RNZ says new 'youth oriented' music brand will lift whole radio industry

Wednesday, 5 February 2020

RNZ says its new commercial-free music service will benefit commercial radio businesses but it expects 'a bit of talk' at first.

RNZ has brushed off concerns that a radical overhaul of its music services will take it into a turf-fight with the country's commercial radio stations.

The state-owned broadcaster began consulting staff on Wednesday on a proposal that would see it make 18 redundancies and axe almost all jobs at RNZ Concert.

It plans to create 17 new jobs at a new youth-oriented music channel based in Auckland that it plans to launch during the second half of this year.

But sources suggested that only a few existing staff were being given the opportunity to transfer.

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'There will be a whole lot of new jobs doing some quite new things,' chief executive Paul Thompson said.

Public Service Association national secretary Glenn Barclay said RNZ staff were 'shocked and upset'.

RNZ's support of the Rhythm and Vines music festival points to the direction it expects its new music service to take.

'They knew change was coming, but nobody expected it would be this far reaching or aggressive in terms of timeframes.'

Concert FM had been part of New Zealand households for generations, and its 'skilled and hardworking staff' did exemplary work every day, he said.

'PSA members will meet in the days ahead to discuss this proposal with colleagues, and they will decide on an appropriate response.'

RNZ head of music Willy Macalister said RNZ's new music service would feature a higher proportion of New Zealand music and 'talk content' than commercial radio stations.

But it would also play international hits in order to provide 'something that is palatable to a broader audience', he said.

'You can't 'niche yourself' out of relevance.'

The new commercial-free service, which has yet to be named, will be carried on FM and made available online, both in a streaming format and 'on demand'.

RNZ Concert would lose its FM slot and all its presenters, but would broadcast classical music around the clock on AM, online and on Sky.

Staff whose jobs were on the line have criticised the moves as a step towards replacing RNZ's music division with 'Spotify', sources said.

But Thompson said it needed to create the new brand and that decision had been signed off by its board.

'While RNZ is doing really well, we just don't have enough connection with younger New Zealanders.

'The bit we are working with staff on is the impact of the new strategy on them.'

Commercial radio broadcasters NZME and MediaWorks are understood to have had discussions with the Radio Broadcasters Association about RNZ's new direction.

Its chief executive Jana Rangooni gave a guarded response to RNZ's plans.

'If the public service media principle of delivering content to New Zealand audiences that are not currently catered for is applied to RNZ's youth music strategy, this could deliver benefits for all sectors of our industry and for New Zealanders,' she said.

But she said the association would have 'serious concerns' if a taxpayer-funded broadcaster launched products and platforms that targeted audiences 'already well served by commercial radio broadcasters'.

'We note that there are already many networks operating in New Zealand that service youth music audiences,' she said.

'While it's true RNZ is non-commercial, the networks it operates with taxpayer funding compete for audiences which has an impact on New Zealand's commercial networks.'

Macalister downplayed that concern saying a lot of thought had gone into avoiding a clash.

'A rising tide will float all boats. We are going to be offering something that is different.

'There is a section of the audience that is not consuming radio at the moment and we really do hope we can appeal to them.'

That would involve the new service supporting more 'grass roots' music, emerging artists and live performances, he said.

Commercial radio businesses might 'talk a bit loud at the start, but I think everybody will be okay and we will all get along', he said.

Thompson said it would be 'pointless' for RNZ to launch a service that replicated what the commercial market already did well, and said it would aim to offer any new content it created to other broadcasters.

'We have this strategy of 'radical sharing' because that is how we are growing our impact.'

RNZ would do 'all it could' to support existing staff through the consultations, Thompson said.

But he said changes of the kind RNZ was considering were 'always really difficult'.

'Of course there are going to be different views and opinions of this,' he said.

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