Work has resumed on RNZ-TVNZ merger, briefing to minister confirms

Tuesday, 15 December 2020

Former TVNZ chief executive Kevin Kenrick said in 2019 that he believed the business case for a new public media entity needed to focus on 'substance'.

Work has resumed on the possible merger of RNZ and TVNZ into a new public media organisation, a briefing prepared for reappointed Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi has confirmed.

The development of a business case for the merger was put “on ice” in April after the onset of the Covid pandemic and in the wake of doubts from the previous Government’s NZ First coalition partner.

But a briefing produced for Faafoi by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage that was released on Tuesday revealed that work recommenced in August, ahead of the election.

The Labour Party’s manifesto policy was to work to create a new public media entity if it was re-elected.

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RNZ and TVNZ’s mandates, objectives and funding arrangements are not aligned, the Ministry of Culture and Heritage says.

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The Cabinet had approved the draw-down of $2 million in the current financial year to “initiate work on a strategic framework for the media sector, to cover public and private media”, the ministry said.

“This is a foundational piece of work that will support decision-making to ensure the long-term sustainability of the media system in New Zealand,” it said.

The document said this was a “pivotal time for defining the future of the media in New Zealand”.

“Increased competition from global platforms and content providers, declining revenue shares, and the transition to digital delivery are driving changes in the media’s operating environment.

A year after ministers floated merging RNZ and TVNZ into a new media entity, officials have yet to set a timetable for allowing public engagement on the concept.

“These factors are challenging the viability of traditional media models, particularly television and print media.”

A separate report published by AUT University earlier this month said TVNZ and media companies Bauer Media, MediaWorks and NZME had together shed 637 jobs in 2020.

That was despite some news sites reporting “skyrocketing traffic” and significant spikes in their revenues from readers, the university report said.

The briefing prepared for Faafoi said RNZ, TVNZ and NZ On Air’s mandates, objectives and funding arrangements were not aligned, and the “transformative changes” being experienced in the sector had created a need to consider ambitious policy reforms.

A partially completed draft business case for merging RNZ and TVNZ that was produced with the help of consultancy PwC and released to Stuff under the Official Information Act in September provided few clues on what the organisations would do differently from today.

But the new briefing reiterated that creating a new entity was an opportunity to design “an agile, future-focused organisation with greater scale and a clear public service mandate to deliver content across multiple platforms”.

“The ministry is developing advice on next steps to progress this work, including the establishment of a sector reference group and the approach and time frame for wider public engagement,” it said.

Lobby group Better Public Media previously argued in February that engagement process should have already been under way.

“What is missing so far is greater public input to the decision-making process,” the group’s chairman, Peter Thompson, said then.

The ministry’s briefing paper also reported that just under $32m of the “$50m package” of Covid-related support offered to the media sector in April had been allocated by the end of October.