By the numbers: What did TVNZ spend money on last year?

Saturday, 13 April 2024

It’s been a bad-news week for TVNZ. The radical restructure proposals that were set out in early March have been confirmed, meaning by the end of May iconic shows Fair Go and Sunday will be no more, along with the Midday and Tonight news bulletins and four jobs at Re: News.

What’s more, TVNZ said that Shortland Street, Aotearoa’s longest-running drama series, is up for review, along with all its other programming.

Although it is commercially funded, TVNZ is state-owned, and as such, needs to appear before a Government select committee each year for an annual review, and respond to written questions.

The answers to those questions give us an insight into where TVNZ’s ad revenue went in the 2022/23 financial year.

Commercially-funded but state-owned, TVNZ must apear before a select committee to show how it spent its advertising revenue.

Here are some key numbers:

Seven

Specific cost-reduction measures TVNZ says it undertook in 2022-23. They are:

reducing content spend due to reduced content availability
reducing marketing spend
reducing capital expenditure

TVNZ spent over $16,000 on promotional materials for Celebrity Treasure Island.

delayed investment in change projects
reducing recruitment
changing our advertising terms to offer more flexibility to clients
reducing travel domestically and internationally

$100,000

The increase in spend on public relations and/or communications staff at TVNZ, contractors/consultants or providers of professional services from the previous year, although there was an increase in only 0.3 full time equivalent staff.

That figure included salaries for a GM corporate communications, a GM corporate affairs, a corporate communications manager and a GM internal communications, as well as unspecified contractors and consultants, but not salaries of the publicists who operate out of TVNZ’s marketing team.

$16,689.39

Spent on promotional materials and merchandise for the launch of Celebrity Treasure Island.

TVNZ spent over $45k on subscriptions to pay TV services in 2022-23.

TVNZ spent more on Celebrity Treasure Island than any other show, more than three times what it spent on the next most merchandised programme launch, Love Island UK.

76

Koru Club memberships paid for “front line presenters and news camera personnel”.

$47,126.78

Worth of total business travel expenditure by TVNZ’s CEO.

Then-CEO Simon Power had the third-highest domestic travel bill in the 2022-23 financial year, behind “Te Karere executive producer” and “reporter/presenter Fair Go”, which could represent more than one individual.

Where international travel was concerned, Power came in eighth.

In total, TVNZ spent a little over $2.3 million on travel in 2022-23.

$42,545

Spent on subscriptions to pay TV services such as Sky and Netflix.

This represents a slight drop from 2022’s $45,538, but a significant rise on 2020’s $30,246.

The report doesn’t specify how many subscriptions this represents or how they are used.

247.41

Full time equivalent staff in TVNZ’s news and current affairs department. Stuff understands a little over two-thirds of the 68 jobs affected by the current restructure are in news and current affairs roles, while TVNZ has announced that four roles may be established in a new proposal.

The number of news and current affairs staff has held fairly steady across the last five years, though last year’s staffing levels were the highest. The lowest were in 2020, with 210.26 full time equivalents.

10.79%

Growth in full time equivalent staff across the organisation from 2019 to 2023. Staffing levels had risen every year in between.

In 2022-23, TVNZ employed a total of 735.64 full time equivalent staff across all areas.