Yesterday the Dom Post picked up some of the concerns that I’ve been raising about TVNZ’s planned closure of the Avalon TV studios. I use the term ‘closure’ deliberately, because at the moment that seems like the most likely outcome of their decision to relocate the last of their shows to Auckland and place the complex on the open market.
TVNZ claims that there are about 60 permanent staff working at Avalon, but closure will have a flow-on effect on a far greater number of people than that. Most of the people who make a living from Avalon these days are contractors. The camera men, lighting technicians, and so forth. Then there are the many local suppliers, from the florist who decorates the Good Morning set through to taxi companies, local caterers and so on.
Closing Avalon is a stupid decision that lacks vision and shows TVNZ’s lack of commitment to quality local programming. Avalon is widely recognised as the best TV production facility in the southern hemisphere, but our state broadcaster would rather screen yet more low-budget reality TV shows than put it to good use. In a few years time if Avalon is closed and they decide to produce another Dancing with the Stars type series, they’ll have nowhere to film it. Instead they’d end up converting an unused warehouse somewhere in south Auckland, with all of the cost and expense that goes with that.
The decision to relocate Good Morning to Auckland also needs to be questioned. I’m told by those that work on the show that many of the segments currently screened, including Astar’s cooking segment and the live local music performances, won’t be able to be filmed in the Auckland studios because they’re too small. Don’t forget that TVNZ relocated Good Morning to Auckland once before and it didn’t work so they moved it back to Avalon. This time, if they’ve closed Avalon down, they won’t have that option.
As I’ve said before, we don’t have a public service TV broadcaster in New Zealand. TVNZ is no different to the privately-owned commercial stations like TV3 and Four. And it’s a dinosaur. TVNZ’s heavy reliance on cheap, imported shows will be its downfall. With the proliferation of TV channels and with new technology opening up all sorts of new ways for us to access content, TVNZ’s competitive advantage should be it’s local content. The closure of Avalon demonstrates once again how they’ve failed to grasp that.
If there is on good reason for clsong the studio it’s so we don’t get another “Dancing With The Stars.”
I liked Dancing with the Stars
I’m p****d off with This is not my life not having a 2nd series!
! Prob a funding cut! 
!
It sucks that people are going to lose their jobs and why should everything be in Auckland?
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Wake me when Labour is back in power!
meh. I stopped watching TV years ago. It rots the brain.
If someone could name one good TV show made by TVNZ at Avalon in the last five years then I might care.
As for the Good Morning show; I have never seen a bigger load of bollocks. Advertisement masquerading as entertainment. Banality on parade. They should’ve moved the show to El Salvador not Auckland.
I hate to break it to you Chris but the majority of the TV watching population in New Zealand are morons. They crave the voyeuristic titillation that is reality TV. Reality TV is an obvious oxymoron.
Charming!
Reality TV is cheap to make, and a little voyeuristic in my opinion. Spud, you know I don’t liek it, have posted it before. However you are not alone in liking it by some margin.
Glad to see you back and posting.
@Tracey – I’m not defending reality TV, though I do like some shows
– Neighbours at war! 
. This is not my life – was a high quality NZ drama about people who had microchips in their brains, it was so cool! 
!!!!! But the 2nd series didn’t come back cos I suspect National’s slow killing of TVNZ had something to do with it. 
Some reality TV exploits people and is cut to make things appear different.
On a side issue, does Labour have any policy on keeping TVNZ 7?
Seems like a really silly time for it to be dumped exactly when everyone has to move to the digital platform. It could be argued that the freeview channels started a bit too early. Though they seem popular and are run on a very tight budget, value for money I would have thought.
I haven’t heard anything from Labour on this and would like to know.
You’ll be hearing from us when we release our policy Monkeyhill. We are committed to public broadcasting. Clare
U TV is terrible. “Yoof” culture at its worst.
1. Good Morning was originally produced in Auckland, with Liz Gunn and then Mary Lambie, it did have cooking segments and it moved to Wellington some time later during booming economic times. Daytime TV has limited profitability and is heavily reliant on advertorials to fund it, it is therefore no surprise particular with the wide range of choice provided by sky and freeview that there is a move back to cheaper facilities as if they didn’t the show would probably fold.
2. Avalon is used by a range of organizations including Trackside TV, Lotto and a myriad of local production companies I hardly think someone is going to buy it and convert it into flats, as you point out it is apparently a renowned facility and in our global tv/film/entertainment market such facilities are in demand, when Natural History NZ moved out of Dowling Street in Dunedin leaving a similarly large studio (ex Playschool) it was snapped up pretty quickly by another TV production company. I imagine it will be purchased by a property developer or a production company or both and continue to be used for exactly what it is being used for now. which means TVNZ could still hire it more efficiently on a per production basis, so I hardly see any need for your hysterics
Well said Spud
Aucklanders can deleted. language. Clare, Why the hell i sthis current government so anti-wellington, They dont care about wellington (or anywhere else in NZ for that matter), All they care about are these arrogant pigs in Jafaland AKA Dork-land, Its no wonder NZ is being run down to the state of a house that hasnt been used or occupied in 30 years. Id rather have good morning (and other shows that where made in Avalon) made in Sydney, How can This govt. be supporting “local television” when the only “local” is North of Pukekohe and South of Albany??