great for publicity for the station which began two years ago and is now enjoying nationwide coverage.

As queerplanet/GenQ readers would know, having naked anchors read bare facts is not a new concept, as a Toronto-based production company has been producing Naked News since 2000 when it began streaming bulletins over the internet.

Today the show screens in North America, Asia, United Kingdom and Australia.

As to whether Naked News Flash would breach New Zealand broadcasting standards remains unclear.

In 2006 TV2's Eating Media Lunch screened a parodied naked news bulletin featuring two partly dressed presenters who were supposedly having sex while reading the news.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled the segment breached the requirement for good taste and decency. In the ruling, the BSA said the item "overstepped the limits" because of a 30 second masturbation sequence, which was considered "gratuitously explicit, drawn out" and "clearly designed to shock".

BSA chief executive Dominic Sheehan told Sunday News that Alt TV's news show would be investigated if a complaint was received, but would be judged under a separate pay TV channels code.

"Whether it would breach standards is up to the context. We would look at the time of the broadcast, what was shown and what the expectations of the audience were," Sheehan said.

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