Decision-time looms on the future of any version of public service television. As early as today, Cabinet will consider what to do, if anything, once the funding for TVNZ’s non-commercial channels, 6 + 7, runs out next year. These channels form the backbone of the Freeview service, set up to provide a digital competitor to the Murdoch-dominated Sky TV pay channels. About one in four NZ homes are now receiving Freeview – half those with Sky.
My understanding is that the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and Treasury’s Crown Ownership Monitoring Unit are juggling three possible outcomes which reflect the lack of coherence within Cabinet about public service broadcasting:
1/ Do nothing, leave it up to TVNZ to sort it out, unassisted.
2/ Create a small independent entity to run 7 (and possibly 6), perhaps with some contracted Radio NZ services
3/ Morph TVNZ 7 into Radio NZ
None of these options seem likely to be funded to work. viably.
- Leaving it to TVNZ will have its likely Cabinet backers. Bill English and Treasury will not sanction a new funding round to the tune of last time, so sticking it on little-loved TVNZ will have its appeal. Steven Joyce, who made his fortune in private radio, may be in this camp too, so this option may prove hard to beat. Except the state owned broadcaster is barely trading profitably this year and to date has subsidized 6+7 well beyond the $79m one-off funding grant (created out of boomtime TVNZ dividends.) Funding even TVNZ7 would eat into expected dividends. And TVNZ is now explicitly told that its only function is to make cash; to require it to carry two, or even one non-commercial channel, is contrary to the aims of the TVNZ Amendment Bill (before Parliament but not passed.)
- Creating a small independent entity is implausible. Television needs pictures. The easiest and best way to provide them is via TVNZ. Some form of ongoing link to TVNZ could possible be stitched into any the provisions for a small new broadcaster but TVNZ would then expect to be paid handsomely for news and other programme feeds. At present, young TVNZ reporters are cutting their teeth on the round-the-clock demands of TVNZ 7. As already blogged, if the funding for a stand-alone were to come from cuts to NZ on Air’s budget, this could be at the expense of the independent production sector. Even forcing NZ on Air to hand over the new Platinum Fund to TVNZ7 seems unlikely, as it would be an embarrassing backdown for Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman. And “ghettoising’ much NZ content in a small audience channel would pull viewership off TV One, Two and TV3 to the further benefit of Sky.
- A forced merger of TVNZ7 and Radio NZ would be opposed by many supporters of Radio NZ, myself included. That’s not because combined operations can’t work but like any relationship they need time, space and security. I doubt there is enough goodwill in this Cabinet towards the concept of public service broadcasting for that to happen. Radio NZ is already under-funded; you can’t strap on television without new funding and a new Charter for public service broadcasting to make this work well. Neither of these will appeal to Coleman and Cabinet.
For about $15m a year, we’ve had two non-commercial channels – extraodinary value thanks to Steve Maharey and TVNZ’s stretch of resources. A renewed arrangement could look at all the funding options and provide a huge opportunity to re-define how Channel 7 operates and its relationship with TVNZ.
Perhaps, just perhaps, some in Cabinet might see that as a nation we need a viable alternative to an increasingly commercial model where even news bulletins are shaped around minute by minute ratings; and how TVNZ’s value to the Crown and taxpayers is diminishing as Sky beams into ever more homes while audiences also fragment to new media.
Some thoughts on that next post.
I hope Labour gets back in and saves those channels from evil !
!
I think option 1 is by far the most likely as the National will achieve what they want while distancing themselves politically…
Are these channels ever going to be profitable..? If not, why not..? What is the point of perpetually keeping channels that no one wants to watch going..?
I watch them!
!
Sorry let me rephrase:
“What is the point of perpetually keeping channels that not enough people want to watch going..?”
Interesting we talk about public service television and the discussion already starts to centre around profit. Perhaps we should have a chat about what ‘public service’ actually means in this day and age.
As a further note I would say, lack of profit != no one watching
Jeremy – I think the channels have declined a bit since National got in, they are good channels and I do think that most people watch them.
Loota it centers around profit because public services need funding and our government doesn’t have enough money to fund it, the govt. needs to make more money or surrender the public service
Yes those are exactly what the choices boil down to, Dylan.
We are a poor, low wage, high cost country, not everyone has realised it yet though. The few elite at the top are consciously ignoring it, its a different world to them not the same NZ everyone else lives in.
Talking to friends who are recent graduates, young professionals etc, it is clear to me that trying to get ahead in this country on a wage of $20 or $25/hr is a total joke.
Some consider that they are on a reasonable salary etc at those levels but spending money to raise children and save for a mortgage at the same time, an unexpected $1500 bill for a car repair or dental care sets you back a year, and its basically impossible to do much more than keep your head above water. If you agree to go into debt, get sh** on leases, credit cards and HP’s you can look like you are getting ahead but in reality you are propelling yourself backwards.
And a tonne of people are trying to do it all on less than these per hour figures.
Look for the ugly reality at the supermarket, people who spend minutes staring at a shelf and end up picking the cheapest, smallest no brand choice out of a section.
They’re not doing that for s**** and giggles you know.
