TVNZ, RNZ merger expected to be announced as early as Tuesday

Friday, 25 February 2022

The Government has been accused of a lack of transparency over its plans for TVNZ and RNZ but is expected to explain the rationale for the merger once it announces it is going ahead.

The Government will announce early next week that the planned merger of TVNZ and RNZ into a new public media agency will go ahead, according to multiple industry and parliamentary sources.

A Cabinet committee is understood to have considered the proposal on Monday.

Current TVNZ chief executive Kevin Kenrick delivered the company’s interim results on Friday morning, as one of his last duties before handing over the reins to incoming boss, former National Party MP Simon Power who takes up his position on Tuesday, which is tipped as a likely day for the announcement.

Kenrick said he hoped for confirmation and a lot more detail around what the decision is “within days”.

“I think the direction that the Government intends to progress has been signalled quite clearly for quite some time, but we are yet to get confirmation of that.”

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It is not yet clear whether Power would transition to head the new public media entity, but one parliamentary source suggested that would “help with the politics” of the merger.

Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi has faced criticism for not articulating the detailed reasoning for the merger in the run-up to the expected announcement that it has the green light.

But Kenrick said he had “some sympathy” for ministers and officials.

“Media is a sector that everyone has got an opinion on because we are all consuming it. I think ultimately what they need to do is put something down in writing and say ‘here is our current best thinking’.

“I have got a lot of confidence in the select committee process in how we go about crafting legislation,” he said.

People should have an opportunity to have their say at that point, he suggested.

TVNZ’s profit for the six months to the end of December fell 55 per cent to just over $15 million from a bumper $34m during the same period in 2020, as its expenses shot up 29 per cent.

That was mainly due to an extra $27m in content costs.

The broadcaster explained that the pipeline of local and international productions had picked up, enabling TVNZ to return to pre-Covid levels of spending on programming.

Revenues for the half year rose $8m to $184m and Kenrick said the result represented a fast return to “normal transmission” after the disruptions of Covid.