People in and around what remains of ‘public service broadcasting’ are anxious. They have every reason.
Treasury and MCH are scrambling to deliver to Cabinet shortly on Jonathan Coleman’s instruction, made explicit in an OIAed December 22 letter to TVNZ, to find a way “to provide and fund public broadcasting.”
I understand this has seen MCH CEO Lewis Holden visit integrated television/radio newsrooms at the BBC and elsewhere, though Treasury’s Crown Ownership Monitoring Unit is donkey deep.
As the BBC and ABC show, joint operations can work. But not if radio becomes the perpetual poor cousin of television. And that’s almost certainly in prospect under this government. Its track record on broadcasting over the last 20 months – and for many years before – shows palpable contempt for public service broadcasting as a concept.
Now it is faced with the dilemma of what to do once the $79m in funding provided to TVNZ to fund Channels 6 + 7 runs out in 2012. Credit to TVNZ for having made these channels work. I attended the launch last week of the Spotlight on Science series – probably funded for less than Rick Ellis’ Amex bill – but worthy and important television nonetheless. It could not happen without TVNZ stretching its resources to help foster these channels and the Freeview digital platform they support.
Now the explicit instruction to TVNZ is to simply crank up the dividend and nothing else. There’s barely even a ritual bow in the current TVNZ Amendment Bill to New Zealand content, let alone anything vaguely non-commercial. Meantime, it’s handing over its archives and audience share to Sky via the new Heartland channel.
So one option is for Radio NZ’s news and perhaps wider operations to be morphed into TVNZ 7 (and possibly 6). A sort of ‘radio with pictures.’
This is just too important to emerge from a quick circuit of MCH/Treasury/Cabinet before announcement and implementation; especially from a Government with a known loathing for ‘public service broadcasting’, heavyweight Ministers who’ve made their loot in private radio and a clear Cabinet agenda to sell TVNZ when politically possible.
The list of possible losers is substantial:
- Radio NZ, if reporters/broacasters have to service television with little new resource, the current ethos and excellence takes a bath
- The NZ independent production community, if NZ on Air funding is cut to part-fund a new television/radio combine
- TVNZ and TV3, where New Zealand content funded by NZ on Air, helps keep ratings and revenue up against Sky’s increasing penetration
- Those who value Radio NZ and who don’t want it gutted by a fast Government fiat
These issues are far-reaching. They stretch beyond the life of one government. Jonathan Coleman should open them up to submission and input from interested New Zealanders in a genuine process without any pre-determination of the outcome.
Am I hopeful of this? Well here’s a link to an article from one of Britain’s best commentators, Will Hutton, who urges Poms to stick up for the BBC as the new Tory/Libs Government get it in their sights. He argues it’s the last bulwark against rule by the mob
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/25/will-hutton-bbc-democracy-culture
ARGH!
They are butchering our broadcasting! 
I want to see Radio NZ with pictures, not TVNZ with loudspeakers. I’m not optimistic though, given the Govt’s cosy ties with Big Media.
This should have happened years ago!, three fifths of bugger all will be achieved with a bunch of pointless committees and terms of references for consultation etc… etc… TV and Radio will be superseded by the time thats through!
This move simply takes advantage of the move to content over medium and convergence of broadcast/print/online etc…
I think if anything they need to go further and have a RNZ/TVNZ 6/7/Maori TV merger, even if just facilty sharing it would make far more economic sense and free up more money for programming (one of your gripes), in any event there are rumours that TVNZ/TV3 were looking at the same sorta facility deal.
The reality is through technoglogy evolving the whole landscape is changing and we need to move quickly to have a proper public broadcasting presence or the void will very quickly be filled.
It will be very interesting to see how all this goes and how they go about doing it. However not quite sure if i agree with you that they will sell TVNZ as this would be far too unpalatable for the electorate to stomach
@Ben: the real issue is whether a combined structure will mean the TV division will adopt Radio NZ’s ethos, or the other way round. We’re hoping for the first option.
Get it right, and we might have a new NZBC. Get it wrong, and we might end up with just another FOX/Clear Channel clone.
content over medium? it does get tiresome having to hear meaningless slogans passed off as accepted wisdom. this is just another turn of the screw. first turn..delay the introduction of digital broadcast, leaving everybody hanging. remember the frenzy to get new hd compatible tv’s,decoders, etc. remember why tv6 and 7 came into being in the first place?
stage two… force the broadcasters to either increase their profits to cover the dividend, or cut money from the operating budget. at which point, economics rather than philosophy or a desire to provide a comprehensive,informative information/entertainment service. television has proved to be a useful tool for public/community interaction and discourse e,g; triangle/stratos. the real profit to us from having stations like this can’t be quantified in dollar terms, but are no less valuable for that.
Agreed
apologies… i left out part of a sentence. after “information/entertainment service, put”will dictate programming decisions”.
(sheepish grin)!!
You baaaaaaad
“probably funded for less than Rick Ellis’ Amex bill”? That’s a cheap shot, particularly coming from the lords of the crystal palace of spending.
jennifer, you have to remember that this is a blog site, with real people reading it. it’s not like your mirror at home…
I’ve never understood why numerous radio stations can be profitable, TV3 can be profitable, SKY is wildly profitable yet we have fork out millions a year for state owned radio and TV…
Until I was 18 I had no idea TV1 and TV2 were state owned, I still don’t care or see how they are any better than the others…
TV1 and TV2 are free and it’s good to have a state owned tv and radio
I miss Face to Face with Kim Hill
And TV3 isn’t eh Spud..?
@JMH: The rot started when TVNZ was transmogrified from a BBC-type organisation into an SOE, and has never been the same since.
These 31 NZers – liberal and tory alike – had the right idea. Pity though, most of them were over 50.
Yeah but you can’t just watch one channel all the time
Though my great uncle did
They can’t combine RNZ with TVNZ. Mediawatch and Colin Peacock would have nothing left to criticize…