Labour has got itself caught in its own trap. Their ideology drives them toward taxpayer funded ‘public good’ television, but they are prohibited from making programming decisions, so the ‘creative types’ make worthy shows that no one watches, and then taxpayers start asking why they are funding this marginal, elitist content, only to the told by their ‘betters’ that it’s all in the public good. As usual, the hard left knows what’s best for us.
I wouldn’t call The Jackie Brown Daries elitst!
Diaries.
This is not my life is a pretty good show
Darn it, Jackie Brown is TV3
Letter to Blanche
We chose Freeview as I refuse to have a SKY subscrition !
@Loota, I think it comes down to profit because ultimately the Government is NZ’s largest business but instead of buying just goods and services, it buys goods and services for the public good and should focus largely on the things individuals cannot do for themselves, e.g. law and order, armed forces, civil defence and in accordance with NZers wishes welfare, housing, hospitals and schools…
I really think today when you have the option of cable TV, on demand TV, profitable free to air, internet tube sites, news and magazine websites, chat rooms, blogs and profitable free to air radio I don’t really want to spend money on state radio or TV when that money could go to bumping an elderly person up the surgery waiting list and save their life…
Chances are if that elderly person is on a waiting list then that elderly person can’t afford pay tv. For some elderly people tv is their only form of entertainment, especially if inmobile.
My grandma had a botched surgery from a substandard foreign surgeon
And can’t get surgery for another thing because she’s in her 80s, with surgery she would be as productive as a middle aged person, what a waste 
I can’t afford sky and am not interested anyway (dishes get rain interference
) TV on demand only works on broadband and doesn’t offer every single show. And then you have the cost of broadband and the more you watch the more you have to buy. Now that’s pricy 
And that elderly person probably only wants to watch the news and coronation street! 
State TV is great and long may it continue, even if we do have to live with that awful bumble bee show
Spud TV3 is the profitable free to air TV station I was refering to…
I don’t think you understood my post very well, it’s not about whether we should pay for elderly people’s TV or surgery per se, but rather is state TV and radio really the best use of taxpayer funds when there are so many more worthy calls on the public purse..? I don’t think so, I didn’t even know till I was 18 – 20 odd that TV1 and TV2 were state run – couldn’t tell the difference and couldn’t have cared less…
Also, could you cut out the racist undertones to foreigners that you often pop in..? Not very becoming of a Labour fanboy…
What racist undertones? Please give me an example because I’m surprised that you would say this. Oh you’re talking about the surgeon. I’m sorry but the surgeon was 2nd rate and a foreigner. I regard most foreigners as being good people and my best friend is a muslim from Dubai (he ditched the abstinence and is now the best drinking buddy ever!
). I meant no offense, but am bleeped off that my grandma now suffers permanent bouts of illness as a result of the botched surgery.
“I regard most foreigners as being good people and my best friend is a muslim from Dubai (he ditched the abstinence and is now the best drinking buddy ever!”
You sound like a caller to Leighton Smith’s show:
“Leighton I’m not a racist I have some great Maori tenants but these bl***y (insert racist tirade here) kicked em off the benefit (insert sweeping generalisation here) I get up everyday and work for the taxes (blah, blah, blah) but I don’t want you to think I’m a racist Leighton”
I’m not a racist, but I do think that sometimes if a person is trained overseas that they might not be quite to the same standard as NZ doctors.
I consider your comment to be a personal attack, you don’t even know me. I’m friends with people of many races and I didn’t even mention any race when I said foreign doctor. I stand by my comment that that particular doctor wasn’t up to NZ standards, if he was then the p*** poor job done on my grandma wouldn’t be p*** poor. I would say the same thing about a NZ doctor (of any colour or shade) if s/he had done such a disgraceful job operating
Now let’s get back to the topic of TVNZ, I miss Dancing with the Stars, and ianmac
The only thing I miss about Dancing with the Stars was watching Rodney Hide make a fool of himself until he got booted off
I must confess to being a Sky Viewer though. Gotta get my football fix somehow, EPL has started again!!!
:D:D
I liked it when Tamati won
Sorry Spud, not a personal attack, just having a bit of fun with you, you were banging on about the Chinese the other day…
Forgiven
“As usual, the hard left knows what’s best for us.”
And the “hard right” will support the notion of cheap tv is good tv, the dumbing of the masses (sorry Spud) is great for this latest band of political engineers… I can recall when TVNZ used to say it didnt show minor sports because no one wanted to see them, but it wasnt true, they didnt show them because those making the decisions as to what to show preferred the schmoozing offered by Cricket and Rugby. Interestingly once sky came along and TVNZ lost the BIG sorts, we started to get minor sports, and people watched those too.
There is alot of smoke and mirrors, I dont believe it’s as simple as “hard lefties” and “hard righties” such epithets substitute for real discourse.
Jeremy, really? TV can be a great medium for education, not ABC, but documetaries which dedicate more than a sound bite worthof information, local shows lend us a flavour, an idea of who we are, as a shared idea. Country Calendar is a top rating show and is, strangely to me, very popular amongst friend sof mine aged 30.
Public service announcements, the anti violence campaign, Kirwan’s mental health gig all are possible through television. I’m tired so am not as sharp on this train of thought as I would like.
I remember when party political announcements were across all channels simultaneously, I’d like to see that brought back. If people dont want to watch they can get up and leave the room, the exercise will do them good.